Andrés Muñoz blows save, Mariners fall in Detroit on walkoff hit

DETROIT – Luis Castillo did his part to start Sunday off. The one counted on so often to close it out did not.

It’s still the early part of June and Andrés Muñoz has almost the same number of blown saves as he did all of last season. The latest should only amplify the concerns about what’s going on with the Mariners closer.

What looked for much of Sunday afternoon to be a comfortable Mariners victory became a late-inning meltdown as the Tigers rallied for a 5-4 win, scoring twice in the ninth inning off Muñoz.

“He’s been our go-to guy for a long time and he knows how to pitch in those situations. It’s just a tough one to lose today,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said.

Kevin McGonigle delivered the decisive blow with a two-out, two-run single off Muñoz in the ninth inning. McGonigle’s liner tipped off the glove of Cole Young as he made a leaping attempt to get the line drive that, if caught, would have given the M’s the victory and a fourth straight series win.

McGonigle thought off the bat it was going to be an out, but Young said it grazed the very tip of his glove and fell into shallow right field, and Victor Robles had no chance to throw out Wenceel Perez at the plate.

It was the fifth blown save for Muñoz this season in 25 games, second in MLB behind Kansas City’s Lucas Erceg (six). Muñoz had six blown saves in 64 appearances last season.

Castillo pitched into the sixth inning and allowed just one run on two hits. McGonigle got the better of Castillo with a solo home run, but the M’s veteran righty otherwise was strong and no longer saddled by the restrictions of the piggyback situation with Bryce Miller.

“Nothing different. Same routine. Same workout I’ve been doing,” Castillo said via team interpreter Freddy Llanos. “Thank God we were able to go out there and just move forward and continue.”

Muñoz wasn’t alone in stumbling out of the bullpen and ruining what otherwise was a solid return to being a normal starter for Castillo. Cooper Criswell played his role in letting Detroit back into the game when he allowed two runs and failed to record an out facing the bottom of Detroit’s order in the seventh inning. Criswell gave up singles to Spencer Torkelson and Zach McKinstry, and a two-run triple to Perez.

“(Cooper) has thrown the ball well for us and it was a good pocket for him,” Wilson said.

Gabe Speier doused the rally, helped by a terrific diving stop from Patrick Wisdom at third base for the first out. Speier struck out Gleyber Torres to end the inning, and Eduard Bazardo was nearly flawless in the eighth.

Muñoz, pitching for the first time in nearly a week, had no feel for his fastball to begin the ninth. He got Torkelson immediately on a pop out. Then it all fell apart.

“It just seemed like he couldn’t find it after that,” Wilson said.

Munoz walked McKinstry and Perez, missing badly. Of the 10 pitches thrown to the pair, two were strikes and only one was a slider.

A ground out from Matt Vierling gave Muñoz the chance to escape the jam, but McGonigle lined a fastball just over Young’s glove and set off a celebration that wasn’t expected just a few innings earlier.

It’s unreasonable to expect a closer to be perfect every time out, but clean innings have been infrequent since the start of May for Munoz. He was struggling with the feel for his slider earlier in the season and on Sunday, only eight of his 19 pitches were strikes.

“That’s going to happen from time to time. It’s been a little bit since he’s been out there. Sometimes that can do it. But I know he continues to keep working at it,” Wilson said.

The late collapse overshadowed what should have been a day focused on the M’s starter. Castillo threw 52/3 innings, struck out seven and the only walk he issued came to McGonigle and cost him the chance to finish six complete innings.

Outside of McGonigle’s homer, the only hit allowed was to Perez as Castillo was able to rely on the fastball-changeup combo to find success.

“Starting the game, we realized that those were the two pitches that were probably the best that we had, so we started using those a little more throughout the game,” Castillo said.

When Wilson came to make the change, there was a lengthy conversation on the mound with the entire infield before everyone dispersed, where Castillo joked with his manager and teammates about being lifted. The small smattering of Mariners fans behind the dugout on the first base line stood and applauded as Castillo exited.

Castillo will get at least one more start in normal fashion with the M’s planning another cycle through the rotation using all six starters. After that is still to be decided.

Seattle’s streak of nine straight games with a home run ended as the run production on Sunday was actually manufactured. Colt Emerson doubled – his 10th extra-base hit already in his young career – and scored on Young’s single. In the sixth inning, Josh Naylor’s double off the glove of Torkelson scored Julio Rodríguez, and Naylor came home after Emerson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Rodríguez scored what at the time looked to be an important insurance run in the seventh on Randy Arozarena’s two-out single to take a 4-1 lead.

Turned out, it wasn’t enough.

“Tough way to lose a series,” Wilson said. “Walk-offs are always difficult.”

Raleigh starts for AquaSox

A small entourage escorted Cal Raleigh back to his beginning. A large crowd greeted his return to the Everett AquaSox on Sunday.

The star catcher formally began his return from a right oblique strain, going 1 for 3 with a single in the first game of his rehab assignment with the Mariners’ High-A affiliate, drawing a robust ovation each time he appeared from a sold-out crowd of 4,203 at Funko Field.

When it was announced the other day that Raleigh would play in Everett, the remaining tickets for Sunday’s game sold out in 94 minutes.

After his magical 60-homer season, Raleigh has indeed become a must-see spectacle, and a couple of hundred fans lined up along a chain-link fence outside the clubhouse a half-hour before the game, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.

On the first pitch of his first at-bat, Raleigh drew a loud roar when he sent a towering fly ball toward the short porch in right field. The ball felt like it hung in the air long enough for Raleigh to jog up the line and touch first base just as the Eugene Emeralds right fielder made a leaping catch at the wall, near the 345-foot sign.

“I thought my timing would be a lot worse than it was today,” Raleigh said afterward. “But I thought it was better. Ultimately, I was pretty happy with how the day went overall. It was a good day.”

Raleigh, serving as the designated hitter, exited the game after three at-bats Sunday, as scheduled. He will head to Tacoma to resume his rehab assignment in Triple-A on Tuesday, when he’s scheduled to suit up behind the plate.