HOUSTON -- For all the challenges Andrés Muñoz has gone through as the season reached the one-quarter mark, what’s kept him going has been clubhouse support.
Which is why the Mariners’ two-time All-Star closer unloaded his emotions when striking out Yordan Alvarez to seal a 3-1 win over the Astros on Monday night at Daikin Park.
“Just the confidence that everybody gives me,” Muñoz said. “They are saying, 'You are good. You're doing the things that you have to do.' But yes, you just have to keep working and go out there and compete our best.”
Muñoz hadn’t pitched in six days, and since surrendering a game-sealing homer to Matt Olson in a loss last Tuesday -- his third in 16 outings this year, matching his 2025 total. That made Monday’s pocket even more daunting, as Alvarez stepped to the plate as the tying run after Jose Altuve ripped a two-out single.
We’ve seen horror stories of such moments for the Mariners in this building in this era.
But Muñoz -- and really, the rest of the bullpen on Monday night -- helped the club further its dominance over a division rival to eight straight wins dating back to last September.
Bigger picture, the Mariners will need these types of relief reinforcements on the immediate horizon, as the club transitions to a six-man rotation with the return of Bryce Miller on Wednesday.
There are well-chronicled pros and cons to that decision. But the biggest potential downside is that an already thin bullpen will be one man short for the foreseeable future.
And the situation is compounded with Matt Brash (right lat inflammation) and Gabe Speier (left shoulder inflammation) both on the IL. Those two are Seattle’s Nos. 2 and 3 on the leverage depth chart, behind Muñoz.
Less pressing is the absence of emerging left-hander José A. Ferrer, who was placed on the paternity list on Monday. But he’s not expected to be gone for more than three games.
“We're in that spot right now ... and getting those outings today was incredible,” manager Dan Wilson said. “That's what good teams do, and when you're able to kind of step up and be in those situations, those guys delivered.”
Muñoz K’d Alvarez with a 93.2 mph changeup on the outer half, a pitch he wants to use more while he tries to better harness the slider that’s eluded him at times. Two pitches prior, Muñoz threw a 101.3 mph four-seamer that Alvarez fouled off, his fastest pitch of the season.
These are encouraging signs for the closer, who lowered his ERA to 5.63.
But just as promising was the scoreless efforts from Nick Davila in the sixth inning and Cooper Criswell in the seventh -- two arms who were thrust into a two-run game, on the road and in a ballpark where things can flip rapidly.
Davila was making just his third big league outing in the Majors, having been promoted from Double-A Arkansas on May 2. And he worked around a two-out single to escape a mini jam while Criswell was warming, presumably to take over had he not registered a lineout to Christian Vázquez, his fourth and would-be final batter.
Criswell, who was vying for the No. 5 rotation spot in the final weeks of Spring Training, has been arguably the Mariners’ most versatile reliever since. He’s gone multiple innings in three of his 14 outings but has also been thrust into more leverage pockets, like Monday, when he went 1-2-3 against Altuve, Alvarez and Isaac Paredes. That would’ve easily been Brash’s spot.
Eduard Bazardo, too, deserves credit here, overcoming his first homer of 2026 in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the White Sox with a scoreless eighth. He was pitching for the third time in four days.
The group also had to cover more innings than envisioned, after George Kirby’s pitch count ballooned to 99 after just five innings.
Collectively, Seattle’s bullpen lowered its ERA to 3.31 -- third-best in MLB. It might not seem like it, given a few hiccups, notably from Muñoz, but the group is seeing more consistency.
The Mariners will need more length from their starters than ever with a six-man rotation. But Monday’s relief effort showed that this experiment might work in the short-term if they can get this type of bullpen coverage.