Seattle Mariners Secure Series Split Against Minnesota Twins With 6-5 Win

The Mariners improved to 41-37 with the win, stayed 4.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and bolstered their lead to 1.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians for the final AL Wild Card spot.

Seattle, which gave the hot bats the nod for Game 2 of the series, continued its decent offensive performance Tuesday. It just took a pair of innings to get to get to that point.

The Twins and Mariners failed to pull ahead in the first two innings of the game. Seattle left a runner on second after Cal Raleigh was stranded following a double in the first. Seattle finally broke the seal in the top of the third.

Rodriguez got his squad on the board first with an RBI sacrifice fly to bring home Ben Williamson. Cal Raleigh hit an RBI single the next at-bat, Luke Raley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Donovan Solano put a nice bow on the inning with a two-RBI single. When the home half of the third rolled around, Seattle led 5-0.

Minnesota responded with five runs of its own in the bottom halves of the third and fourth. Kody Clemens hit a solo home run in the third to cut the Mariners' lead to 5-1.

In the fourth, Brooks Lee hit an RBI single and later scored on a Ty France groundout. Ryan Jeffers capped the inning off with a two-run double.

After the fourth inning, it was the bullpen's show. Both group of relievers combined for seven strikeouts, two walks and three hits in the final four innings. Starters Luis Castillo and Chris Paddack were both chased after the fifth. Andres Munoz, the team's typical closer, entered the game in the eighth inning and struck out two-of-three batters faced.

In an inverse of how close games typically go, Matt Brash was tasked with closing out the game in bottom of the ninth following Rodriguez's second RBI sac fly in the top of the frame. Brash did just that and retired the side in order for his first save of the season. It was Brash's first save since Aug. 17, 2023. He struck out one batter.

With Brash's scoreless outing, he and Munoz became the first pair of reliever teammates to have 16 or more scoreless outings to begin their respective seasons since Oakland Athletics hurlers Brad Ziegler and Santiago Casilla in 2008. Brash was activated off the injured list May 3 after missing all of 2024 due to recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The Mariners will have a chance to clinch a series win and a guaranteed .500 record on its current road trip in Game 3 of the series at 4:40 p.m. PT on Wednesday. George Kirby will start for Seattle and Joe Ryan will take the mound for the Twins.