Castillo's 'killer' focus, Muñoz's tightrope walk pay off

SEATTLE -- The Mariners’ starting rotation has reached lather-rinse-repeat territory with an ongoing string of dominant performances. But it was the Seattle relief corps that remarkably averted a massive crisis to reach the finish line in a 3-2 win over the Braves on Tuesday night.

As the dust settled in front of a ticketed 23,534 fans at T-Mobile Park that saw the Mariners secure their fifth straight series win, Andres Muñoz was hoisting Seattle’s celebratory trident for the first time after his first career five-out save.

“He didn’t melt,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It says a lot about our club. A little adversity, you've got to figure it out against a really good team, just keep executing, and that's what he did."

But before Muñoz and the Mariners reached the highest of highs, they nearly descended to the lowest of lows.

After Luis Castillo twirled seven shutout innings, Ryne Stanek surrendered a run and left Muñoz with two inherited runners. The hard-throwing reliever found himself walking an even tighter rope after sailing a throw past Ty France for an error on an infield dribbler from Austin Riley, his first batter.

“That was my bad, really,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “I should have said, 'No, no, no,' because I don't know if anybody could have really had a shot there. It's a tough angle throwing.”

Yet, after the error and an intentional walk to Matt Olson, Muñoz remarkably escaped with a strikeout of Marcell Ozuna and with the help of an incredible play from shortstop Dylan Moore, who halted an infield grounder from Orlando Arcia by not even half a step.

In the ninth, Muñoz fell behind 3-0 to leadoff batter Michael Harris II -- who crushed a massive ninth-inning homer the last time the Braves were here in 2022 -- before getting Harris to chase strike three on a back-foot slider. A flyout from Travis d’Arnaud later, Muñoz then retired former Mariner Jarred Kelenic swinging sideways on a slider in the dirt to end the game.

“Obviously I was really disappointed when I made that error,” Muñoz said, “especially because I don't want to affect the game. … But that helped me to get that anger to the mound for the next hitters.”

The outing was far from pretty, but it nonetheless represented a growing moment for the flamethrowing righty, who instead of taking what would’ve been his second blown save of the season, secured his fifth. He also took a loss on April 5 in Milwaukee when issuing four straight walks and ending with a walk-off walk.

The highest-leverage spots haven’t always been easy, and Stanek put him in the precarious spot after three singles that led to a run. But these are the pockets that the Mariners will live and die by with Muñoz, especially after Matt Brash was shut down from throwing due to right elbow inflammation, and with Gregory Santos at least another four weeks away from returning from a right lat strain.

“My dad always says, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,’” Muñoz said. “So in that moment, if that doesn't [lose] the game, that made me stronger for the next one."

Seattle could’ve certainly used more than a two-run homer from Jorge Polanco and an RBI double from Moore for run support. But an argument for run production on a night where the Mariners struck out 11 times but became the first team this year to defeat Atlanta on consecutive nights can hold for another day.

That rings especially true after the latest gem from their rotation, this one headlined by zero runs and only four baserunners from Castillo, who cleared his fourth straight quality start. In this stretch, “La Piedra” has surrendered just four earned runs in 26 innings (1.38 ERA).

“I remember [Servais] telling me out in Toronto that I'm a killer,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “And since then, I've just gone out with that mentality, and I think it's helped me.”

This run itself for Castillo has represented a remarkable turnaround from a sluggish start to the season that had him looking far from his three-time-All-Star self in his first three outings, over which he’d surrendered four runs apiece and carried a 6.89 ERA.

And across the Mariners’ rotation as a whole, Castillo extended Seattle’s franchise record with two runs or fewer allowed to 18 straight outings, which is tied with the 2022 Dodgers -- who went on to lead the Majors with a 2.75 ERA from their starters, en route to a 111-win season.