Mariners 6, Twins 4: Buxton’s Big Night

Mariners 6, Twins 4

Box Score

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs)

Santana continued to follow a bit of a disturbing trend, following up a spectacular start with a clunker. He gave up five runs on nine hits over five innings. What was maybe the weirdest thing was he got into an exchange with Mike Zunino after hitting him with a pitch that resulted in both benches being warned.

Here are Santana’s game scores by start since the beginning of May: 70, 39, 72, 44, 87, 65, 19, 83, 28 (which was Wednesday night). The takeaway? You may wanna consider buying tickets for Ervin’s next start.

The Mariners jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the middle of the third, but Eduardo Escobar and Buxton gave the Twins new life by socking solo homers in the fifth. Miguel Sano slugged a two-run shot the next inning.

This was the first time in Buxton’s career he reached base safely four times. He hit a double, the home run, drew a walk and singled in the ninth inning to put two runners on with just one out. He also swiped a pair of bases. Afterward, he said “this one was for Nick Nelson.” OK, that’s not true, but Nick did write an Ode To Byron Buxton that you should read.

https://twitter.com/TheRenderMLB/status/875171285172617217

The pen was solid, as Buddy Boshers gave up an unearned run followed by a scoreless inning from Matt Belisle and a pair of clean innings from Taylor Rogers.

Seattle’s Ben Gamel, and his glorious hair, made a miraculous catch in which he violently crashed into the wall.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/875196755196903424

Postgame With Santana

Postgame With Molitor

Thursday

Twins (Jose Berrios, 2.84 ERA) vs. Seattle (Ariel Miranda, 3.67 ERA), 12:10 pm CT

Berrios has been an incredible stabilizing force for the Twins rotation since being called back up in mid-May. He’s gone at least five innings in all six of his starts, and he has yet to allow more than four runs in a start. The Twins are 5-1 in games he takes the hill. Miranda, a lefty, has been dynamite at home (2.14 ERA in six starts) but has struggled away from Safeco, posting a 5.68 ERA over seven starts.

Bullpen Usage

Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

AL Central Standings

Twins 33-29

Cleveland 31-31 (-2)

Detroit 30-34 (-4)

Kansas City 30-34 (-4)

Chicago 28-35 (-5.5)

Be sure to check out all the action from down on the farm on Wednesday in the Minor League Report.