Jun 26, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins designated hitter Trevor Larnach (9) hits a two run home run against the Seattle Mariners in the fifth inning at Target Field. Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

After long rain delay, Twins' bats break out in bludgeoning of Mariners

Originally posted on Minnesota Twins on SI
By Will Ragatz | Last updated Jun 26, 2025 8:07 PM ET

That's more like it.

After a long, long rain delay on Thursday afternoon, the skies cleared up in Minneapolis and the Twins' bats broke out in a big way. They beat the Mariners 10-1 at Target Field — scoring all of their runs in a two-inning stretch — and salvaged a split of this week's four-game series.

The game, scheduled to start at 12:10 p.m., didn't get underway until 4:32 due to persistent heavy rain in the Twin Cities. A delay of that length is never ideal, but with this being the final matchup between the Twins and Mariners this season and both teams heading to different cities this weekend, there was plenty of incentive to make it happen.

Once underway, the game began much like Wednesday night's contest, a 2-0 win for the Twins that was scoreless until the sixth inning. Simeon Woods Richardson threw five shutout frames for Minnesota on Thursday, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out six. Meanwhile, Mariners starter Emerson Hancock held the Twins off the board for the first four frames.

That's when the bats got going. Trevor Larnach drilled a two-run shot off of Hancock in the bottom of the fifth to open the scoring.

Larnach Launch number 12 of the season pic.twitter.com/4j2nCBIyBz
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 26, 2025

And in the sixth inning, the floodgates opened. The Twins scored eight runs in that frame, all of them off of reliever Zach Pop. Brooks Lee homered, two batters walked, Byron Buxton doubled in a run, the Mariners committed a run-scoring error, Willi Castro hit an RBI double, Carlos Correa singled in a pair, and Matt Wallner capped the offensive explosion with a two-run bomb to the opposite field.

It's the second consecutive win for the Twins (39-42), who had lost 15 of their last 18 games before Wednesday, including the first two against Seattle. It's the first time they've scored 10 or more runs in a home game since April 25.

And after holding a pitchers and catchers meeting prior to Wednesday's game to address their extreme struggles with run prevention this month, the Twins came one out away from tossing back-to-back shutouts. Woods Richardson followed Joe Ryan's gem with an excellent start of his own. Relievers Brock Stewart, Danny Coulombe, and Justin Topa followed SWR with clean innings, but the Mariners avoided the shutout with three two-out singles off of Cole Sands in the ninth.

The Twins are now 2.5 games back of Seattle for the final wild card spot in the AL. Next up is a trip to Detroit to face the AL-leading Tigers (51-31) for three games at Comerica Park this weekend.

This article first appeared on Minnesota Twins on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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