Mariners 7, Twins 6: Sonny Gray Boils Down

Box Score
Sonny Gray: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 5 K
Home Runs: Joey Gallo (17), Max Kepler (13)
Top 3 WPA: Carlos Correa (.128), Edouard Julien (.079), Joey Gallo (.044)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Minnesota Twins traveled up the coast on Monday after sweeping the Oakland Athletics over the weekend. It wasn’t pretty, but a three-game winning streak is nothing to scoff about. Looking to tie their longest positive run since April 11, the fighting Rocco Baldelli’s needed to best Logan Gilbert and the Seattle Mariners.

After the Twins forced Gilbert to throw 26 pitches during the first inning, Sonny Gray took the mound for the first time since his third all-star appearance. He shut them down on just 11 pitches, punching out two, and both teams were ready to settle in.

Minnesota and Seattle came into this series as very similar foes. With substantial strikeout issues on both sides, the Twins advantage can be seen in the longball. Byron Buxton found out hitting the ball to dead center against the wind wasn’t going to work tonight, and after Carlos Correa combined with Edouard Julien for a double play in the second inning, Ty France tallied the Mariners third strikeout of the night.

Correa broke open the scoring during the third inning after watching Michael A. Taylor open with a leadoff double. He went the opposite way down the right field line and traded spots with Minnesota’s centerfielder making it 1-0.

Byron Buxton continues to look befuddled at the dish. Coming up with first and third, no outs in the third inning, he failed to put the bat on the ball and went down swinging. His struggles have again resulted in a valley, and continuing to bat third hasn’t proven fruitful for Minnesota. Quite the opposite, Alex Kirilloff continues to have great at bats. After a close hit was called foul, he lifted a sacrifice fly scoring Correa and making it a 2-0 game.

Max Kepler led off the fourth inning with a double aided by his ballet background, but the Twins couldn’t bring him across the plate. Dick Bremer dubbed it, “An adventurous trip to second base,” because of course he did.

In the fifth inning, Gray decided to bury virtually every breaking ball he threw. France was begging to strike out down 0-2, Mike Ford was hit on the back foot by a bender, and then Jose Caballero drove in Teoscar Hernandez for Seattle’s first run after getting down 0-2. Despite being in command all night, he seemingly forgot how to pitch when getting up for the inning. It took catcher Ryan Jeffers blocking eight pitches in the inning to keep runners from trotting around the bags. Instead, Gray issued a bases loaded walk to Julio Rodriguez and Minnesota’s lead was gone.

Jarred Kelenic pushed a doinker to left field scoring two runs, and Gray’s nitpicking came back to burn him in a big way. Seattle grabbed a 4-2 lead, and Baldelli’s starter had completely gone off the rails.

The Twins lineup quickly made two outs against reliever Gabe Speier after Gray’s bad inning, and it looked as though they would make it a quick inning. Instead Joey Gallo went big fly on a 109.2 mph bomb to dead center for 422 feet. The “absolute bomb” as Justin Morneau called it, brought the Twins back within one.

Gray walked Cal Raleigh to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, and then allowed him to cross the plate on yet another spiked breaking ball. Command was non-existent on the pitch over his final two innings, and the nibbling was responsible for each of the five runs that Seattle gained against him.

Minnesota created a threat in the seventh inning after Correa walked, Kirilloff singled, and Solano walked to load the bases. Despite Andres Munoz walking Solano, Max Kepler pounded a first pitch into the ground for a routine out to second base. As well as it came together, the Twins wound up with nothing.

Oliver Ortega provided the Twins with a couple of nice strikeouts, and was within an out of ending the seventh still down just 5-3, but Eugenio Suarez sent a ball into orbit with Kelenic on. The two-run blast made it a 7-3 game, and Minnesota’s squandered opportunities continued to loom large. The Twins had gone just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position to this point, and they had already left nine on base.

The Twins haven’t been able to find a spot for Matt Wallner to make an appearance since his recall, but did with the four-run deficit as a pinch hitter for Taylor. He faced Munoz’s 99 mph heat and went down on three pitches.

Despite Julien leading off the ninth inning with the Twins needing four runs, Buxton went down on strikes for the third time in the game, and Kirilloff couldn’t reach. Solano singled to reach base in his second straight at-bat, and that brought up Kepler needing to reach for the tying run to have a chance.

Why not, the German lefty smashed a three-run bomb, making it a 7-6 game and the Mariners brought in closer Paul Sewald to face Jeffers. Forcing Seattle to use their closer in a game they had in hand is a big win for Minnesota during a four-game series, but that was as moral as it got tonight. Jeffers punched out, and that’s how Monday’s tilt ended.

Notes:
Edouard Julien has a five-game hitting streak in which he has gone 10-for-15.

Carlos Correa extended his on-base streak to 14 games.

Playing third base, the least used position of his season, Donovan Solano made a pair of great fielding plays.

Byron Buxton is now riding an 0-for-22 streak with a 14/1 K/BB.

What’s Next? 
The Minnesota Twins are playing their first four-game series since mid-June when they played the Boston Red Sox. Baldelli’s club is in the Pacific Northwest through Thursday, and they’ll face a handful of good pitching matchups.

Tuesday 7/18 Bailey Ober vs Bryan Woo (8:40pm)
Wednesday 7/19 Kenta Maeda vs Luis Castillo (8:40pm)
Thursday 7/20 Pablo Lopez vs George Kirby (2:40pm)

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet