After cleaning up Ryne Stanek’s mess by striking out Padres All-Star Jurickson Profar in the eighth inning, Andrés Muñoz created his own upset with back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the ninth. The Mariners being up only two runs meant that the next three hitters would come to the plate as the winning runs.
Munoz grounded out to Donovan Solano against J.P. Crawford for the first out, but both runners advanced 90 feet, meaning the tying run was in scoring position at second. He struck out rookie Jackson Merrill on a dirty slider for the second out.
When veteran hitter David Peralta was able to fight off back-to-back two-strike pitches and then get enough of a slider to send a soft line drive to center, the announced crowd of 39,611 cheered for the possibility of a game-tying bloop single. Gave. ,
But as the afternoon shadows began to cover Petco Park on Wednesday, Crawford got an accurate read on a ball that became more catchable as it went on, capping off a 2-0 win over the Padres. happened.
This gave Seattle a win in the now traditional two-game interleague series between the two “natural rivals” and ended a losing streak of six consecutive series.
It was Munoz’s ninth multi-inning appearance this season and his sixth save of more than three outs.
“I think something weird about today is I didn’t have as much energy in my second inning,” Munoz said. “This is something that has never happened to me before. Probably that’s why I lagged a little in the second innings. In the first inning, I had that energy because I had two men on base and I had to get it done.
After two walks in the ninth, Munoz found energy and made adjustments.
“The adrenaline just got going,” Munoz said. “Obviously, you don’t want to wait for it to happen, but it happened today. “I’m going to work on this to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
After Munoz walked the first two batters, manager Scott Servais called both Tyler Saucedo and Trent Thornton up and warming up, hoping he wouldn’t have to use them.
“Andres Munoz has been incredible,” Servais said. “…It’s a shame he’s not on the All-Star team. I certainly hope he gets involved because the number of four-out and five-out saves he’s given us this year is going to be a difference maker. He was a little bit on the edge and didn’t have a very good grip there at the beginning, but he found it and that’s what you have to do in those places.”
The Mariners got a strong start from Bryce Miller, who had some success away from T-Mobile Park. All the offense was provided by Jorge Polanco – yes, Jorge Polanco, who drove in both runs in the game.
Miller came into the game with a 2–4 record and 6.28 ERA in eight road starts. But knowing that the Padres were going to swing early and put the ball in play, he threw strikes early to take advantage of their aggressiveness.
“I thought we were going to have to have very good pitching to win this series, and we did exactly that,” Servais said. “Hats off to Bryce Miller. They really executed their game plan today.”
He pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five hits with no walks and one strikeout. That lone strikeout came against the final hitter of his outing, when he threw a 96-mph fastball off Jake Cronenworth and ended up striking out in the sixth.
“I’d be upset if I had zero strikeouts, but I think I can deal with one,” he said, laughing. “One is better than zero. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a game with only one strikeout, but we won, so I’ll take that.”
After watching Logan Gilbert’s outing in person on Tuesday, Miller went on his iPad in the team hotel and watched it again, noting that a quality strikeout early could lead to soft contact. They allowed only one ball with an exit velocity of more than 100 miles per hour into play.
“I will remove any weak contacts I find,” he said.
Miller got a lot of help from his defense.
In the second inning, he allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases. When Ha-seong Kim hit a fly ball to center field, it looked as if the Padres might score their first run.
But Julio Rodriguez was able to get into good position to make the throw home after the catch. He made a strong and accurate throw, making a clean catch on a two-hopper by Cal Raley and tagging Donovan Solano for the third out.
“The play that Julio made was a really great shot,” Servais said.
The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Raleigh walked Padres starter Michael King and then stole second base. That extra base came up big when Luis Arraez misplayed a ground ball off Polanco’s bat, allowing Raleigh to score.
Polanco was credited with an RBI in the fourth inning when he gave up a spectacular two-out single to right-center, scoring Luke Raley from second. The veteran infielder had four hits in the two-game series, while also walking two.
“He’s starting to get some confidence,” Servais said. “We talked about making some adjustments and going about it a little differently and he is, and he’s starting to get some results. The quality of at-bats is improving.”
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