A troubling trend returned for Andrés Muñoz in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and the closer’s struggles could not come at a worse time for the Mariners and their battered bullpen.

Atlanta’s Matt Olson, a longtime Mariners tormentor, crushed a 412-foot home run off Muñoz into the beer garden beyond the center-field fence to give the Braves a 3-2 victory at T-Mobile Park.

It’s the third home run Muñoz has surrendered through 16 appearances to begin his shaky start to the season, already surpassing his total of two homers allowed in all of 2025.

Muñoz had looked much crisper Monday night in closing out the Mariners’ thrilling 5-4 comeback victory over Atlanta in the series opener, a much-needed boost for a Mariners bullpen that has lost two of its best leverage arms — Matt Brash and Gabe Speier — to the injured list in recent days.

But he fell behind Olson 2-0 to open the ninth inning, then threw his first strike with a fastball to get back in the count.

Muñoz’s next pitch was a slider low and on the outer half of the plate. It was, actually, a fairly well-executed pitch. But Olson was ready for it, launching it out at 110.5 mph to a place few left-handed hitters can hit in this ballpark.

Olson, the Oakland Athletics’ longtime first baseman before being traded to Atlanta in 2022, had homered off Logan Gilber to almost the exact same spot on Monday night. He now has 20 career home run against the Mariners in 89 games, and 11 at T-Mobile Park in 47 games.

Muñoz has been tagged for three of the Mariners’ 20 losses already this season, and his ERA ballooned to 6.00.

Another troubling trend: The Mariners offense was again absent for much of the night.

M’s hitters managed just three hits total and struck out 16 times Tuesday night, as Atlanta starter Bryce Elder matched his career high with nine strikeouts. Atlanta’s bullpen struck out seven of the 10 batters it faced.

José A. Ferrer, also working for the second night in a row, needed just 10 pitches to work a 1-2-3 eighth inning.

Ferrer had pitched an up-down on Monday night — getting three outs in the seventh inning and then coming back to strike out Olson to start the eighth inning. The Mariners, though, weren’t comfortable pushing Ferrer in that way two nights in a row, manager Dan Wilson said.

Josh Naylor hit a two-out single to right field off Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias in the ninth and then stole second base four pitches later to get in scoring position.

He wouldn’t get any farther.

Iglesias got Randy Arozarena to chase a slider well off the plate for the second out, and pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone grounded out weakly to second base to end it.

George Kirby pitched another gem, allowing two runs over seven sharp innings. Both of the runs Kirby allowed came in the fourth inning, after right fielder Luke Raley made an ill-advised throw to third base, after an Olson single, trying to throw a runner there and overthrowing the cutoff man.

Olson alertly hustled into second base, reaching with a head-first dive.

Olson then scored the second run on Mauricio Dubón’s two-out, two-run double off Kirby, a groundball that stayed just fair past first base.

J.P. Crawford hit a two-run homer off Elder in the third inning to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.

It was Crawford’s fourth homer of the season, and it came a night after his two-run homer propelled the M’s to an unlikely 5-4 come-from-behind victory in the series opener.

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