SEATTLE — For at least one day, the Seattle Mariners will stand alone atop the American League West standings.
When Andres Munoz finished overwhelming the Kansas City Royals, striking out all three hitters he faced in the bottom of the ninth to close out a 3-2 victory over the Royals, the Mariners completed a three-game sweep and improved to 74-56 on the season.
About 10 minutes before the 27th out was made at T-Mobile Park, the Rangers had self-immolated at Target Field in an extra-innings loss that included three consecutive walks to force in the winning run.
Facing the Royals for the second time in three starts and having struggled to put them away in the last outing, Luis Castillo made sure it wouldn’t happen again.
The Mariners’ ace delivered a brilliant performance, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with one walk and six strikeouts. The two base runners came in the third inning. Castillo issued a one-out walk to Matt Beaty and then allowed a two-out single to Maike Garcia.
It brought the Royals’ most dangerous hitter, Bobby Witt Jr., to the plate.
After missing with a first-pitch slider, Castillo came back with the same pitch, getting Witt to roll over on it. It resulted in a ground ball to J.P. Crawford, who flipped the ball to second to end the inning.
Castillo retired the next 12 batters in a row.
The Mariners’ run support came in the form of homers from Teoscar Hernandez and Julio Rodriguez, who are chasing down Cal Raleigh’s team-leading 25 homers.
Hernandez, who hit a pair of homers in Saturday’s win, crushed a solo homer to center in the first inning off Royals starter Alec Marsh. It was his 22nd homer of the season
Rodriguez hit a laser beam over the wall in the sixth inning for a two-run homer. It was his 23rd of the season.
Kansas City made it interesting in the eighth when Nelson Velazquez hit a two-run homer off Gabe Speier. But Justin Topa cleaned up a minor mess, striking out Salvador Perez to the inning and set up Munoz for the ninth.
