7/25/23
Mariners 9, Twins 7
(Minneapolis, MN) Baseball is so funny with how things play out. One day, one team might suffer a massive letdown and drop a game they know they should have won. The next day, that same team steals a win that should have been a loss. That sums up the last couple of nights in Minnesota for the Seattle Mariners. After coming back to take a late lead in game one and losing anyway, Seattle had to fight back from an even bigger deficit against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night. The good news? They would complete the comeback again and this time complete it fully to the tune of a 9-7 win.
George Kirby had a very strange outing in this one. It started from the first inning when Carlos Correa doubled to begin the bottom of the 1st and Edouard Julien followed with his first triple of his career to give the Twins a quick 1-0 lead. After striking out Alex Kirilloff, Kirby wouldn’t find the same luck against Max Kepler. The Minnesota outfielder snuck a grounder into right field for another base hit to make it 2-0 Twins. Minnesota would then complete their team cycle in the 1st as Matt Wallner provided the pop. Wallner crushed fastball for a no-doubter into right field for his second home run of the season. Despite Kirby racking up three strikeouts in the 1st, Seattle already found themselves in a big hole, trailing 4-0.
That hole shrunk a little bit in the top of the 2nd. After letting Pablo Lopez off the hook consistently on Thursday, the M’s did not get as many opportunities against the Twins righty this time around. However, they found a bit of success with the long ball. Julio Rodriguez got a changeup hanging up and in and crushed his 15th home run of his sophomore season. It wasn’t much, but it was something to try to get the offense rolling as the M’s got on the board trailing 4-1.
Strikeouts were very common for George Kirby in this one but the Twins were more than happy to trade strikeouts for runs. In the bottom of the 3rd, they would strike again. A leadoff single for Max Kepler was followed by Kirby’s seventh strikeout of the game for the first out. Willi Castro then sent a nice liner down towards the right field corner for extra bases. Kepler beat out the relay to the plate as Castro reached third for his second triple of the season and the lead was back to four for the Twins at 5-1.
A feel good moment brought the vibes back up a bit for Seattle in the top of the 5th. A day after recording his first major league hit, Cade Marlowe added another first in his budding. Marlowe drove a well located 2-2 changeup down and away into the bullpen in left center for his first major league home run. An exciting moment like that seemed to breath some life into the Seattle dugout despite still trailing 5-2.
George Kirby’s day would be done after a very short outing that only lasted four innings. The final line was a bizarre one for the All-Star as in four innings, Kirby gave up five runs on seven hits and only walked one while striking out 9 of his 12 recorded outs. Kirby had good swing and miss stuff, but when the Twins weren’t missing they were finding base hits which chased Kirby very early in this one.
Walks became an issue for reliever Isaiah Campbell in the bottom of the 6th. A free pass to Willi Castro allowed the speedy baserunner to steal second and third with just one out for his 24th and 25th stolen bases of the season. After Ryan Jeffers reached on a walk to put runners on the corners, Donovan Solano would do his part with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Castro and extend the Minnesota lead back out to 6-2.
A wasted scoring opportunity in the top of the 7th was made up for in the top of the 8th. With starter Pablo Lopez out of the game, the Twins turned to Jovani Moran out of an exhausted bullpen for Minnesota. Back-to-back walks by J.P. Crawford and Eugenio Suarez began the inning and the M’s pounced on the opportunity. Cal Raleigh sent a line drive into left center field for his 14th double of the season to score Crawford and bring the tying run to the plate with the score 6-3. Emilio Pagan then stepped on the mound for the Twins but couldn’t keep the M’s from scoring as Teoscar Hernandez drove in Suarez with an RBI groundout to make it 6-4. With Raleigh still on second, Julio Rodriguez stepped up to the plate in more ways than one. J-Rod drove a fastball up in the zone and on the outer half out into right field. The screamer cleared the wall and became Julio’s 16th home run of the season and second of the game. Seattle had done it once again and come all the way back to tie the game at 6-6.
With the score still tied headed into the 9th, Minnesota opted to not pitch their closer Jhoan Duran and instead went with Oliver Ortega. That became a decision Twins fans would question after this one. Cade Marlowe led off the 9th with a walk and stole his second base of the season to put himself in scoring position with nobody out. Kolten Wong would have a big time 9th inning AB for the second straight game as the second baseman laid down a perfect bunt and would end up reaching with a bunt single to put runners on the corners. A scary moment followed when J.P. Crawford was hit on the knee to load the bases, but Crawford remained in the game. After just slicing a line drive foul down the right field line, Eugenio Suarez snuck a grounder down the left field line for a fair ball. Marlowe and Wong both scored while Crawford stopped at third on Geno’s 17th double of the season. The M’s had their first lead of the game at 8-6. Teoscar Hernandez added on with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 9-6 headed into the bottom of the 9th.
Paul Sewald was expected to have the day off but was thrust into action with the save opportunity. It didn’t start off great as Michael A. Taylor hit his 12th home run of the season to make it 9-7. Flashbacks from a blown lead the night before crept back up but a quick groundout by Carlos Correa and a lineout by Kyle Farmer put the M’s and Sewald an out away from finishing the big win. That out came off the bat of Alex Kirilloff as he flew out to Marlowe in left who ended his big day with the final out in a fantastic comeback win for the Mariners by a final score of 9-7.
It will be breakfast and baseball for the finale of the three-game series as the Seattle Mariners (51-50) and Minnesota Twins (54-49) will play the rubber game of the series at 10:10am on Wednesday. This will be a fresh pitching matchup as neither side has faced the opposing pitcher this season. Bryce Miller (6-3, 3.50 ERA) will look to push his outing a bit further this time out. Miller has not made it past the sixth in either of his two starts since coming off the IL right after the All-Star break despite allowing just one run in 10 1/3 innings. Opposing Miller will be Minnesota’s own young star in Joe Ryan. Ryan (9-6, 3.88 ERA) is the big strikeout guy in the Twins rotation as he has struck out 36 batters in 21 2/3 innings this month but has also allowed six home runs and 14 runs total in July.
Notable Performances
Mariners
- Julio Rodriguez- 2-5, 2 HRs, 3 RBI, 2 R
- Cade Marlowe- 2-3, HR, RBI, 2 R, BB, SB
- George Kirby (ND)- 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO
Twins
- Max Kepler- 2-4, RBI, 2 R
- Matt Wallner- 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
- Pablo Lopez (ND)- 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO
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