Mariners notes: Muñoz earns redemption, but pitching ambushed in series losses
Andrés Muñoz’s triple-digit fastballs and elite chase rates against the game’s best hitters are customary for Seattle’s highest-leverage arm – which made Friday night’s ninth-inning mess in Milwaukee all the more bewildering, pitch by pitch, ball by ball.
Minutes before, the Mariners offense had erased a two-run deficit in the top of the ninth inning at American Family Field, forcing Friday’s series opener onward. And suddenly tied at five, Muñoz took the mound, needing three outs for extra-innings.
But normally aggressive with his four-seam fastball to work ahead and deceptive with sinkers and sliders to generate foolish chases, Muñoz was the opposite. He missed low with three consecutive sliders to Milwaukee leadoff hitter Sal Frelick, and soon missed well away with another breaking ball for ball four.
Frelick, the winning run, took first base.
It unraveled instantly.
Next up was former Seattle teammate Jake Bauers, and Muñoz misplaced a pair of fastballs before spiking another slider in the dirt for ball four.
“I didn’t know what happened,” he said Friday night. “That normally doesn’t happen to me. … Obviously, it’s frustrating for me, because I want to do my job and I want to do the best that I can over there to help the team. (Not being) able to do it is a lot of frustration for me.”
The winning run at second, Muñoz attempted to paint the corners of the zone opposite Milwaukee’s Brice Turang, but missed again with three consecutive sliders. He landed a strike before his 3-1 fastball was called low, perhaps controversially.
Without any outs and the bases full, Muñoz needed a miracle. He wouldn’t receive one. Brewers rookie Jackson Chourio struck out, but Seattle’s top relief arm walked William Contreras on five pitches and, with his fourth walk, sent the winning run home without surrendering a hit. Never before had Muñoz walked four batters in a major league appearance, let alone a single inning.
Mariners manager Scott Servais soon found his 25-year-old reliever in the visiting clubhouse: “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s OK. That can happen to everybody.”
To Muñoz, it was evidence of the club’s belief in him, even after the free passes squashed Seattle’s prior rally. And though some pitchers would request a breather after issuing four walks, Muñoz wanted an immediate second chance.
“The important thing is to come the next day, work, and get ready for any situation they gave me,” he said.
Saturday morning, Servais found Muñoz again: “Be ready, you’re going in there tonight.”
“And it worked out great,” Servais later told reporters.
It was the ultimate redemption story: Saturday’s middle game allowed for a save situation, and Muñoz protected Seattle’s 5-3 lead by retiring Milwaukee in order. Brewers catcher Gary Sanchez and Turang grounded out, and Muñoz fanned Chourio in consecutive games with a swinging sinker at the knees.
The Mariners won 5-3, starting pitcher Bryce Miller tossed seven brilliant shutout innings, and Muñoz bounced back. Series evened.
“The good thing was, I came the next day ready to work,” Muñoz said Saturday. “And ready to make the adjustments that I had to, (so) that doesn’t happen again.”
“If something went wrong, I want to come here the next day… to make the adjustment.”
Servais made clear Muñoz wouldn’t appear in Sunday’s game for any reason – he won’t be used three consecutive days – but in hindsight, the Mariners closer probably could have skipped pregame warmups. Milwaukee ambushed Seattle righty Emerson Hancock (3.1 IP, 11 H, 8 ER) and ran away with a 12-4 win in the rubber match.
The Mariners are 4-6, good for third place in a wildly-early AL West. Rival Houston started even slower (2-7), but the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers (6-2) possessed a one-game division lead of Los Angeles ahead of Sunday Night Baseball with the Astros.
BATS FIZZLE IN OPENING WEEK
It wasn’t the opening homestand any of Seattle’s hitters wanted.
Wednesday, Seattle capped a 3-4 first week with its most-incomplete showing to date: Cleveland blanked the Mariners, 8-0, in a daytime series finale plagued by defensive miscues and a failure to produce offense with runners in scoring position (0-for-7).
Servais sat down at the clubhouse interview room’s podium and began: “That was not any fun.”
“You shouldn’t win a game, you shouldn’t be in a game if you play like that. We didn’t play well. Our guys know it. We’re capable of much better, and we need to pick it up.”
Through seven games, Seattle’s teamwide hitting numbers sat below nearly all MLB counterparts. The Mariners ranked 29th in OPS (.550), last in on-base percentage (.261), and 27th in batting average (.196) after the opening stretch at T-Mobile Park.
And more concerning through the seven-game stretch was Seattle’s 74 strikeouts, the most by any club in its first seven contests this season.
“We’ve seen a couple guys, like Ty (France), swing the bat pretty good,” Servais said. “Early on, Hanny’s [Haniger’s] had pretty consistent, quality at-bats.
“I think we felt really good about this team when we put it together. I thought that the lineup was going to be a lot deeper than it had been here in a while. It looks great on paper. You’ve gotta go out and do it. And our guys will get it done. I really believe it.”
Throughout its offseason, Seattle dealt Jarred Kelenic to Atlanta, Eugenio Suarez to Arizona, and let free agent slugger Teoscar Hernandez walk to the Los Angeles Dodgers – proving an unmistakable intent to shed strikeouts.
It hasn’t worked, at least yet.
It’s far too early to draw unnecessary, season-defining conclusions. But the hitting woes are, at least, setting off alarm bells.
Through Sunday night, Seattle and Boston co-led the American League in team strikeouts, with 103.
Per Statcast’s advanced metrics, which account for the exit velocity and launch angle of batted balls, Seattle’s expected batting average (.229) ranks seventh-worst in MLB. Ironically, rival Houston struggled mightily in the opening week – but ranks first among all clubs in the metric (.289) as of Sunday.
“It’s such a long season, gang,” Servais said Wednesday. “I think, in an NFL season, we’re not even to halftime in the first game yet. Put that in perspective. So everybody wants to jump off... and it’s halftime of the first game of an NFL season, is where we’re at. So a lot of baseball (still) ahead of us.”
SHORT HOPS
– 1B Ty France missed Seattle’s series in Milwaukee on the paternity list, but could rejoin the team Monday in Toronto. He and his wife welcomed their first child over the weekend.
“Mom’s doing great,” Servais told reporters in Milwaukee. “Hopefully, Ty will meet us up in Toronto.”
– Superutilityman Dylan Moore continues unsung contributions: the 31-year-old brought a team-high 181 OPS+ into Sunday’s series finale in Milwaukee, then smoked a leadoff, second-inning double to the left field wall in his first at-bat.
“D-Mo… he’s super valuable. And I know he’s not your everyday, pencil-in-your-lineup (guy). But the impact he has and the different positions he plays… he becomes the paternity leave guy,” Servais laughed. “You’re going to see him play a lot.”
– One pitch, one swing, one mammoth home run.
Colt Emerson, the 22nd overall selection in last year’s MLB Draft, launched a no-doubt solo homer Friday night on the first pitch he saw this season, also the first of seven runs in Single-A Modesto’s 7-2 win on Opening Day. Unafraid to jump on the first offering, Seattle’s third-ranked prospect found a fastball left middle-middle; it was soon disposed onto the right-field concourse behind two rows of seating.
“We see Colt as an advanced hitter who will not only hit for average but power in the future,” Mariners director of amateur scouting Scott Hunter told media last July, when Seattle selected Emerson with their first of three first-round picks during All-Star Week at Lumen Field.
That power appears to have arrived early.
ON DECK
Seattle’s road trip continues – the Mariners visit the Toronto Blue Jays (April 8-10) before returning to T-Mobile Park for a six-game homestand, beginning April 12.
Luis Castillo duels Toronto’s Jose Berrios in Monday’s series opener at Rogers Centre.
This story was originally published April 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Mariners notes: Muñoz earns redemption, but pitching ambushed in series losses."
