7/24/23

Twins 4, Mariners 3 (10)

(Minneapolis, MN) Riding a little bit of momentum for the first time since before the All-Star break, the Seattle Mariners headed out on the road for the first time in the second half starting with a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Playing the Twins for the second series in two weeks, both teams came in familiar with one another which can give an advantage to both the hitters and pitchers. In a game that lacked a lot of offense, Seattle would find a new way to lose as they wasted a 9th inning comeback and dropped game one in extra innings 4-3.

Seattle was mixing in their hits in the early innings while Luis Castillo dominated the Twins lineup at the same time. Castillo didn’t allow a baserunner until a one out walk in the bottom of the 4th to Edouard Julien, who he then picked off to clear the bases. Despite Seattle looking like the better team early, the game was still scoreless until the top of the 5th. Leading off the inning, Tom Murphy got a hanging slider from Kenta Maeda and drove it to center field. The ball would clear both the short wall and the high wall as Murphy trotted around the bases with his seventh home run of the season. Finally, the M’s had broken through and taken a 1-0 lead.

It would not last for long. A leadoff single in the bottom of the 5th by Max Kepler set the tone for the Twins in that half inning. A couple of flyouts by Matt Wallner and Willi Castro had Castillo looking good to leave Kepler stranded. A deep drive by Trevor Larnach changed all of that. The ball looked like it would leave the yard but hit just above the glove of Teoscar Hernandez and kicked back towards the infield. Running on contact with two outs, Kepler scored easily as Larnach made his way to third with his third triple of the season, tying the game at 1-1. The next batter was Christian Vazquez and he got jammed on a sinker but somehow fought it off down the right field line for a tough luck base hit. Larnach scored and Minnesota had taken a 2-1 lead.

The Mariners looked lifeless for the next three innings. They would get a couple opportunities to score with runners on first and second and one out in the 7th, but couldn’t even up the game. Julio Rodriguez was then left stranded at third with two outs in the 8th which kept Seattle trailing headed into their final at bat. That deficit didn’t grow however as Luis Castillo finished a very strong outing. La Piedra went seven innings and only allowed the two runs on four hits (three of them coming in the 5th) with two walks and nine strikeouts. It was Castillo’s best outing since before the All-Star break and hopefully has him looking like an ace the rest of the way.

In the top of the 9th, Seattle did not have to face hard throwing closer Jhoan Duran as he was given the day off. Instead, Griffin Jax took over for the Twins. Ty France and Tom Murphy were quickly disposed of for a very fast two outs. Cal Raleigh pinch hit for Dylan Moore and extended the game with a base hit to center field. Mariner fans everywhere questioned the next decision as Kolten Wong pinch hit for Jose Caballero. A career worst year for Wong makes those questions completely fair, but Wong looked to change that perspective and might have done just that. A sweeper hung right down the middle and Kolten Wong launched it sky high into right field for his second home run of the season. The clutch two-run shot changed everything as Seattle had all of a sudden gone from being down to their final out to having a late 3-2 lead.

Andres Muñoz pitched the bottom of the 9th for the Mariners and a big gut punch came the Mariners way. With one out, Alex Kirilloff sent a fly ball deep to left field that just got over the glove of Taylor Trammell for his 13th double of the season. With the tying run in scoring position, Max Kepler delivered another big hit against Seattle. Kepler lined a base hit into right field to score Kirilloff as Kepler recorded his ninth double of the season. Just like that the game was tied at 3-3 with the winning run on second and one out. Muñoz would strikeout Matt Wallner and Donovan Solano to end the inning, but the lead was gone and we were headed to extras.

An ugly top of the 10th for Seattle against Jorge Lopez resulted in a very quick 1-2-3 inning and gave the Twins a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th. Curiously, Paul Sewald then came in to pitch the 10th instead of the closer pitching the 9th. Solano started the inning on second for the Twins and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Christian Vazquez. Ryan Jeffers hit for the strikeout prone Joey Gallo, and Minnesota tried to get down a safety squeeze. The ball would not get far enough for Solano to try to score, but nobody was covering first which allowed Jeffers to reach with still only one out. Carlos Correa then delivered the knockout blow with a base hit to right field that was nearly caught by a sliding Teoscar Hernandez. Solano scored and the Twins celebrated while the Mariners walked off the field with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss.

After a devastating loss, Seattle (50-50) will need to bounce back quickly if they want to take the series from Minnesota (54-48). Another pitching rematch from last week will be replayed on Tuesday at 4:40pm. George Kirby (9-8, 3.23 ERA) will try to duplicate his performance against the Twins last week. Kirby went seven shutout innings, allowed just four hits and did not walk anyone while striking out 10 in the Mariner win on Thursday. Pablo Lopez (5-6, 4.22 ERA) hopes to improve on his outing from that day. Lopez pitched out of quite a bit of trouble and ended up going six innings, allowing just two runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Luis Castillo (ND)- 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO
• Kolten Wong- 1-1, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Tom Murphy- 2-4, 2B, HR, RBI, R

Twins

• Max Kepler- 3-4, 2B, RBI, R
• Trevor Larnach- 1-3, 3B, RBI, R
• Kenta Maeda (ND)- 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO

elisportsnetwork.com