Andres Muñoz escapes jam, Mariners hold off Padres to complete sweep

SAN DIEGO — For a brief moment, it looked like the Mariners’ monthlong quest to win a series would continue into extra innings or possibly into the upcoming series in Anaheim, Calif.

After cleaning up Ryne Stanek’s mess in the eighth inning with a strikeout of Padres All-Star Jurickson Profar, Andres Muñoz had created his own mess with back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the ninth. With the Mariners only up two runs, it meant that the next three hitters would come to the plate as the winning run.

Muñoz got Donovan Solano to ground out to J.P. Crawford for the first out, but both runner moved up 90 feet, meaning the tying run was in scoring position at second. He struck out rookie Jackson Merrill on a nasty slider in the dirt 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 roared at the possibility of game-tying bloop single.

But as the late-afternoon shadows started to cover Petco Park on Wednesday, Crawford got a perfect read on a ball that grew more catchable as it traveled, making an easy catch to close out a 2-0 victory over the Padres.

It gave Seattle a sweep of the now-traditional two-game interleague series between the two “natural rivals,” and ended a stretch of six consecutive series lost.

It was Muñoz’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 that same energy in my second inning,” Muñoz said. “That is something that never happened to me before. Probably that was why I was a little bit off in the second inning. In the first inning, I had that energy going because I had two men on base and I had to get it done.”

Muñoz found the energy after the two walks in the ninth and made the adjustment.

“The adrenaline just kicked up,” Muñoz said. “Obviously, you don’t want to wait for that to happen, but it happened today. I’m going to work on it to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Manager Scott Servais got Tayler Saucedo and Trent Thornton both up and warming after Muñoz walked the first two batters, hoping he wouldn’t have to use them.

“Andres Muñoz has been incredible,” Servais said. “… It’s a shame he’s not on the All-Star team. I certainly hope he gets added to it because the number of four-out and five-out saves that he has gotten us this year, it’s just been a difference maker. He was a little bit on the edge and didn’t have great command there early, but he found it and that’s what you have to do in those spots.”

The Mariners got a strong start from Bryce Miller, who found some success away from T-Mobile Park. All of 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 delivered strikes early in counts to take advantage of their aggressiveness.

“I thought we would have to pitch extremely well to win this series and we did exactly that,” Servais said. “Hats off to Bryce Miller. He really executed his 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 fired a 96-mph fastball past Jake Cronenworth to the end the sixth.

“I would have been upset if I had zero strikeouts, but I can deal with one I guess,” he said with a chuckle. “One is better than zero. I don’t know if I’ve had a game with just one strikeout, but we won, so I’ll take it.”

After watching Logan Gilbert’s outing in person on Tuesday, Miller went and re-watched it on his iPad at the team hotel, noticing that quality strikes early would lead to soft contact. He allowed only one ball in play with an exit velocity of more than 100 mph.

“I will take all the weak contact I can get,” he said.

Miller got plenty of help from his defense.

In the second inning, he allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases with one out. When Ha-Seong Kim hit a fly ball to center field, it looked as if the Padres might pick up their first run.

But Julio Rodriguez was able to get into a primed position to make a throw home after making the catch. He delivered a strong and accurate throw, Cal Raleigh made a clean grab on the two-hopper and applied the tag on Donovan Solano for the third out.

“That play Julio made was really a shot in the arm,” Servais said.

The Mariners grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Raleigh worked a walk off Padres starter Michael King and then stole second base. That extra base loomed large when Luis Arraez misplayed a ground ball off the bat of Polanco, allowing Raleigh to score.

Polanco got credit for an RBI in the fourth inning when he smacked a crisp two-out single to right-center in the fourth inning, scoring Luke Raley from second. The veteran infielder had four hits in the two-game series while also drawing two walks.

“He’s starting to gain some confidence,” Servais said. “We talked about making some adjustments, and going about it a little bit differently and he is, and he started to get some results. The quality of at-bats is improving.”

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