Julio Rodriguez-led Mariners come back big in late going, knock off Twins
MINNEAPOLIS – For the better part of seven innings, the Seattle Mariners seemed destined to lose their second straight game to start this trip that leads into the looming Major League Baseball trade deadline on Tuesday.
Would it be another lackluster loss that moved management just a little closer to being a seller instead of a bargain buyer at the deadline?
Just less than 24 hours earlier, they somehow found themselves leading in the bottom of the ninth after trailing the entire game and then managed to lose anyway.
On a sweltering Tuesday evening at Target Field when shirt backs were made damp just from sitting , the Mariners somehow made another stunning comeback late in the game – only this time they made it stand up in a 9-7 victory.
Down 6-2 going into the eighth inning, the Mariners scored four runs off the Twins bullpen in a rally that included Julio Rodriguez’s second homer of the game – a two-run shot that tied the game at 6.
In the ninth, facing right-hander Oliver Ortega, Seattle loaded the bases with no outs. Rookie Cade Marlowe worked a leadoff walk and stole second. Kolten Wong dropped down a perfect bunt intended to be a sacrifice that instead went for a single. J.P. Crawford was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Eugenio Suarez put the Mariners ahead for good, doubling down the third-base line to score a pair of runs, and Teoscar Hernandez added a sac fly for some insurance.
Five days ago, on a slightly more comfortable afternoon at T-Mobile Park, George Kirby carved up the Twins in what would be one of his best starts of the season. He set the tone, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts in Seattle’s 5-0 victory.
Facing the American League Central leaders for a second straight turn in Seattle’s rotation, Kirby couldn’t replicate that dominance.
In a weird outing in which his pitches either seemed to get turned into base hits or were swung at and missed, Kirby gave up four runs in the first and a total of five in a shorter-than-expected outing.
Kirby’s final line: four innings, five runs allowed on seven hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.
It got even more odd. Of his first 16 batters he faced, Twins hitters either reached base or struck out.
Kirby gave up seven hits, walked Carlos Correa and struck out eight. With two outs in the third, Ryan Jeffers lifted a soft liner to shallow right field that was caught by Wong to break that run.