Matt

Brash

The Mariners’ medical staff reviewed his MRI and decided it would be best to sit him down for another week or so to make sure the issue calms down rather than rushing him back and risk further aggravation. Josh Simpson was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding move to take his place in the M’s bullpen.

There doesn’t appear to be any significant issue at play here, though the M’s are still determining whether or not Brash will require a trip to the injured list. Either way, it sounds like he shouldn’t be looking at any sort of extended absence, which is obviously very encouraging.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson said afterwards that Brash will pulled out of an abundance of caution after feeling some side discomfort. He’ll undergo imaging to determine whether he’s dealing with anything more serious. He’s presumably day-to-day heading into Friday’s series opener against the Royals.

It’s typically a bad sign when a pitcher departs like this. Brash threw just two pitches in the eighth inning during Wednesday’s relief outing against the Twins before departing. The hope here is that his departure was merely out of an abundance of caution given his injury history. There should be an update on his status following the contest.

Brash pitched the tenth after Andrés Muñoz worked a scoreless ninth in a tie game. The 27-year-old gave up a sacrifice bunt and sac fly to ruin his chance at getting his first save of the season, but the run was unearned since it was of the zombie variety. Brash has the stuff to be an excellent closer, but not the opportunity with Muñoz on the roster.

The 27-year-old played catch briefly on Sunday, but it was not a long session due to his discomfort. He is no longer pitching in the World Baseball Classic, so the Mariners have plenty of time to get him ready by Opening Day.

Andrés Muñoz had this one off after working four times in five days. Brash gave up a homer to Taylor Ward tonight, but he had some margin for error in a three-run game. It’s just the third homer he’s allowed in 43 2/3 innings this season.

With Andres Munoz seeing a heavy workload the past few days, Mariners’ skipper Dan Wilson turned to Brash to close things out with a three-run advantage on Sunday. The 27-year-old hurler was up to the task, needing just 12 pitches (eight strikes) to retire Jake Mangum on a bouncer to short, Christopher Morel on a called third strike and Chandler Simpson on a ground ball to second base. On the season, Brash boasts a 1.16 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 35/12 K/BB ratio over 31 innings while notching three saves and a victory.

Andrés Muñoz was unavailable Friday, so Brash was handed the task of holding a one-run lead. He was more than up to it. While he did work three-ball counts to all three hitters, he was able to finish each one off to pick up his second save of 2025 and lower his ERA to a glistening 1.20 in the process. If Brash ever got a chance to be a full-time closer, he could be among the very best fantasy pitchers in the sport.

Andrés Muñoz hadn’t pitched in a week and it wasn’t at all clear that there would be a save chance tonight, so the Mariners used him in a tie game in the eighth. As it turned out, he picked up the win after the Mariners broke a 5-5 tie by scoring one run in the top of the ninth. Brash then got his first chance to close since elbow surgery and retired Willi Castro, Ryan Jeffers and Harrison Bader in order. Brash hasn’t allowed a run in 14 1/3 innings since coming off the IL on May 3.