Big Time Back-and-Forth Series Win for Seattle in the Twin Cities

Following the dramatic series win at home against the Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle headed east to muggy Minnesota to face of with the Twins for the second time in exactly a week. Every game of this series brought with it high-drama situations, but Seattle was able to slightly outplay the first place Twins and take the final two of three.

Now, a day off as the M’s look to keep their series-winning momentum rolling as they head to the desert to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first time since September of 2021. But before looking ahead, here’s how all three against the Twins went down, starting with Monday night's thriller.

Despite Luis Castillo’s dominance and overall presence to the team, the Mariners so far in 2023 came into Monday’s game with an overall record of 9-11 when he is the starter. He faced off against veteran righty Kenta Maeda.

Scoreless through four, and it was catcher Tom Murphy who got it going for Seattle. A 421-foot bomb to center to lead off the fifth. But the Twins replied just a half inning later.

After Max Kepler reached on a single to begin the inning, Trevor Larnach tripled to center to tie it up. Just two pitches later, and catcher Christian Vazquez singled to right to give Minnesota the lead.

This score remained for the rest of Castillo’s outing. Another strong start, with no run support, as he went a full seven innings, allowing two earned, striking out nine.

2-1 was the score with two outs in the top of the ninth. Cal Raleigh pinch hit for Dylan Moore and got aboard via a single. Following the Big Dumper was Kolten Wong as a pinch hitter for Jose Caballero.

It was a pinch-hit, two-out, two-run Wong dong. Easily his biggest hit as a Mariner came at a perfect time, as it gave Seattle the lead back heading into bottom nine.

Unfortunately, the Twins tied it up within minutes. Back-to-back doubles by Alex Kirilloff and Kepler knotted it back up at three, as Andres Munoz struck out the final two he faced, despite giving up the lead. It was free baseball time in Target Field.

Extra innings means no fun for the Mariners. Have you heard this one before? With the meat of the lineup at the dish, a Julio Rodriguez ground out, Eugenio Suarez pop out and a Teoscar Hernandez ground out couldn’t push across the ghost runner… and the Twins made the M’s pay.

Former-Astro Carlos Correa walked it off against Paul Sewald in the tenth, as the highest of highs on Kolten Wong’s massive home run, quickly vanished to the lowest of lows as it ended as a 4-3 Minnesota victory.

Looking to bounce back from Monday’s tough loss, it was a battle of American League All-Stars on the bump: righties George Kirby and Pablo Lopez.

Minnesota jumped out to a massive lead early off of Kirby. The Twins hit for a team-cycle in the first, leading to a four-spot before there were two outs in the inning.

Julio, an inning later, mashed his 15th home run of the year off of a Lopez first-pitch changeup.

Rookie Cade Marlowe went oppo for his first MLB home run in the top of the fifth, but at this point, Seattle was still down three.

Kirby was done after just four innings, where despite striking out nine (which the Twins do quite a bit of), he gave up five runs on seven hits. The bullpen, consisting of Gabe Speier, Isaiah Campbell, and Taylor Saucedo kept it within striking distance, allowing one run over three innings.

The M’s got to work following Lopez’s departure in the eighth. Consecutive walks followed by a Cal Raleigh double from the right side again got the M’s within three. Teo laced a hard ground ball right at second baseman Kyle Farmer, which scored Eugenio Suarez. A 6-4 Twins lead, turned into a 6-6 tie thanks to Julio Rodriguez, who went opposite field for his second home run of the season. It was just his second multi-homer game in the young man’s career.

It was also Seattle’s biggest comeback in the eighth inning or later since 1991. But, it wasn’t quite over yet. Matt Brash, after walking one, K’d the side to set up Seattle in the ninth, facing righty Oliver Ortega.

A four-pitch walk worked by Marlowe, followed by a steal of second base had Seattle in business. Wong, opting for the sac bunt, laid a perfect one down the third base line as he was safe at first. J.P. was hit by a pitch in the shin, leaving it up to Geno with the bases loaded and no outs.

On a 1-2 slider, he pulled a ground ball just past Willi Castro at third, scoring two. Teo got J.P. home on a shallow sacrifice fly as Seattle capitalized with three, making it 9-6 the score.

It was up to Paul Sewald for the third straight game. Center fielder Michael A. Taylor got one back for the Twins on a solo shot, but Sewald went 1-2-3 following the blemish, as Seattle completed one of their biggest late game comebacks in franchise history, as well as one of their biggest wins of the 2023 season.

One more against the AL Central-leading Twins on Wednesday afternoon. A 10:10 AM start locally here in Seattle, as it was rookie Bryce Miller against righty Joey Ryan, the one starter that the M’s hadn’t faced this year.

Julio ripped a 113-MPH double to get it going in the first and was brought home by a broken bat looper single by Teo Hernandez. Seattle’s offense kept producing, as Dylan Moore hit his third homer on the season in the second inning. J-Rod stayed hot, hitting his third homerun in just two games, this time, it lengthened the lead to 3-0 in favor of the Mariners in the third inning.

The Twins got to Miller in the bottom half of the third on solo home runs by Christian Vazquez and rookie Edouard Julien. But Seattle instantly got one back thanks to a bases-loaded Kolten Wong single in the fourth. Unfortunately, the one run was all they got, despite the bases being loaded with Mariners.

Yet another solo home run in this game, and it was the Twins’ Matt Walner with a rocket shot to get it back within one for Minnesota. But again, it was the Mariners who fired right back. D-Mo went yard for the second time, but this time there was two on. His second home run of the game, scored three and it was 7-3 Seattle in the top of the fifth. This was Moore’s first-career multi-homer game.

After Eugenio added one more to the M’s lead, Bryce Miller struggled to get out of the bottom of the sixth inning. Matt Walner’s second solo home run of the game and a Kyle Farmer RBI single pushed Miller out of the game. He finished with seven strikeouts, but gave up six runs over 5 2/3 innings. Matt Brash came in to get Miller out of the jam, but the Twins stayed hot in the sixth.

Down to two strikes in the count, both Joey Gallo and Christian Vazquez ripped off RBI base hits, and at this point, it was just a one run ballgame at 8-7 Seattle.

Luckily, following Brash, and despite major limitations due to over usage, the bullpen was dominant. Lefty Gabe Speier, Justin Topa and Andres Munoz went three scoreless innings to close out yet another thrilling game. Munoz earned his second save of the season as Seattle won the game and the series, a final of 8-7.

A trip from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Phoenix occurs today/tonight for the M’s. Now back to two games over, their next road test is the Arizona Diamondbacks. Featuring National League Rookie-of-the-Year frontrunner, and local product Corbin Carrol and ex-Mariner Ketel Marte, the D-Backs rank in the top five in batting average. Fortunately for Seattle, they will miss Arizona’s best starter in Zac Gallen who started Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Diamondbacks’ Head Coach Torey Lovullo has yet to announce the starting pitchers against the Mariners beginning Friday night.

For the M’s, it will be Logan Gilbert (8-5, 3.88 ERA) on Friday, rookie Bryan Woo (1-3, 4.91 ERA) Saturday night and Luis Castillo (6-7, 3.02 ERA) geting the nod on Sunday before heading back to the PNW.

American League West Standings as of Wednesday evening:

• 1.Texas Rangers (59-43)
• 2.Houston Astros (58-44), 1.0 GB
• 3.Los Angeles Angels (52-49), 6.5 GB
• 4.Seattle Mariners (52-50), 7.0 GB
• 5.Oakland Athletics (28-75), 31.5 GB

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