Mariners fearlessly ride biggest roller coaster in theme park, defeat Twins 10-6

Dips and loops were no match for a late inning barrage!

Sheesh.

Everyone good? Need a breather?

Okay, let’s get into it.

I suppose we could begin with the bats staking out an early lead against giant Twins starter Bailey Ober (seriously, dude is 6’9”. Julio would look short next to him). Nothing came across in the first inning despite Josh Rojas getting in the saddle early with a leadoff single, but Mitch Haniger opened the second with a solo shot, showing early signs of getting off his schneid. Luis Urías followed with a plunk, and Dylan Moore added on to the lead with a double that on a non-windy day in the Twin Cities could have left the ballpark.

Of course, even a two-run lead felt a bit uneasy. Emerson Hancock, making what will likely be his last big league start for a while once Bryan Woo makes his return, made it through his first two innings without much trouble, facing the minimum while dotting the edges of the strike zone with his fastball and changeup. Not much in the way of missing bats (just five whiffs on the night) but hey, he’s shown himself to be a bit of a soft contact merchant. He even opened the third with two consecutive flyouts to center! Maybe that lead would hold after all.

Of course, we all know it didn’t, and by inning’s end, we had our first big drop of the night. José Miranda punched a 1-2 fastball up out of the zone into right field for a base hit, Edouard Julien continued his pesky ways with a walk, Trevor Larnach got Minnesota on the board with a sharp base hit to right, and Ryan Jeffers absolutely vaporized a first pitch hanging changeup into the second deck to make it a 4-2 game.

A Max Kepler double wouldn’t come around to score, and Hancock did throw a scoreless fourth despite a free pass to Willi Castro, but his night would be cut short after that. No strikeouts over four innings in the midst of a long stretch of games, with no off-day in sight? Hancock has been a mostly pleasant surprise these first six weeks and has solidified himself as an attractive depth option, but tonight was suboptimal, both in the micro and macro scale. While Gabe Speier and Austin Voth combined to keep the Twins at bay through the fifth and sixth, the offense had their work cut out for them, even with keeping the streak of not allowing an opposing starter to reach the seventh inning alive. Ober made it through five without any further damage, and Cole Sands tossed a perfect sixth. Some magic needed to happen, and fast.

Mitch Garver led off the seventh against longtime MLB reliever (and first-time Opening Day roster member!) Jay Jackson, and somehow legged out an infield hit that Carlos Correa flashed some good range, but couldn’t quite get the throw out in time. You know how sometimes magic comes from an unlikely source? Perhaps we should have known at the time. Though Ty France would strike out for the third time this evening, Urías followed with a well-struck base hit to left, and DMo drew a walk to load the bases for Seby Za...

Bah Gawd, that’s Cal Raleigh’s music!

Sorry, Twins, your home run sausage has nothing on a grand salami. With that pinch-hit blast, Raleigh now has more home runs on the year as a right-handed batter than as a lefty swinger. It’s the fourth pinch-hit home run of his career, tying Ken Phelps as the all-time franchise leader. And as the cherry on top? It was the fourth pinch-hit grand slam in franchise history, following Daniel Vogelbach in 2018, Franklin Gutiérrez in 2015, and Ben Broussard (!) in 2007. The legend of Big Dumper grows with seemingly every game, and now that he’s all of a sudden found his power stroke from the right side of the plate? The American League is officially on notice.

Of course, it wouldn’t be proper entertainment without a little bit of extra drama, and Tyson Miller provided it, allowing back-to-back doubles from Miranda and Kyle Farmer leading off the bottom of the seventh to make it a one-run game. Things could have gone sideways from there, but the other Miller buckled down nicely, getting Manuel Margot on a groundout that held the runner at second for out number one, and teaming up with Cal and Urías on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to escape without any further damage.

I love everything about this. The pitiful swing from Jeffers bringing him to a knee! The acrobatic tag by Urías! Cal following up a blast at the plate with a rocket of an arm! The M’s would be turned away in the eighth despite a vintage Ty hit by pitch, and it was Tayler Saucedo’s turn to preserve the lead.

It... could have gone better. Kepler led off the frame with a double, further cementing his thorn status, and Carlos Correa flew out to Haniger in foul ground to keep Kepler at third. Pinch-hitter Austin Martin was up next, though, and here, things got weird. And sad.

Yes, Sauce was a bit slow getting off the mound. This is true. And yeah, Ty guy should have called time to blow the play dead and keep Kepler from chugging in to score from third once it was clear Saucedo wasn’t getting up. Still, I can’t think of much crappier ways to blow a lead, and Max Kepler? I get it and appreciated your postgame comments, but buckaroo, you have made an enemy for life. Saucedo had to be helped off of the field, and Scott Servais mentioned postgame that he had hurt his knee and will be out “for a while”. Get well soon, Sauce! Ryne Stanek came on to finish the frame and got his two outs without any further trouble, but the vibes were grim. More magic would be needed for any hope of a victory.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait around for it for too long. Moore capped off a fabulous game with a leadoff triple to left that Martin karmically made a hilarious misplay on, Calboy worked a walk, and Josh Rojas showed why we are all Rojomies to take the lead.

Julio followed with a sharp single to left to load the bases once again, capping off an overall solid night at the plate for him (two walks!). Jorge Polanco struck out swinging, but insurance was on the way nonetheless, with Haniger sending a sac fly to right field to easily bring home Cal. A pair of wild pitches led to Rojas coming home, and Ty France capped off the score padding with a bloop into left to bring the M’s to double digits for just the second time this year. Breathing room; what a concept! Andrés Muñoz came on for the ninth, and kept any further drama from boiling over with an easy 1-2-3 frame, capping off the game with a strikeout of Margot.

Phew! There have been some thrilling games so far this year - the Julio and Garver walkoffs come to mind first - but none have had quite the back-and-forth like this one did. Pinch-hit heroics, late-game offense, and picking up a hurt reliever? And wouldn’t you know it, this was the first three-hour game they’ve played all year! Glad we got to end that streak with one for the books. George Kirby goes tomorrow as the Mariners look to keep their series win streak alive, and while it might not be quite the journey tonight was, I like their odds.