7/18/23

Twins 10, Mariners 3

(Seattle, WA) It was a weird day in baseball on Tuesday. Offense was the story of the day as 12 teams put up double digit run totals while San Diego put up nine. In Seattle, the Mariners were hoping they would be on the right side of that stat and put up at least 10 runs themselves. Unfortunately, there was a double digit scorer in the game but it wasn’t the M’s. Bryan Woo had his first clunker since his debut as the Mariners fell to the Minnesota Twins, 10-3.

The longest inning of the game was the 1st. Both teams got off to solid starts offensively while the starting pitching struggled. In the top of the 1st, Minnesota would get runners on second and third after a single, walk, and wild pitch with only one out. Max Kepler looked like he was going to start this game how he ended game one, with a home run. However the deep fly ball to left was caught on the warning track by AJ Pollock but Carlos Correa would score on the sacrifice fly to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. Bryan Woo would then hit Matt Wallner to bring up Willi Castro with two outs. Castro made Woo pay for the hit batter with a base hit to center. With Julio Rodriguez getting the night off, Jarred Kelenic patrolled center and came up throwing. The ball would tick off Ty France’s glove as he tried to fake the cutoff. That mistake allowed Alex Kirilloff to score without a play at the plate and the other two runners to move up to second and third. Woo would get out of the inning with no more damage being done by striking Kyle Farmer to send the game to the bottom of the 1st with Seattle trailing 2-0.

Bailey Ober didn’t get off to any better of a start on the mound for Minnesota. Seattle got things rolling right out of the gate with a leadoff single by J.P. Crawford. Eugenio Suarez moved up to the #2 spot with Julio getting a day off and Suarez made the most of the opportunity and continued the tradition of Mariners having success on their birthdays. Geno hammered a fastball right down the middle out to center field for his 13th home run of the season and second in as many days to celebrate his 32nd birthday. The deficit was already erased as the game was tied 2-2.

Singles by Jarred Kelenic and Teoscar Hernandez put runners on first and second with one out for Ty France. France broke out of a skid with a hard hit double to left. Kelenic scored, but a late stop sign by third base coach Manny Acta wasn’t enough to stop Teo from trying to score. Hernandez was thrown out at the plate for the second out, but Seattle had taken the lead 3-2. Mike Ford then singled to right to keep the hit parade going. France tried to score from second, but the play was not close. France was thrown out by right fielder Max Kepler to end the inning. Two of the three outs in the first were made at the plate which prevented an even bigger inning but Seattle still had a 3-2 lead.

After a quick and easy top of the 2nd, Woo slipped back into the same funk he was in in the 1st. In the top of the 3rd, Edouard Julien singled to leadoff the inning and then Alex Kirilloff did the big damage. Kirilloff smoked a two-run shot for his sixth home run of the season to give Minnesota back the lead at 4-3. A walk by Max Kepler and single by Willi Castro put runners on first and second with one out. A sacrifice fly by Kyle Farmer put runners on the corners with two outs. Castro then showed off his wheels with his 21st stolen base of the season. Even worse, Cal Raleigh’s throw to second sailed into the outfield. That let Kepler trot home on the error, making it 5-3 Twins.

Things continued to go down hill for the Mariners. In the top of the 4th, Edouard Julien continued his hitting clinic in Seattle. Julien showed off some pop with his eighth home run of the season with a solo shot to right to make it 6-3. Alex Kirilloff crushed another deep fly ball to center field. Jarred Kelenic almost made a tremendous catch, but instead the ball squirted away towards left. That allowed Kirilloff to record his first triple of the season with just one out. Max Kepler followed with his seventh double of the season to score Kirilloff to make it 7-3 Minnesota. That ended the day for Woo as another Mariners starter left early and the bullpen was tasked with pitching most of the game. Isaiah Campbell came in and recorded two strikeouts to end Minnesota’s big inning.

After Campbell pitched 1 2/3 strong innings, Tayler Saucedo came in and the Twins’ bats woke back up. Another single by Julien and one by Max Kepler put runners on first and second with one out. Donovan Solano entered the game as a pinch hitter and grounded out to move the runners to second and third with two outs. Willi Castro singled into left and Julien scored to make it 8-3.

Minnesota’s pitching did what the Seattle pitching couldn’t do and settled in for the bulk of the game. After Seattle recorded six hits in the bottom of the 1st, they only got three more hits through the final eight innings of the game. Bailey Ober ended up recording a quality start for the Twins as he only allowed one more hit through six innings. Ober did not walk a batter either while striking out five.

A couple more long balls finished off the game in the top of the 9th. Kyle Farmer began the inning with his sixth homer of the season to make it 9-3. Three batters later, Carlos Correa smoked his 12th home run of the season to make it double figures for Minnesota. Cole Sands came in for the Twins in the bottom of the 9th and hung up one more zero as the game finally came to an end with the Mariners on the wrong side of a 10-3 final score.

Seattle (47-47) once again find themselves sitting at .500 headed into game three of the four-game set with Minnesota (49-47). The good news for the Mariners is that their two All-Star pitchers will pitch the final two games of the series with a chip on their shoulders after struggling in their first starts of the second half. First up, Luis Castillo (6-7, 2.96 ERA) will be up for the Mariners. Castillo only went five innings on Friday night and with the lack of innings pitched by Mariner starters, they need Castillo to eat some innings on Wednesday to get the bullpen a little rest. Kenta Maeda (2-5, 5.50 ERA) will throw for Minnesota on Wednesday. Maeda missed all of May and most of June with an injury and has looked like a completely different pitcher since returning in June although he is coming off a bad outing against Oakland.

Notable Performances

Twins

• Alex Kirilloff- 3-4, 3B, HR, 2 RBI, 3 R, BB
• Edouard Julien- 3-5, HR, RBI, 3 R
• Bailey Ober (W, 6-4)- 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO

Mariners

• Eugenio Suarez- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Ty France- 1-4, 2B, RBI
• Bryan Woo (L, 1-2)- 3.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

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