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

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.

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