Mariners 5, Twins 4: Mariners walk-off the Twins in 11

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Bailey Ober 4 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (97 pitches, 64 strikes (66%))
Home Runs: Matt Wallner (2)
Bottom 3 WPA: Kody Clemens (-.468), Jorge Alcala (-.438), Bailey Ober (-.214)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

 

The Twins looked to follow up Friday night's miraculous comeback with another victory in the Pacific Northwest in a simulated night game on Saturday afternoon (time zones are weird). Bailey Ober took the hill for the Twins in search of win number five, while Bryce Miller looked to put the Mariners back in the win column after a short IL stint. Matt Wallner rejoined the lineup after destroying Triple-A pitching for the past week, and with the Mariners' bullpen being depleted, things pointed towards a Twins victory on paper. That's why they play the games.

Welcome Back Wallner!
Both pitchers took care of business in the first inning, but Miller's night began to unravel in the top of the second. Carlos Correa led off the inning with a walk, and Wallner strode to the plate and worked the count into his favor at 3-1. On the next pitch, Wallner did what he's been doing for St. Paul, and suddenly it was 2-0 Twins.

 

The Twins weren't done yet, as Willi Castro worked his way around the bases to get to third base, and with two outs, Byron Buxton delivered run number three with a single to make it 3-0.

Cal Raleigh is Really Good

Ober's outing started to unravel in the bottom of the third, just as many pitchers who have faced the Mariners this month have similarly unraveled. He had to face Cal Raleigh, and Raleigh's 22 home run of the season (you read that right) plated Ben Williamson to make it a 3-2 ballgame.

Ober's night ended after only four innings due to pitch count, and this stands in stark contrast to what Zebby Matthews was able to provide after his initial struggles Friday night. Ober tried to go in the fifth, but gave up two baserunners to put men on the corners with nobody out and Raleigh back up at the plate. Louis Varland got the unenviable call in relief, and he pitched perhaps his best outing of the 2025 campaign by striking out Raleigh and Jose Rodriguez, and working out of the jam.

 

Missed Opportunities Doom the Twins
After cashing in every possible run at the end of Friday night's game, the Twins looked to have solved their issues with runners in scoring position. In the third, fourth, and sixth innings, however, the Twins squandered one-out doubles in each inning, failing to build on their lead and giving the Mariners hope for a comeback of their own. That opportunity came with Jorge Alcala on the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning. Alcala again got burned by a leadoff walk, because as everyone was wondering about what to do with Raleigh in the on-deck circle, JP Crawford stole the show with a two-run homer to swing the game back in Seattle's favor at 4-3.

In the top of the eighth, the Twins once again had a man at second base, with Wallner leading off by getting hit by a pitch and then advancing to second base on a Castro single to put runners at first and second with nobody out. Kody Clemens almost got another hero turn, but his line drive was caught by Rodriguez and Wallner was caught off second base in no-man's land for a double play in the worst kind of way for Minnesota.

 

Don't Write that Obituary Just Yet...Again
Reliever Carlos Vargas came into the game to try to get the save thanks to the aforementioned depleted bullpen. He got Ryan Jeffers easily enough, and looked like he was on his way to victory when Buxton hit a comebacker right to him. Vargas rushed the throw, chucked the ball into the outfield, and all of a sudden the Twins had Buxton at third base with only one out. Trevor Larnach was next up, and two pitches later Larnach was on first base with a single and the game was all square at four apiece!

How's it Going to End?
Griffin Jax got the ball to face the bottom of the Mariners' lineup in the bottom of the ninth. Cole Young welcomed him with his first Major League hit with a lead-off single. With two outs, Crawford blooped a double into left field to put runners at second and third. Raleigh got the intentional walk to set up Rodriguez for a bases-loaded duel with Jax. After a nasty strikeout, Jax was pumped, and we were headed back to bonus baseball.

Unfortunately, in the tenth and eleventh innings, the Twins continued to leave runners in scoring position, and in the bottom of the eleventh, Young followed up his first hit with his second, this time a walk-off dribbler to first to plate the winning run. In a game that the Twins should have won by five, the Mariners finally exercised their extra-inning demons for a 5-4 victory.

A Surprise Ejection
Neither Carlo Correa nor Rocco Baldelli had to watch the painful ending of this game from the dugout - because they were not allowed to. Both were tossed by home plate umpire Austin Jones in the top of the seventh inning in a bizarre exchange where details were still unclear as the game ended.

Correa was on-deck, had some words for ... someone around home plate. Jones tossed Correa immediately and Baldelli rushed out to save his player and seemed to be irate at Jones quick trigger, especially because Correa seemed to be protesting that he hadn't directed his comment at Jones. 

What’s Next?
The Twins look to find a way to win the series in a Sunday afternoon contest. Twins righty Chris Paddack (2-5, 3.92 ERA) will look to start June the way he finished May. Righty Luis Castillo (4-3, 3.32 ERA) gets the start for the Mariners. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10pm CDT. 

Postgame Interviews 
Coming Soon?
  
Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet 

 

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Sands	0	15	0	21	6	36
Durán	20	0	0	13	14	33
Stewart	0	0	0	17	11	28
Funderburk	0	19	0	0	0	19
Jax	14	0	0	0	18	14
Alcalá	0	11	0	0	28	11
Varland	11	0	0	0	18	11
Topa	0	0	0	0	10	0

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[FlyingFinn]

The Mariners win by using speed off the bench to pinch run for Garver. Without Kiersey, you see how slow the Twins bench is (Jeffers, France, Lewis and Bride).

[Parfigliano]

Really like to know 1) what Correa said did 2)  how long the HP ump been doing MLB games.

[Aggies7]

Both teams make some mistakes down the stretch, no real shame in that loss. Could have gone either way. The bullpen was mostly great.

[Peter]

No more National TV games tgat and Umpire cost us game!!! Today is must win!!! Paddock has to go at least 7 innings tomorrow-lose today must sweep A’s. 

[Blyleven2011]

To win close games you have to play flawless baseball and the twin did not play flawless baseball  ...

Wallner got doubled off second base for double play was a inexcusable , then Watkins sending a slower runner to home ( wallner ) with noʻ outs and he was tagged out in another inning ( there was no reason to send him and Rodriguez has a strong arm from medium centerfield ) it probably didn't register to Watkins that wallner also was still nursing a hamstring injury either  ( another blunder on Watkins third base coaching  ) ..

Acala pitching with a one run lead had no business pitching to the top of the order and giving up a 2 run homerun and then the twins had to rally to tie it up ....f

It was a competitive game , a game we could have won ...

Let's start another winning streak now that we are getting healthy  ....

[Doctor Wu]

1 hour ago, Blyleven2011 said:

another blunder on Watkins third base coaching

Seems to me that Watkins does this much too often. Does he get caught up in the heat of the moment, wanting the runner to score, or are his decision-making skills that poor?

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

The Mariners win by using speed off the bench to pinch run for Garver. Without Kiersey, you see how slow the Twins bench is (Jeffers, France, Lewis and Bride).

Without Kiersey on roster his replacement, Buxton, hit a chopper to the pitcher and his speed prompted a bad throw and he ended up on 3B………….which of those 4 “bench guys” does Kiersey replace? Only have 13 spots and he certainly didn’t earn one.

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

No more National TV games tgat and Umpire cost us game!!! Today is must win!!! Paddock has to go at least 7 innings tomorrow-lose today must sweep A’s. 

Way over the top - it’s June 1st. There are no “gotta have 7 innings” or “must wins” for 10 - 12 weeks. 3 of 5 would be nice to end up with a positive road trip……just my opinion.

7 guys threw out of the Pen last night - a complete game would be great but reality is we’re going to have to hope for 5/6 solid, competitive innings from Paddack and at some point Funderburk probably gets 1 plus innings………..that’s scary for sure.

A MUST for me, Alcala being sent down/DFA’d has to be seriously considered. He is the absolute definition of “overthrowing” & then “guiding” his fastball…….extremely tough to watch a guy so talented look so bad 50% of the time. Can’t average 6-7 walks per 9 innings!!!

It’s almost like we can’t use him unless down 2 runs or more ……… can’t be competitive for Division with a 6 man PEN. Alcala & Funderburk  are a hole in the Staff right now.

[karcherd]

9 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Without Kiersey on roster his replacement, Buxton, hit a chopper to the pitcher and his speed prompted a bad throw and he ended up on 3B………….which of those 4 “bench guys” does Kiersey replace? Only have 13 spots and he certainly didn’t earn one.

While I am not a fan of Kiersey for regular playing time but what is Bride doing on the bench.  There is no pathway for him to play even against LH pitching.  He has no speed, limited power and his defense is average.  So if the choice is Kiersey or Bride at least Kiersey has some utilization even if it is minimal that Bride doesn't.

[FlyingFinn]

13 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

which of those 4 “bench guys” does Kiersey replace?

Lewis or Bride. Lewis needs to get more confidence, both in his legs and hitting. St. Paul is a great place to do that. For both of them, other than injury, I don't see any spot they would have added to the team last night by coming into the game. Neither of them is hitting well, they don't run well, and they aren't better on defense than the players on the field. 

[JD-TWINS]

6 minutes ago, karcherd said:

While I am not a fan of Kiersey for regular playing time but what is Bride doing on the bench.  There is no pathway for him to play even against LH pitching.  He has no speed, limited power and his defense is average.  So if the choice is Kiersey or Bride at least Kiersey has some utilization even if it is minimal that Bride doesn't.

Bride goes away if they demote him  - DFA’d……… he’s solid at 3B and they are or should be considering moving Lewis to St. Paul for 2-3 weeks……….oh yeah, and Lewis could be hurt by Monday. Certainly hope not!

With Castro healthy, they have Bader/Larnach/Castro/Buxton/Wallner as a full compliment in OF …….. with a much more offensively effective Clemens as the 6th guy on the grass.

A whole bunch of Teams in MLB wish they “had a fast guy on the bench” - it’s a calculated decision between Kiersey and Bride and Bride is hitting 150 points higher than Kiersey, so he’s actually capable of being sent to the plate. Bride in 20 games (52 AB’s) has 0.0 WAR & Kiersey in 46 games (64 AB’s) has a -1.0 WAR. Neither are fabulous choices…….to me, it comes down to one has Options and the other doesn’t……..:Lewis isn’t guaranteed to stay on MLB roster to flounder much longer. It’s Bride for now.

[mikelink45]

I loved the game - sometimes even a loss can be enjoyable - that is baseball!

This game does highlight the TD article on how much our RP are being used - not much choice in an extra innings but two more innings by Ober and we save two RP.

I do agree with the comments on Alcala - time to move on.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

then Watkins sending a slower runner to home ( wallner ) with noʻ outs and he was tagged out in another inning ( there was no reason to send him and Rodriguez has a strong arm from medium centerfield ) it probably didn't register to Watkins that wallner also was still nursing a hamstring injury either  ( another blunder on Watkins third base coaching  ) ..

Adam Wainwright was raving about the throw. He said he didn't think Rodriguez had a chance at Wallner (who is running at his normal above average speed and not showing any signs of injury BTW). That's a play where the runner has a 95% chance of scoring. Are you sure you don't want Watkins sending runners when they have a 95% chance of scoring a run?

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, karcherd said:

While I am not a fan of Kiersey for regular playing time but what is Bride doing on the bench.  There is no pathway for him to play even against LH pitching.  He has no speed, limited power and his defense is average.  So if the choice is Kiersey or Bride at least Kiersey has some utilization even if it is minimal that Bride doesn't.

Kiersey has been lousy. He's one of the worst players in MLB this year, even with Rocco trying his hardest to hide his deficiencies.

[DJL44]

44 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I loved the game - sometimes even a loss can be enjoyable - that is baseball!

This game does highlight the TD article on how much our RP are being used - not much choice in an extra innings but two more innings by Ober and we save two RP.

Agree, a very good game to watch and a fun battle in this series.

Ober threw a lot of pitches. If it makes you feel any better, Seattle's bullpen is just as depleted as the Twins.

[TopGunn#22]

Excellent comments.  This was a VERY frustrating game to watch as a Twins fan (even though I agree with mikelink45...this was BASEBALL to a "T."

I have a litany of complaints.  Each of them have already been mentioned by previous posters.

1.   Watkins is going to cost Rocco his job someday.  He is easily the worst 3B coach I've ever seen for the Twins and I've been a fan since 1964.  Sending Wallner with nobody out against the arm of Julio Rodriguez just shows an utter lack of situational awareness that no baseball team can afford.  If there's one thing about Watkins, it's that he's consistently BAD.  The Twins have been punished by his flawed judgement time and time again.  I don't expect any changes.

2.  Jorge Alcala needs to go.  The arm and stuff is tantalizing.  But his execution is extremely frustrating.  many teams would be interested in an arm like that for their bullpen.  His appearance last night is typical of his usual effort.  Come in and walk the leadoff hitter on five pitches, a guy who had never even reached base in his brief MLB career.  Then, induce a comebacker to the mound for a tailor made double play, only to noodle-arm a throw to 2B that Cody Clemens has to make a really nice play just to get the force out.  Then, fall behind 3-0 AGAIN only to groove a fastball that gets CRUSHED.  Every hitter he faced had a 3-ball count.  Trade Him.  For whatever you can get.

Situational hitting is still a consistent source of frustration.  Buxton should have pounced on the first pitch, 93 mph fastball right down the middle with the go ahead run at 3B and no outs.  Instead he takes the strike and then waves at a sweeper 18 inches off the plate for strike 3.  

The Twins, as a team, philosophically, refuse to play "small ball."  Even with Rocco tossed and back in the clubhouse.  It was fitting, after failing to score the go ahead run in the 9th and 10th inning that the Twins would lose on a bunt by Tavaras to move the winning run to 3B with one out, and then with the infield in, lose on a weakly hit chopper to 1B when the throw to the plate was too late.

Baseball plays 162 games.  As fans, I realize we shouldn't agonize over ONE loss.  But this game follows a pattern that the Twins have struggled with consistently.  The inability to hit to the situation.  Too many K's that lead to unproductive outs.  The refusal to play "small ball" in certain game-winning situations.  Continuing with a BAD 3B coach whose split second decisions consistently blow up in his face, and a relief pitcher that has great "stuff" but a proven track record of "dumb pitching."  

Changes need to made.  

[Doctor Wu]

5 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Agree, a very good game to watch and a fun battle in this series.

Ober threw a lot of pitches. If it makes you feel any better, Seattle's bullpen is just as depleted as the Twins.

Yeah, Ober threw a ton of pitches and not many innings to show for it. Lots of mistakes and "what ifs" in that game. But hey, we almost pulled off another extra inning win. Hope for better on Sunday. 

[Jack207]

24 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Excellent comments.  This was a VERY frustrating game to watch as a Twins fan (even though I agree with mikelink45...this was BASEBALL to a "T."

I have a litany of complaints.  Each of them have already been mentioned by previous posters.

1.   Watkins is going to cost Rocco his job someday.  He is easily the worst 3B coach I've ever seen for the Twins and I've been a fan since 1964.  Sending Wallner with nobody out against the arm of Julio Rodriguez just shows an utter lack of situational awareness that no baseball team can afford.  If there's one thing about Watkins, it's that he's consistently BAD.  The Twins have been punished by his flawed judgement time and time again.  I don't expect any changes.

2.  Jorge Alcala needs to go.  The arm and stuff is tantalizing.  But his execution is extremely frustrating.  many teams would be interested in an arm like that for their bullpen.  His appearance last night is typical of his usual effort.  Come in and walk the leadoff hitter on five pitches, a guy who had never even reached base in his brief MLB career.  Then, induce a comebacker to the mound for a tailor made double play, only to noodle-arm a throw to 2B that Cody Clemens has to make a really nice play just to get the force out.  Then, fall behind 3-0 AGAIN only to groove a fastball that gets CRUSHED.  Every hitter he faced had a 3-ball count.  Trade Him.  For whatever you can get.

Situational hitting is still a consistent source of frustration.  Buxton should have pounced on the first pitch, 93 mph fastball right down the middle with the go ahead run at 3B and no outs.  Instead he takes the strike and then waves at a sweeper 18 inches off the plate for strike 3.  

The Twins, as a team, philosophically, refuse to play "small ball."  Even with Rocco tossed and back in the clubhouse.  It was fitting, after failing to score the go ahead run in the 9th and 10th inning that the Twins would lose on a bunt by Tavaras to move the winning run to 3B with one out, and then with the infield in, lose on a weakly hit chopper to 1B when the throw to the plate was too late.

Baseball plays 162 games.  As fans, I realize we shouldn't agonize over ONE loss.  But this game follows a pattern that the Twins have struggled with consistently.  The inability to hit to the situation.  Too many K's that lead to unproductive outs.  The refusal to play "small ball" in certain game-winning situations.  Continuing with a BAD 3B coach whose split second decisions consistently blow up in his face, and a relief pitcher that has great "stuff" but a proven track record of "dumb pitching."  

Changes need to made.  

 

[Jack207]

Not a fan of Tommy Watkins either. He has to be one of the worst third base coaches in baseball.

[Galen]

What are your thoughts about bunting the runner to 3rd with no outs?  Or runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and bunting the runners up?

[DJL44]

10 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Really like to know 1) what Correa said did 2)  how long the HP ump been doing MLB games.

Read the mlb.com recap

https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/twins-carlos-correa-rocco-baldelli-ejected-against-mariners

[AceWrigley]

16 minutes ago, Galen said:

What are your thoughts about bunting the runner to 3rd with no outs?  Or runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and bunting the runners up?

Rocco: What is bunting?

[DJL44]

It's great that this game had so much action that the fire alarm delay doesn't even make the recap.

[AceWrigley]

The Twins have attempted 1 sacrifice out of 516 opportunities, tied for last in all of MLB.

[CoachDW]

Sands, Stewart, Jax, and Duran all pitched in this game, and should have been used to cover the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings as the Twins were nursing a one-run lead. Instead, Rocco/Tingler decide that the seventh was "Alcala Time" - this is a decision that I find nearly impossible to defend. At this point, Alcala is the definition of a mop-up man, a pitcher that if he remains on the team at all should only be used when the Twins are up or down by a large amount of runs. To bring him into the ball game in that high-leveraged situation was unbelievable, especially considering that they blazed through all of the better bullpen options later in the game anyway. Just the epitome of bad managing.

[1985Fan]

I agree that Watkins should have held Wallner at 3rd, given the situation. However, if Wallner does a standard feet-first baseball slide instead of the tumble he did, he would have been safe. Or a head first slide with his arm outstretched and body away from home would have worked as well. Wallner is 6’4” so a feet-first slide with his height would have his feet crossing the plate before the tag. I don’t know what you call what he attempted, but he practically ran into the tag with his hands and arms while his feet weren’t near home plate. But again, Wallner’s “base-running skills” should have led Watkins to hold him at 3rd. Especially after Wallner’s bone head error in getting doubled off second. 

[Sjoski]

Every time I see Jorge Alcalá take the mound, I’m reminded of how brutal the Ryan Pressly trade was. Houston landed a perennial All-Star and World Series anchor, and we got a guy who’s never put it together. And yet, Falvey still won’t let go of him—like he’s clinging to the trade hoping it’ll somehow justify itself.

Or, Falvey is afraid history will repeat itself. 

 

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Excellent comments.  This was a VERY frustrating game to watch as a Twins fan (even though I agree with mikelink45...this was BASEBALL to a "T."

I have a litany of complaints.  Each of them have already been mentioned by previous posters.

1.   Watkins is going to cost Rocco his job someday.  He is easily the worst 3B coach I've ever seen for the Twins and I've been a fan since 1964.  Sending Wallner with nobody out against the arm of Julio Rodriguez just shows an utter lack of situational awareness that no baseball team can afford.  If there's one thing about Watkins, it's that he's consistently BAD.  The Twins have been punished by his flawed judgement time and time again.  I don't expect any changes.

2.  Jorge Alcala needs to go.  The arm and stuff is tantalizing.  But his execution is extremely frustrating.  many teams would be interested in an arm like that for their bullpen.  His appearance last night is typical of his usual effort.  Come in and walk the leadoff hitter on five pitches, a guy who had never even reached base in his brief MLB career.  Then, induce a comebacker to the mound for a tailor made double play, only to noodle-arm a throw to 2B that Cody Clemens has to make a really nice play just to get the force out.  Then, fall behind 3-0 AGAIN only to groove a fastball that gets CRUSHED.  Every hitter he faced had a 3-ball count.  Trade Him.  For whatever you can get.

Situational hitting is still a consistent source of frustration.  Buxton should have pounced on the first pitch, 93 mph fastball right down the middle with the go ahead run at 3B and no outs.  Instead he takes the strike and then waves at a sweeper 18 inches off the plate for strike 3.  

The Twins, as a team, philosophically, refuse to play "small ball."  Even with Rocco tossed and back in the clubhouse.  It was fitting, after failing to score the go ahead run in the 9th and 10th inning that the Twins would lose on a bunt by Tavaras to move the winning run to 3B with one out, and then with the infield in, lose on a weakly hit chopper to 1B when the throw to the plate was too late.

Baseball plays 162 games.  As fans, I realize we shouldn't agonize over ONE loss.  But this game follows a pattern that the Twins have struggled with consistently.  The inability to hit to the situation.  Too many K's that lead to unproductive outs.  The refusal to play "small ball" in certain game-winning situations.  Continuing with a BAD 3B coach whose split second decisions consistently blow up in his face, and a relief pitcher that has great "stuff" but a proven track record of "dumb pitching."  

Changes need to made.  

1) Nobody is trading for Alcala as there are guys all over MiLB that have good/great stuff but can’t “pitch”. They’re not biting with an ERA of over 7.00 and 6 walks per 9. He gets better or they release him at this point.
 

2) Always can 2nd guess……I thought, in the 8th, that Clemens should have gotten Wallner to 3rd and Castro to 2nd with a sacrifice. He then hit a “rocket” to left and unfortunately Wallner got terrible look at it - really tough situation for him as he doesn’t want to get forced out at 3B either.

3) Watkins must be a prince of a guy because he’s certainly not an effective 3B coach - proven many times over in last 2-3 seasons. Guys will occasionally get thrown out & if that doesn’t happen occasionally the guy isn’t aggressive enough BUT he is bad situationally and inconsistent with his approach. It’s a tough job because it’s split second guessing & you’re relying on the athlete to be 100% on same page IMMEDIATELY……….tough job!

[David Maro]

Two things here to see. 1 if you are labeled a power hitter you don't have to have baserunning skills. 2 if the umpire is calling strikes 6 inches below the zone don't swing and then say something late and get tossed.