Mu?oz walks 4 in bottom of 9th after offense storms back

MILWAUKEE -- On one hand, on Friday night, the Mariners overcame another strikeout-laden showing and orchestrated an improbable, game-tying effort in the ninth inning. On the other, they were plagued by uncharacteristic pitching hiccups, headlined by a walk-off walk from Andrés Mu?oz.

The pendulum swung significantly in the opening game of Seattle’s first road trip of the season, and it ended with the Mariners on the wrong end of a 6-5 loss against the Brewers at American Family Field.

“When a guy gets a big hit for a walk-off, sometimes that’s a little bit easier,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “But when you kind of give it to them, so to speak, that's a tough one to swallow.”

It wasn’t just the final free pass that proved decisive; Mu?oz also began the outing by walking the bases loaded. His fastball was all over the place, and he only landed four of the 10 sliders he threw for strikes.

Never before in Mu?oz’s career had he walked more than two in 141 previous outings.

“He just wasn't attacking the zone,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “Usually, with the stuff that he has, when he's attacking the zone, he's at his best. Walks will kill you. Leadoff walks will kill you. … And that's exactly what happened.”

That stunning sequence came on the heels of the Mariners’ struggling offense storming all the way back and tying the game with two runs in the ninth. Former Brewer Luis Urías ripped a ground-rule double to the right-center gap, and Julio Rodríguez scorched a 107.9 mph RBI groundout to the shortstop, which easily scored speedster Samad Taylor, who was recalled hours earlier from Triple-A Tacoma.

Taylor reached via a two-strike single against an off-plate slider, following a leadoff single from Dylan Moore, who lined a 100.5 mph knock. Both players came off the bench earlier and delivered against flamethrower Abner Uribe, who was previously 3-for-3 in save opportunities filling in for All-Star Devin Williams as Milwaukee’s closer.

“Obviously, we haven't been hitting it well,” Raleigh said. “And to do it against a pretty good pitcher today, we came back, got back in the game like we were supposed to and a few things didn't go our way.”

Yet, before the ninth, the Mariners had virtually nothing going other than a three-run sixth, when they finally chased Freddy Peralta. That was after the former All-Star and Mariners prospect from ages ago carved his way to each of his seven strikeouts against his first 15 batters.

But as the lineup flipped a third time -- and Peralta saw a dip in fastball velocity and breaking-ball command, with most of his sliders in the dirt -- the Mariners pounced with their heart of the order.

J.P. Crawford ripped an opposite-field single and Rodríguez was hit by a pitch with no outs. Mitch Haniger yanked a 2-2 fastball inside for an RBI single, after a wild pitch that advanced the runners, Mitch Garver followed with a 350-foot sac fly and Raleigh launched a 109.8 mph single that one-hopped off the right-field wall to tie the game.

All of a sudden, it was a new ballgame, and Peralta was pulled.

“It looked like guys were getting off better swings,” Raleigh said. “I think we started getting on the heater, and obviously the middle-order is supposed to drive runs.”

The Brewers had most of their production come from their primary run producers, with homers from each of their Nos. 3-5 hitters -- Christian Yelich, Willy Adames and Oliver Dunn -- off Logan Gilbert, who tied a career high.

Each of Gilbert’s homers were in 1-1 counts -- the sequences that the Mariners deliberately preach about winning -- but were all up in the zone. The most dramatic of the day was the 431-foot, 112.4 mph blast that Yelich sent to the deepest part of the second deck.

“That’s what we always talk about, but obviously, there's a balance, and you have to execute well and not just put it in there for the sake of throwing a strike,” Gilbert said.

Yelich struck out in each of his first two at-bats, the first of which marked the 500th of Gilbert’s young career. But the milestone took a backseat given how his day ended.

“It's frustrating. It's not what I was trying to do,” a visibly bothered Gilbert said. “Our offense did a great job.”