7/17/23

Mariners 7, Twins 6

(Seattle, WA) After finishing the first half extremely strong, Logan Gilbert was looking to build that momentum into a strong second half close to the season. Especially with how the other starting pitchers have had to throw so many pitches in short outings, the bullpen needed Gilbert to have a strong outing to try to get the bullpen some rest. With the Minnesota Twins in town, runs would not come easy for the M’s either. On Monday night, the bats would finally pick up the pitching for the first time in awhile as Gilbert had a short but decent outing but the offense helped him out to the tune of a 7-6 win.

Gilbert only faced eight batters in the first two innings which is not that many. However, thru two innings he was at 42 pitches which was a big concern. In the top of the 3rd, things got worse. Michael A. Taylor only saw two pitches but reached with his 13th double to begin the inning. Carlos Correa then jumped on a first pitch curve and sent it down the right field line for his 20th double as Taylor jogged home to give Minnesota the 1-0 lead. A single for Edouard Julien put runners on the corners before Gilbert recorded an out by punching out Byron Buxton. Alex Kirilloff extended the Minnesota lead with a sacrifice fly to right to score Correa and make it 2-0. Gilbert would avoid any more damage in the inning, but saw his pitch count creep up to 70 after just three innings.

The young right-hander settled down after that and got through five innings on 94 pitches and got some defensive help from Jose Caballero and Ty France to end his outing only giving up two runs. Logan didn’t have an outing like he did in San Francisco or Houston, but did post a respectable five innings of two run ball on seven hits while walking just one and striking out five.

In the bottom of the 5th, the offense came to the rescue. Facing All-Star pitcher Sonny Gray, the M’s couldn’t get anything going through the first four innings. In the 5th, Gray lost command of all of his pitches the Seattle made him pay. A one-out double for Teoscar Hernandez and a walk for Ty France gave the M’s a couple of baserunners with one out. A wild pitch was reviewed and it was determined the ball hit the toe of Mike Ford to put him on and load the bases for Jose Caballero. While the rookie second baseman has slowed down since his hot start, he came through with a hard line drive to left. Everyone moved up 90-feet on the Caballero RBI single and Seattle was on the board trailing 2-1. After J.P. Crawford popped out for the second out, a two-out rally commenced for the Mariners. Julio Rodriguez held off on a 3-2 pitch to draw a bases loaded walk to tie the game at 2-2. Jarred Kelenic then added another big hit to his 2023 highlight reel. A soft looper sat down in front of left fielder Joey Gallo and allowed both Ford and Caballero to score on the two-run single to give Seattle their first lead at 4-2.

It wouldn’t take too long for the Twins to get one of those runs back and tighten things back up. In the top of the 6th, Joey Gallo reminded everyone that he still has incredible power. Gallo smashed a Gabe Speier sinker to dead center for his 17th home run of the season. It was just a solo shot, but it made things interesting with Seattle now just leading 4-3.

On the other side of the coin, it didn’t take long for the Mariners to get that run back either. In the home half of the 6th, Gray continued to struggle with his command with a leadoff walk to Cal Raleigh. Groundouts by Teoscar Hernandez and Ty France moved Raleigh to third with two outs with Mike Ford stepping up to the plate. Ford battled in his plate appearance and on the eighth pitch of the AB took ball four in the dirt. The ball kicked away from Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, who had some phenomenal stops earlier in the game, and France trotted home on the wild pitch to make it 5-3 Mariners.

Seattle would have to sweat out the top of the 7th. After Matt Brash walked the leadoff man, he struck out the next two but then ran into a wall. A single for Alex Kirilloff and a walk for Donovan Solano loaded the bases with two outs. That led to Scott Servais going back to the bullpen and bringing in Andres Muñoz to try to work out of the jam. It took one pitch for Muñoz to work out of it as he got Max Kepler to groundout to Caballero at second to leave the bases loaded with Seattle still up by two.

They would double that lead in the bottom of the 7th and again did it with two outs. A two-out single by Jarred Kelenic got “Country Roads” blasting once again and it kept going as he stole second for his 12th stolen base of the season. Eugenio Suarez was the guy in the dugout trying to light a spark in the Mariners and his at-bat in the 7th did just that. After fouling off two pitches to keep the count 2-2, Suarez went out over the outer half of the plate and pulled a slider out to left field for his 12th homer of the season. Seattle all of a sudden had breathing room with a 7-3 lead.

It wouldn’t be a nice easy finish for the M’s in the 9th. Ty Adcock gave up a leadoff single to Edouard Julien but then struck out Byron Buxton and got Kirilloff to lineout to Jarred Kelenic in left. One out away from the win, things got hairy. A single by Donovan Solano extended the inning for Max Kepler. Kepler fell behind 0-2 before taking a hanging slider way out to right field for his 13th home run of the year. All of a sudden, Seattle’s lead was down to 7-6. That forced Servais to bring in closer Paul Sewald for the final out. Sewald couldn’t get Ryan Jeffers to chase any sweepers off the plate, but painted a 2-2 fastball just on the outer black for a called strike three to ease the stress of the Pacific Northwest and giving the Mariners a 7-6 win.

After a stressful but successful game one win, Seattle (47-46) will still have their work cut out for them as they face another fantastic Minnesota pitcher. Bryan Woo (1-1, 3.63 ERA) continues to just lower his ERA game after game and will look to keep that trend going as he gets the start for the Mariners in game two. Bailey Ober (5-4, 2.61 ERA) will be the adversary for the Mariners as he tries to get the Twins back to even in the series. In Ober’s two July starts, both against a very good lineup in Baltimore, he has pitched 13 innings and allowed just one run on six hits with three walks and 13 strikeouts. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm on Tuesday.

Notable Performances

Twins

• Max Kepler- 2-5, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, R
• Alex Kirilloff- 2-4, RBI
• Sonny Gray (L, 4-4)- 5.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO

Mariners

• Eugenio Suarez- 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Jarred Kelenic- 2-4, 2 RBI, R
• Logan Gilbert (W, 8-5)- 5 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

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