Mariners 6, Twins 5: Twins Lose Another Heartbreaker, in 9th-Inning Meltdown Fashion

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Chris Paddack 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K (80 pitches, 51 strikes (64%))
Home Runs: Kody Clemens (8)
Bottom 3 WPA: Jhoan Duran (-.306), Paddack (-.218), Willi Castro (-.183)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 
 

The Twins entered Tuesday night's contest having lost 14 of their last 17 games. Let that sink in...or forget it ever happened. Your choice, but the Twins had no choice but to try to rally together to stop a four-game losing streak at home, where they've been outscored 46-16. Chris Paddack got the job of trying to bring that first number back to the mean, while the Minnesota lineup looked to do something they failed to do against Luis Castillo the first time they faced him on June 1—namely, to score a run. On paper, it looked like the Twins Territory depression era was going to keep on storming along, but that's why they play the games.

More of the Same, and That Ain't Good
Paddack kept the Mariners from scoring in the first two innings, surrendering a two-out double to Cal Raleigh in the first but leaving him stranded there. Castillo continued to make mincemeat of the Twins lineup, facing the minimum through two innings after a leadoff Byron Buxton single quickly got erased by a Trevor Larnach double-play ball. While the Twins continued to struggle station to station, the Mariners manufactured runs nonstop in the top of the third inning, with two singles and a sacrifice bunt that pressured Paddack into a throwing error. Seattle had the bases loaded, nobody out, and Julio Rodríguez at the plate. Twins fans breathed a sigh of relief when he was only able to muster a sacrifice fly for one run. Cole Young had also advanced on that flyout, however, and Raleigh quickly swatted him home with a single of his own. Randy Arozarena worked a walk on a full count (with a couple borderline balls along the way) to add insult to injury.

In reality, the real insult and injury would involve watching Paddack plunk Luke Raley to plate another run and make it 3-0 Mariners. To add further insult, and some moral injury, Donovan Solano (yes, that Donovan Solano) came up next and barreled a two-run single to make it 5-0 Seattle. One couldn't help but wonder, was yet another game at home already over before the Twins could bat in the third inning?

Mr. May Returns, and So Does the Twins' Mojo
Down five runs before he even got his first at-bat, the hero of May, Kody Clemens, led off the bottom of the third inning with the weight of a season on his back and no time to spare. The Twins needed to punch back, and Clemens delivered yet another left hook to the right-field seats, to finally dent Castillo's ERA and give Target Field something to cheer about.

Nothing more emerged for the Twins offense in the third, but after Paddack took care of the Mariners in order in the top of the fourth, the Twins mounted an actual mid-game rally for the first time in a long time. Larnach led the inning off with a double, and the still red-hot Brooks Lee kept his new streak alive by singling to left and knocking in Larnach to make it a 5-2 game. Carlos Correa singled, Matt Wallner walked, and suddenly, the Twins were in another bases-loaded situation with nobody out. Ty France "delivered" another run by hitting into a double play, and it felt like 5-3 was as close as it was going to get.

Clemens, however, wouldn't bite on pitches outside of the zone, and he enabled his teammate Ryan Jeffers to step up to the plate and deliver a game-tying double off of the bottom of the wall. It's a brand new narrative tonight, and a brand new ballgame at 5-5!

Turning Over the Keys to the Bullpen
Both Paddack and Castillo both cruised through the fifth inning, but hit the dugouts afterward. The Twins turned to Louis Varland for the sixth, Griffin Jax for the seventh, and Brock Stewart for the eighth. Solano was the only Mariner to get on base, but his leadoff single in the top of the sixth off of Varland amounted to nothing. Unfortunately for the Twins, they also couldn't scratch a run off of the next three Mariners relievers. Their lack of scoring was a bit more egregious (a big word that means "made me want to chuck my computer across the room"). Wallner doubled down the line in right to lead off the bottom of the sixth, and France advanced him to third with a fly ball. But Willi Castro's shallow fly ball to right couldn't have scored even Buxton, and Wallner was left stranded at third—permanently so, after Jeffers flew out to end the threat.

The ninth inning, therefore, was destined to be something special. Jhoan Duran got the call to face the bottom of the Mariners lineup, while Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz had already pitched in the bottom of the eighth. Duran got a great diving catch from Lee, who was shifted into the hole at short. Then, the Twins of the past two weeks reared their ugly heads. Former Twin Jorge Polanco came up as a pinch-hitter, and Duran bounced a curve ball off of his back foot on an 0-2 count to put eventual pinch-runner Dylan Moore on first. Cole Young bounced what looked like a double-play grounder up the middle to the second base side, but Castro got caught between a lunge and a dive and the ball rolled into the outfield to put runners at the corners with only one out. Duran then lost a curveball off of J.P Crawford's foot, and suddenly the bases were loaded for Rodríguez yet again. This time, getting Rodríguez to settle for a sacrifice fly didn't feel so good: 6-5 Mariners.

Duran intentionally walked Raleigh to load the bases yet again, but got Arozarena to chase a knuckle curve for a strikeout to end the disaster before it could go completely nuclear. How would the Twins respond against wicked reliever Matt Brash?

With silence. Deafening silence. Castro struck out, Jeffers weakly tapped out to Solano at first, and Bader couldn't get it past the pitcher's mound. In their ninth straight one-run loss, 15th loss in their last 18, and fifth loss in a row at home, the Twins found a new way to crush the fanbase.

What’s Next?
The Twins look to keep the chances of a split alive in game three of the series against Seattle on Wednesday evening. Twins righty Joe Ryan (7-3, 3.06 ERA) will look to pitch deeper into the game than he has been, after averaging only 5.4 innings per outing in June. Seattle will send fellow right-hander George Kirby (1-3, 6.16 ERA) out to face the Minnesota bats, hoping that his 2024 form might come back into focus. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Wentz	43	0	0	36	0	79
Stewart	0	11	18	0	11	40
Durán	3	0	18	0	17	38
Sands	0	31	0	0	0	31
Topa	22	0	5	0	0	27
Coulombe	3	0	21	0	0	24
Varland	0	4	0	0	11	15
Jax	0	0	1	0	13	14

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[Vanimal46]

[IndyTwinsFan]

As I stated on the game thread, good teams find ways to win games and bad teams find ways to lose games.  It's not too difficult to figure out which one we are.

At least 70 wins for this team this season may well be a pipe dream.

[The Great Hambino]

Duran Shoots Self, Others in the Foot

[DJL44]

The season is half over on Friday (81 games played). They're guaranteed to be below .500 for the first half.

[mikelink45]

Where is that outstanding SP?  The young pitchers are struggling but the Vets are not leading by example. 

[Rhyno006]

[Doc Lenz]

If The great one doesn’t pinch hit Castro (K) weak pop up in 8th maybe and I say maybe Kody gets a hit or SF in 8th and probably turns a DP in 9th. Who knows.

[Sjoski]

I missed the game and enjoyed the recap even though the Twins keep inventing new ways to almost win.

[USAFChief]

Hey, didn't you used to be Jhoan Duran?

[mnfireman]

How does your closer hit 2 batters in the 9th,,,,

[knothole61]

40 minutes ago, Doc Lenz said:

If The great one doesn’t pinch hit Castro (K) weak pop up in 8th maybe and I say maybe Kody gets a hit or SF in 8th and probably turns a DP in 9th. Who knows.

Doc, you never know. I did find the PH kind of strange, especially late in the game given Castro's defensive liabilities. Actually, Kody seems to be just the guy you need at the plate if you are looking for a medium-deep fly ball at any given time.  

[D.C Twins]

At first I was feeling down but then I remembered that ROCCO....             too soon?

 

[knothole61]

I'm tired of the Johan Duran as closer show. He's not been in a groove for some time and he provides far too many boneheaded moments such as the 2 bizarre HBPs in the 9th. He looks like he's learning a new off-speed pitch or something. Give him the 7th for now.

A modest proposal: put Jax at closer...give it a try. I have been critical of Jax as a pitcher with superior stuff who folds too often in the clutch, but I willing to eat some crow after his masterful 7th inning tonight. Man, he was magnificent, and the strikeout of Raleigh was sublime! He put down the top of the Mariners' order in 13 pitches while striking out two good hitters including the phenom Raleigh.

What a shame to waste a great comeback and Jax's 7th tonight. Maybe we finish one off tomorrow?   

[Blyleven2011]

More of the same ....

At the beginning of the season the twins were the talk of the town , just not our town that was talking  ...

For 13 games and the month of May  they were the talk of the town , our town was talking  ...

June , they are still the talk of the town , but once again it's not our town doing the talking ...

Meatloaf once said 2 out of 3 ain't bad , the twins have it backwards , 1 month of good baseball out 3 months is worse ...

Will they win 70 games this year  ???

Baltimore fired there manager and they are playing better  , we're playing mostly crappy baseball and we just re-signed our manager to another year for 2026  ...

That hurts and the pohlads know it , they win , UNCLE UNCLE UNCLE⁰

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, knothole61 said:

Doc, you never know. I did find the PH kind of strange, especially late in the game given Castro's defensive liabilities. Actually, Kody seems to be just the guy you need at the plate if you are looking for a medium-deep fly ball at any given time.  

LH reliever on the mound. 

[howeda7]

Fire Rocco. Sell the team. Fire Favley. In that order. 

[Peter]

Crushing loss!!!! I’ll continue to watch every twins game this season and beyond!!! Keep the faith-win will come!!! Just got to get through this ugly rut!!! Way way way too early to think football!!! We must support our twins more then ever especially now!!!

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, Doc Lenz said:

If The great one doesn’t pinch hit Castro (K) weak pop up in 8th maybe and I say maybe Kody gets a hit or SF in 8th and probably turns a DP in 9th. Who knows.

Maybe is our mantra since June 1st

 

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, mnfireman said:

How does your closer hit 2 batters in the 9th,,,,

Maybe he's not the closer but just a bit closer.

[Patzky]

6 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Hey, didn't you used to be Johan Duran?

Jhoan Santana. Hybrid model.

[FlyingFinn]

Many want to get rid of Clemens. That play on defense last night where he backs up 1st base and makes the play, that's the type of player I want on the team, showing hustle and effort. He can hit home runs, too. When everyone's healthy, he is at least a good bench player, higher quality than we currently have on the bench.

[CRF]

What a surprise...we lost. Decent chance we get rained out tonight. Can't lose if you don't play. 

[Riverbrian]

On the bright side. They only gave up 6 runs!

This is huge news because I've been worried that we don't have an offense capable of winning games with scores of 11 - 10 or 18 to 17. 

 

[Riverbrian]

I've decided to post the pre-arb numbers from the opposing team. I will do this once every series.

The reason I'm doing this is so those not watching the other teams can easily see how far behind the Twins are in regards to development.

I also do this to point out: Not only do the majority of baseball teams have more cost effective talent being paid the minimum contributing. I also post the records to show that you don't have to die with youth. 

The Mariners are closer to the Twins in roster construction. 11 Pre-arb players compared to the current total of 10 for our Twins. 

However... the Twins are still behind the Mariners because 3 of the current Twins 10 pre-arb players are scrap heapers, Clemons, Bride and Wentz. The Mariners don't have any of those waiver claim type of players. 

The Mariners are 41-37 while the Twins are 37-42. 

I will post this information on our opponents once every series so everyone can compare and contrast our Twins. So everyone can see the hole that we have dug and the money it takes to sit in that hole. That the same hole and hole filler will be back next year and the year after.

 

 

[jmlease1]

57 minutes ago, CRF said:

What a surprise...we lost. Decent chance we get rained out tonight. Can't lose if you don't play. 

Might be time for the Bull Durham rainout.

They're coming up with new ways to lose every game, it's sort of remarkable. 2 HBP in the 9th? really? 

Hitting into the double play with the bases loaded was the real crusher: Castillo was really struggling to hit his spots and find the zone that inning and they could have sent him to the showers right there.

My head exploded when Paddack overthrew 1B on a simple fielding play by about 6 feet; guess he thought about it before throwing and we know that thinking can only hurt the ballclub. Props to Clemens for hustling to get in position to back it up, though.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

8 hours ago, knothole61 said:

Doc, you never know. I did find the PH kind of strange, especially late in the game given Castro's defensive liabilities. Actually, Kody seems to be just the guy you need at the plate if you are looking for a medium-deep fly ball at any given time.  

Righty/lefty

[tarheeltwinsfan]

2 hours ago, Peter said:

Crushing loss!!!! I’ll continue to watch every twins game this season and beyond!!! Keep the faith-win will come!!! Just got to get through this ugly rut!!! Way way way too early to think football!!! We must support our twins more then ever especially now!!!

I am sorry, but I can't do this. I live in North Carolina. The Twins don't care if I watch them or read a book. However. this mess is not good for me.

[Doctor Wu]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

On the bright side. They only gave up 6 runs!

That's the Twins definition of "progress".

[Doctor Wu]

9 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I am sorry, but I can't do this. I live in North Carolina. The Twins don't care if I watch them or read a book. However. this mess is not good for me.

I opt for the book reading for the time being.