Andrés Muñoz's shaky start to season continues, Mariners lose to Braves

A troubling trend returned for Andrés Muñoz in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and his ongoing struggles could not come at a worse time for the Mariners and their battered bullpen.

Atlanta's Matt Olson, a longtime Mariners tormentor, crushed a 412-foot home run off Seattle's All-Star closer into the beer garden beyond the center-field fence to give the Braves a 3-2 victory at T-Mobile Park, leaving Muñoz again searching for answers.

It's the third home run Muñoz has surrendered through 16 appearances to begin his shaky start to the season, already surpassing his total of two homers allowed in all of 2025.

Muñoz had looked much crisper Monday night in closing out the Mariners' thrilling 5-4 comeback victory over Atlanta in the series opener, a much-needed boost for a Mariners bullpen that has lost two of its best leverage arms - Matt Brash and Gabe Speier - to the injured list in recent days.

But he fell behind Olson 2-0 to open the ninth inning, then threw his first strike with a fastball to get back in the count.

Muñoz's next pitch was a slider low and on the outer half of the plate. It was, actually, a reasonably well-executed pitch. But Olson was ready for it, launching it out at 110.5 mph to a place few left-handed hitters can hit in this ballpark.

Olson, the Athletics' longtime first baseman before being traded to Atlanta in 2022, had homered off Logan Gilbert to almost the exact same spot on Monday night. He now has 20 career home runs against the Mariners in 89 games, and 11 at T-Mobile Park in 47 games.

The Braves (26-11) own the best record in baseball and Olson came into Tuesday with the best Baseball Reference WAR (2.5) in the game.

He's a tough hitter, there's no question," M's manager Dan Wilson said. "You know that going in. He's one of the best in the league and you've got to make pitches against him. And even sometimes when you make good pitches against him, he's able to handle them."

Muñoz has been tagged for three of the Mariners' 20 losses already this season, and his ERA ballooned to 6.00.

A more troubling trend for the Mariners: The offense was again absent for much of the game Tuesday night, despite the return of Cal Raleigh (sore side) for the first time since Friday.

M's hitters managed just three hits total and struck out a season-high 16 times, and Atlanta starter Bryce Elder matched his career high with nine strikeouts.

"He's tricky. He's crafty. Changes speeds and just made it difficult on us tonight to put anything together," Wilson said.

Atlanta had its three top relievers - Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias - rested and ready, and they combined to strike out seven of the 10 M's batters they faced.

"They've got some great arms there," Wilson said. "... I thought our guys put up some good at-bats there in the ninth. But, you know, just a little bit short."

José A. Ferrer, like Muñoz, worked for the second night in a row, and he needed just 10 pitches to work a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

Ferrer had pitched an up-down on Monday night - getting three outs in the seventh inning and then coming back out in the eighth to strike out Olson.

The Mariners, though, weren't comfortable pushing Ferrer in that fashion two nights in a row, Wilson said. So he handed it over to Muñoz in the ninth in a 2-2 game.

"He'll bounce back. This is sometimes the way that the game goes," Wilson said of his closer. "We've got a long season ahead of us still and just got to keep grinding it out. ... We'll make our adjustments and we'll be fine."

J.P. Crawford blasted a two-run homer off Elder in the third inning to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead, a 395-foot shot in the right-field bleachers. It was Crawford's fourth homer of the season, and it came a night after his two-run homer propelled the M's to an unlikely 5-4 come-from-behind victory in the series opener.

The Mariners, though, wouldn't record another hit Tuesday until there was one out in the ninth inning.

That's when Josh Naylor singled to right field off Iglesias, Atlanta's closer, to give the Mariners a glimmer of hope. Naylor then stole second base - his second steal of the game - four pitches later to get in scoring position.

He wouldn't get any farther.

Iglesias got Randy Arozarena to chase a slider well off the plate for the second out, and pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone grounded out weakly to second base to end it.

George Kirby pitched another gem, allowing two runs over seven sharp innings.

Both of the runs Kirby allowed came in the fourth inning, after right fielder Luke Raley made an ill-advised throw to third base, after an Olson single, trying to throw a runner there and overthrowing the cutoff man.

Olson alertly hustled into second base, reaching with a head-first dive.

Olson then scored the second run on Mauricio Dubón's two-out, two-run double off Kirby, a ground ball that stayed just fair past first base.

"I don't think they made any good swings in that inning," Kirby said. "I thought I executed really well. (The balls) just found a hole. So I'm gonna keep doing my thing, keep inducing weak contact. And those will eventually go my way."

Kirby was visibly irked at the result of Dubón's hit. His first-pitch fastball was well off the outside part of the plate, and the ball came off Dubón's bat at a mere 66.3 mph with a .200 "expected" batting average.

And it cost Kirby two runs.

"I threw that ball four balls off the plate. I don't even want to talk about that one," he said. "That one's just ridiculous."

In the past, that sort of inauspicious outcome might have flustered Kirby more, and might have led to more damage.

But he has made a concerted effort to work through those sorts of things, and he did just that to close out another strong showing by retiring 10 of the final 12 batters he faced.

"I'm pissed," he said, "but I'm just doing a better job of bringing my awareness back to the batter. ... There's nothing I could really go back and try and do better there. So, like I said, you flush it and you keep going.

Kirby, overall, has been the Mariners' most consistent starter through his first eight starts. He lowered his ERA to 2.94 in 52 innings.

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