Munoz locked down a save against the Kansas City Royals, but he did so in extremely rare fashion.
The Seattle Mariners earned a much-needed victory on Friday night, beating the reeling Kansas City Royals 2-0 at Kauffman Stadium.
The offense was still rough, as the M's only mustered five hits and struck out eight times, and questions about the team's platoon system still persist, but the pitching from Logan Gilbert and a trio of relievers was solid enough to earn the win.
Gilbert went 5.2 shutout innings, giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out six. Eduard Bazardo went 1.1 scoreless innings and Matt Brash and Andres Munoz each threw a scoreless inning as well.
For Munoz, it was his ninth save and another solid bounce back outing after some early season issues. His ERA, once over six, is back down to 4.58.
As noted by Josh Kirshenbaum of MLB, Munoz did not throw a fastball in any of his 16 pitches. It's the first time in 284 career appearances that Munoz did not throw a fastball.
So why the change?
Speaking after the game with Mariners.TV, catcher Mitch Garver said the plan going in was for Munoz to go away from the fastball. He said that the Royals were able to get to that pitch when the two teams faced off in Seattle a few weeks ago and he wanted to work something different this time around.
It's a good recognition of the situation and the lineup from Garver, and obviously a good adjustment from Munoz to be able to work the approach. The kick change, which Munoz threw two times, is becoming a nice third option for him.
Do we think we'll see this approach more often?
The "no fastballs" approach seems to be more lineup specific than anything, so I don't imagine that we'll see it become a regular thing. That said, Munoz has always lived off that slider, so you can expect that to be his primary offering as long as he's landing it in the strike zone.
He's currently throwing that pitch at 59.1 percent of the time.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Andrés Munoz (75) throws against the Chicago White Sox during the ninth inning at T-Mobile Park. Joe Nicholson-Imagn ImagesUp next for the Mariners
The Mariners (25-27) will try to move closer to .500 on Saturday afternoon when they play the Royals (20-31) at 1:10 p.m. PT.
George Kirby will take the mound for Seattle while Stephen Kolek pitches for KC. Kirby is 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA and Kolek is 2-0 with a 4.24.
Of note
You can listen to the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast HERE or you can watch on YouTube below:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!
