Mariners 4, Twins 3: Defensive Brain Freeze from Twins Leads to Mariners Walk Off

Box Score
SP: Connor Prielipp 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K (88 pitches, 58 strikes (66%))
Home Runs: Luke Keaschall (5), Trevor Larnach (9)
Bottom 3 WPA: Andrew Morris (-0.38), Prielipp (-0.14), Victor Caratini (-0.13)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

While trade rumors continued to swirl around the Twins organization, the team had a chance to keep above the .500 mark against a Seattle club suddenly on the "sellers" side of the ledger. Connor Prielipp hoped to build on a solid start last week, while veteran Logan Gilbert looked to turn the tide of his club towards "buyers" again. The Mariners came into the game 29th in the league against left-handed pitching, while the Twins looked to keep their recent homer surge rolling with the wind blowing out to left against a recently-stingy hurler. Something had to give on Saturday afternoon, but who would it be?

Prielipp Gives First
In Friday night's game, Zebby Matthews struggled out of the gate and loaded the bases before eventually surrendering two runs. Saturday afternoon looked like groundhog day for Prielipp, with lack of control again proving problematic early. Cole Young went first pitch hunting in the bottom of the first, and he ripped a leadoff double. Then Prielipp walked the bases loaded with nobody out, and Julio Rodriguez hit a grounder up the middle that Ryan Kreidler stopped but couldn't offload. With the Mariners up 1-0 and the bases still loaded, things looked dire for the young lefty, but he recovered to strike out Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor.

Things looked positive as Mitch Garver fell behind 0-2 in the next at-bat, but Prielipp couldn't put him away with fastballs, and eventually lost him as well to make it 2-0 Seattle. After the 35-pitch first, Connor came back out for the second and mowed down the first two batters and got two strikes against Randy Arozarena but then the aforementioned wind turned a warning track fly ball into a second row homer to make it 3-0.

Gilbert Gives Little
Meanwhile, Gilbert took care of the Twins with relative ease in the early innings. Royce Lewis hit a hard grounder to third to lead off the second, and Weston Wilson swiped the ball up and out into left for a double. Brooks Lee hit a rope to deep right, but his launch angle this afternoon didn't match his homer arc from Friday and it was tracked down at the wall. Lewis advanced to third, but was stranded there as Luke Keaschall and Victor Caratini struck out swinging to end the scoring opporunity. Gilbert was dealing with the Twins' kryptonite: splitters.

Powering Back Little by Little
Gilbert remained in the game after Lewis tried to break his shin in the top of the fourth, and he got Lee to ground out to start the fifth. Covering first base on the play also made Gilbert test that leg, and when he returned to the mound Keaschall was waiting to ambush him. The Twins were finally on the board as Keaschall connects for fifth homer of the season.

In the top of the sixth, it was Trevor Larnach's turn to turn the trade noise into a booming crack with a moon shot solo homer to right to make it 3-2.

GIlbert was only at 71 pitches, but he was beginning to look less invincible by the at-bat. Kody "Missile" Clemens missed tying the game by mere inches as his rocket turned right past the foul pole, but he drew a two-out walk to bring up Lewis to the plate. With Gilbert still wearing the results of Lewis' last swing, a battle at the crux of the game ensued. A passed ball on a swinging strike sweeper put Clemens into scoring position, but a 3-2 high slider froze Lewis and kept Seattle in the lead.

Prielipp and the Pen Hold the Line
While the first two innings were rough, Prielipp cruised through the middle innings and kept the Twins in the game until the sixth. After taking care of Naylor to start the inning, Derek Shelton went to the pen and brought in Travis Adams to hold the line. Adams decided to hold the line by walking Garver on four pitches, and could have walked Wilson right after that but Caratini rescued a strike with a challenge and hung on to a foul tip strike three.

Next came some umpire confusion and a bit of bad luck for the twins, as Cole Emerson hit a sinking liner to center that Keaschall appeared to catch. He also appeared to trap it. One umpire declared "out," while another declared "no out." The umpires gathered together, and the feeling from the reply was that whatever the call on the field would be would not have enough evidence to overturn the call either way. The umpire huddle stated "no out," but the call stood and now runners were at first and second with two out. This led to the Twins debut of A.J. Minter, who promptly induced a Young fly out on only one pitch.

More Late Inning Magic?
GIlbert stayed in the game to start the seventh, and Lee ambushed the first pitch he saw for a double down the right field line. Keaschall followed up his homer with a first pitch sac bunt to advance Lee to third, putting the onus on Caratini who hadn't connected from Gilbert all afternoon. Caratini still didn't hit anything solid, but his swinging bunt to third got the job done and tied the game.

The Twins tried to get into the lead in the top of the eighth, but Andres Munoz came in to strike out Lewis with runners on second and third to end the threat. Taylor Rogers came in to work the bottom of the eighth, and Naylor led off with a single and stolen base to immediately put the pressure on Rogers and the Twins defense. Naylor advanced to third on a ground out to third, but Wilson went to ambush Rogers and hit it right to the mound for out number two. Twins legend Rob Refsnyder came in to pinch hit, and Shelton elected to walk him. Yes, that happened with Young on deck. The stage was set for an evening of teeth gnashing and rage-posting, but Shelton won that chess match as Young bounced out to Lewis to end the Seattle threat.

Lee led off the ninth with a single against the nasty Munoz, but a strike-em-out, throw-em-out took care of that when Caratini froze after failing to challenge ball four, and Keaschall spun out on his way to second. Andrew Morris continued his quest to earn the moniker "nasty" with his third outing in a row, but an Arozarena was nastier and he laced a leadoff double off the wall in left. A fly out advanced Arozarena, and Shelton brought in Martin as a fifth infielder and walked Julio Rodriguez to put the double play into play.

Morris induced a double play ball to Lewis... but Lewis then had a brain freeze and didn't know where to go with it once he touched first base. With the force at second no longer in play, Lewis needed to throw home but the hesitation allowed Rodriguez to slide across home plate for the kind of loss good teams don't have. The Twins rise above .500 lasted less than 24 hours. 

What’s Next?
The Twins look to take the series and to once again taste that sweet nector of winning baseball on Sunday afternoon.  Twins righty Taj Bradley (9-4, 3.65 ERA) will look to keep being the ace of the staff, while trade bait rumor RHP George Kirby (8-9, 3.98 ERA) is scheduled to start but stay tuned for deadline news. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10pm CDT.

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