Mariners, Twins play mirror game, Mariners win 6-5
Mariners do just enough to squeak past the Twins, win 6-5
Last night, the Mariners blew past the Twins for an easy, breezy 11-2 win. Today it looked like they’d be on the same path, putting up a five-run inning early, but wound up having to fight and claw for a one-run win. With tomorrow’s game potentially rained out, the Mariners needed this win, and got it.
Chris Paddack handled the Mariners with ease in the last meeting of these two teams, striking out a season-high 10 batters. The Mariners hitters were able to make more contact today, but they were also constantly battling out of two-strike counts. Cal Raleigh ensured Paddack wouldn’t have a no-hit bid right away, hitting a two-out double; Randy Arozarena then battled Paddack for nine pitches before popping out softly on a slider. They were able to put 30 pitches on him through two innings, though, and that set up an even more taxing third inning for Paddack.
The rookies got the third inning off to a strong start: Ben Williamson and Cole Young hit back-to-back singles, and then the veteran J.P. Crawford dropped down a perfect bunt that Paddack panic-fielded and overthrew at first; Kody Clemens backed up his pitcher and saved a run, but that loaded the bases for Julio Rodríguez, who did his job and hit a deep sac fly to score the run anyway.
With a base open, the Twins opted to pitch to Cal Raleigh, who took the first pitch he saw, a slider down and in, and poked it into right field for another run. Randy Arozarena walked, hoovering up another six pitches for Paddack’s pitch count. Paddack then hit Luke Raley, giving the Mariners a free run, bringing up Donavan Solano, who made good on his Donnie Barrels nickname and came up with a sweet line-drive single in a full count, bringing home two more runs and adding another seven pitches to bring Paddack’s total to 65.
Paddack finally got the last two outs of the inning, getting Canzone to fly out on the first pitch but needing eight pitches to dispose of Ben Williamson on a very questionable strike three call. That one blown call would turn out to be somewhat significant in the game.
The poor taste of an ending there wouldn’t have stung so much if Luis Castillo hadn’t then immediately given up a solo homer to Kody Clemens, who battled him for six pitches before getting the barrel to a fastball on the inner half. Castillo rebounded to get his next three outs—one on a scary deep flyball to Bader that looked like another solo home run but stayed in the yard—including his second strikeout of the day, getting Buxton swinging after a slider to end the inning.
This is where things started to slide backwards for the Mariners, who weren’t able to keep it up against Paddack in the fourth, allowing him to work a quick 1-2-3 inning with minimal additional damage to his pitch count. Meanwhile, the Twins got right back to work against Castillo with Larnach working a hustle double on some less-than-stellar right-field defense from Canzone. The Twins were able to turn that into another run on a single from Brooks Lee, who took a changeup off the plate for a single into left field. Carlos Correa followed that up with another ground ball single putting runners on at first and second with no one out. Castillo then fell behind Matt Wallner 3-0 before walking him to load the bases, prompting a mound visit from Pete Woodworth. Whatever Woodworth said worked, as Castillo was able to get Ty France to chase off the plate after a slider for a run-scoring double play, but that tightened the game up to 5-3.
If the damage had ended there, this outing wouldn’t have looked quite so bad for Castillo, but Castillo then fell behind again to Kody Clemens, the new Kole Calhoun, walking him and extending the inning to bring up Ryan Jeffers, who Castillo served a meatball in the middle of the plate for a game-tying double. Brutal. It didn’t get easier, either: Castillo then gave up a single to Harrison Bader despite a heroic effort from Ben Williamson as Bader went hacking after the first pitch, turning over the lineup again for Buxton, who struck out for the second time, but the damage was more than done, as what was a comfortable lead for the Mariners shrunk away in an instant with a 5-5 tie. Stupid nominative determinism.
The Mariners hitters didn’t help out Castillo, going down on six pitches the next inning, but Castillo was able to answer back with a quick inning of his own. Meanwhile, the Twins dug into their bullpen to pull out Louis Varland, who I remember being annoyingly, scary good last time the Mariners faced him. He was no match for the power of the Solanossaince, however (shoutout to commenter MKSoD), as Solano singled to lead off the inning. Canzone moved him to second with a groundout, but that’s as far as he would get, as the daring duo of Mariners rookies couldn’t come through again: Williamson and Young grounded out to end the inning.
The Mariners answered with their own move to the bullpen, summoning Gabe Speier for the sixth to face some of the Twins lefties. Unfortunately, Speier made a mistake right away, leaving a slider right in the middle of the plate for a double that just snuck fair down the first-base line. Ty France was able to move the go-ahead run to third base, and Rocco Baldelli then called for the righty Willi Castro to face Speier. Castro, who’s been struggling with a wrist injury, was able to make contact but not enough to score Wallner, and with the lefties done, Dan Wilson played some handedness matchups of his own and called on the often-mercurial Carlos Vargas to face Ryan Jeffers. Vargas was effectively wild, using the one pitch he threw in the zone to get Jeffers to fly out harmlessly.
As fun as it was to have the Mariners win in blowout style last night, that meant the Twins had all their leverage arms for tonight. Griffin Jax had the seventh, and retired the top of the order with ease, getting J.P. Crawford to ground out on the first pitch, handing Julio his third strikeout of the day, and striking out Cal Raleigh to end one of the Mariners’ better chances at taking the lead.
Dan Wilson opted to stick with Carlos Vargas for the seventh, and Vargas got two quick outs before walking Larnach on four pitches, bringing up Lee, who had already tagged the Mariners for a run on the night. This time, Vargas was able to spot a cutter perfectly at the top of the zone for a soft popup, holding serve for the Mariners. Unfortunately, Brock Stewart also held serve against the middle of the lineup, getting his slate 1-2-3.
That prompted Dan Wilson to make an interesting decision: for one of the first times I can remember this season, he brought out Andrés Muñoz in a non-save situation to face the top of the lineup. Muñoz, who has pitched very sparingly this month, looked sharp nonetheless: he struck out Correa on three pitches, struck out Wallner on five, and then battled former Mariner Ty France, who put up a good fight before making weak contact with a slider, thrown out by an excellent play by good friend J.P. Crawford. Aaron Goldsmith described Muñoz as a “caged animal” who’d been set loose on the Twins and that’s certainly how it felt.
The Twins answered back with their own scary closer, Jhoan Duran, hoping to take care of the bottom of the Mariners lineup and let the Twins offense win it in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, poor Jorge Polanco came off the bench just to get hit in the foot with a pitch, which is a very rude way to treat the former Twin. He was immediately pinch-run for by DMo, leaving Cole Young the lone rookie in to face the terrifying Duran. But Young once again showed an incredible level of composure for a young player, managing to get on a 97 mph splitter and poke it right out of the range of Castro, putting runners on the corners with one out and bringing up Crawford—who immediately was hit by a pitch as well to load the bases. Julio had been having a tough game, but was able to get his second sac fly of the day to give the Mariners a go-ahead run, bookending his day with a pair of sac flies. As tough as his day might have been, this is some good two-strike hitting, capitalizing on a mistake made by Duran.
The Twins smartly opted to intentionally walk Raleigh, bringing up Arozarena, who struck out swinging, keeping the Mariners from padding their lead further.
With Muñoz done, Matt Brash took over in the ninth looking for his first save of the 2025 season. He opened by striking out Castro, twisting him up like a dishrag chasing after his knuckle curve, and then got two quick, weak groundouts to earn his first save of the 2025 season. Congratulations, Matt! It’s great to have you back. (Although I would strongly disagree with the characterization from MLB’s video overlords of the ninth inning as a “jam” - Brash was nails start to finish.)