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Mariners break tie with four in the ninth to beat Twins, 10-6

john shipley, pioneer press
·4 min read

The Twins and Mariners traded blows for eight innings on Tuesday, combining for 19 hits that included a three-run homer by Ryan Jeffers and a pinch-hit grand slam from Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, to head to the ninth inning tied 6-6.

The Mariners, however, didn’t stop there.

Dylan Moore hit a leadoff triple off Jorge Alcala, the first of four consecutive Mariners batters to reach base in the ninth inning, as Seattle pulled away with four runs to beat the Twins, 10-6, in front of 14,710 at Target Field.

Seattle evened the four-game series at a game apiece and pulled into a first-place tie with Texas in the American League West. The Twins lost for the second time in three games for the first time since April 19-21.

Margot, Kyle Farmer and Twins rookie Austin Martin each drove in a run, and starter Bailey Ober left after five innings with a 4-2 lead. He was charged with two runs on three hits and a walk and fanned seven.

Despite the fireworks, Martin found himself in the thick of it after being called upon to pinch hit with one out and Max Kepler on second in the eighth inning.

Martin hit a soft single to first that was fielded by Ty France. But France was too far to beat Martin to the bag, and Martin was too fast for left-hander Tayler Saucedo, who landed awkwardly on the bag a split second after Martin touched the bag on a head-first dive.

Saucedo went down in a heap, and the ball squeaked out to keep the play live. Kepler, who had reached third on the grounder, came home — somewhat reluctantly and at the suggestion of third base coach Tommy Watkins — to tie the score 6-6.

“I didn’t even really see that the ball was loose, and I just heard Tommy behind me going, ‘Go, go, go, go!’ ” Kepler said. “In a situation like that, I know the ball is live. Obviously, I feel like the midst of it, it’s kind of a (jerky) move to go when a guy is down and hurt, so I hope that whatever happened to Saucedo, he’s not doing too poorly and he recovers well.”

Mariners manager Scott Servais said Saudeco injured a knee and is likely headed for the injured list.

Martin was stranded at first when Farmer was caught trying to steal third as Jeffers struck out but stayed in the game to play left field in the ninth. With top relievers Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax unavailable, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sent Alcala — who threw a scoreless eighth — back out for the ninth and it went sideways quickly.

Leadoff hitter Moore hit a high fly ball to the wall that Martin couldn’t track. The ball bounced into no man’s land, and by the time center fielder Willi Casto picked it up, Moore was at third as the go-ahead run.

“I need to make a play on that ball,” Martin said. “It was just a bad read on my end. As an outfielder, you should get back. You should know your space and just have spatial awareness. That’s a hundred percent on me.”

The Mariners collected four runs on three hits, two walks, a wild picth and a sacrifice fly off Alcala (1-1) to take a 10-6 lead, and the Twins went down in order against Mariners right-hander Andres Munoz in the ninth.

“It was a challenging one to work through because it felt like you take a few steps forward — and we did some very good things today — (but) it was hard to put all the pieces together,” Baldelli said. “Because we made mistakes. We made some pitches that maybe we didn’t want to make out there. It was a tough one.”

Ryan Stanek (1-0) got two big outs in the eighth inning to earn the victory.

The Twins squandered a chance to pull within one game of first-place Cleveland in the AL Central but are only three games removed from a 12-game winning streak that turned their season around — at least for the time being.

The Twins rallied from a pair of two-run deficits to give themselves a chance in the ninth but, Baldelli said, “We didn’t play the kind of baseball we’ve been playing. We didn’t play a complete game. We played pieces of a game.”

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