Dylan Moore homered, Luis Castillo pitched seven strong innings and Andres Munoz got out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon.
The Mariners topped reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal (0-2) to avoid being swept in the three-game series.
Castillo (1-1) gave up two runs on five hits over seven innings. The veteran right-hander walked two and struck out five.
Gabe Speier retired the Tigers in order in the eighth inning before things got interesting in the ninth.
Munoz issued back-to-back walks to lead off the inning before striking out Trey Sweeney.
After a broken-bat single to left by Dillon Dingler loaded the bases, Detroit’s Javier Baez hit a grounder to third baseman Moore, who threw home to get the force-out. Munoz then fanned Zach McKinstry to earn his third save of the season.
Skubal, a lefty who starred at nearby Seattle University, gave up three runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings with three walks and eight strikeouts.
The Tigers, who scored multiple first-inning runs in each of the first two games of the series, looked like they might do so again on Wednesday after Riley Greene hit a ground-rule double down the left-field line with one out.
Castillo, though, got Spencer Torkelson to ground out to third before Kerry Carpenter lined out sharply to center fielder Julio Rodriguez to end the inning.
The Mariners took their first lead of the series by tallying twice in the second. Moore drew a one-out walk and, an out later, JP Crawford reached on an infield single. Victor Robles doubled to center to score both runners.
Leading off the bottom of the fourth, Moore made it 3-0 by lifting one-strike slider just over the right-field wall.
The Tigers scored twice in the fifth, including a leadoff homer to right-center by Sweeney. Then, with one out, Ryan Kreider and McKinstry singled to center, putting runners on the corners. Kreider scored on Greene’s groundout to third, but Castillo got out of the inning by striking out Torkelson.
