The Mariners were feckless (1-for-12 with RISP, 11 left on base), but the Twins were more feckless (0-for-7 with RISP, 4 left on base), and so the Mariners scratched out a walkoff win over the Twins thanks mostly to Randy Arozarena and Andrés Muñoz’s first multi-inning effort of the year. This game also featured, although not in the box score, a very good all-around game by Mitch Garver, professional hitter and catcher, and some more solid work by Cole Young, leadoff hitter, and other than that, was basically the baseball equivalent of this:
If you were looking for a convincing, vibes-shifting win, this wasn’t it. But it was A Win, and these days, we’ll take those.
The Mariners got off to a promising start, again scoring first thanks to a leadoff double from aforementioned Good Boy Cole Young, who pounced on the first pitch he saw, driving a fastball hard into the right field corner (see ZAM’s July chart for more on Cole Young, Hard Ball Hitter). Randy Arozarena and Dom Canzone followed that up by waiting out Twins starter Connor Prielipp, taking advantage of some shaky command to work back-to-back walks. With the bases juiced, Julio Rodríguez jumped on the first pitch he saw, but grounded it slowly to short for what looked like a double play. Luckily for the Mariners, Twins shortstop Ryan Kreidler mishandled the ball, allowing Julio to reach safely and a run to score. Not ideal, but workable. This would be A Theme for today.
But Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor each struck out on four pitches, both having the kind of undisciplined at-bats Dan Wilson bemoaned in a pre-game press conference, putting pressure on the bottom of the lineup with two outs. Mitch Garver worked a good, 11-pitch at-bat resulting in a walk for another run, but Weston Wilson wasn’t able to convert, and the Mariners got just two runs out of a golden opportunity.
Randy Arozarena, whose name has been bandied about as a possible trade candidate as the Mariners fall further and further out of contention, added on in the second with a solo blast to make it 3-0 Mariners.
Two things can be true: I can recognize that trading Randy is probably the smart thing to do for a team that doesn’t look to have found any of its missing mojo as Halloween decorations fill the stores, and also that trading Randy, the only steady offensive producer year-long, would render the 2026 Mariners from “no fun” to “actively Harmful to my health.”
Speaking of Harmful to my Health, the Mariners let Prielipp off the hook with a five-pitch third inning, their aggressiveness failing them as the top of the lineup went down 1-2-3 on just five combined pitches, which I’m going to say again because five pitch innings basically gift a starter an extra inning of work, and that’s just bad process no matter what the rest of the game looks like. Play as a unit, my dudes!
That brought Logan Gilbert right back out after a relatively brief top of the third of his own, and although he posted a 1-2-3 inning once again, it wasn’t without incident. His third out came painfully, as Royce Lewis shot a comebacker at 106.7 mph that caught Logan square on the leg, collapsing the tall man to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Scary! Gilbert came back out for the fifth, though, and if you’re looking for “signs Logan Gilbert is his usual self,” gave up a solo homer on a poorly-located first-pitch fastball to Luke Keaschall. So. God in his heaven, things as they should be, etc. Gilbert said postgame the hot shot caught him on his calf muscle, not bone, so although he was already sporting a pretty gnarly bruise, he doesn’t expect any long-term negative effects.
Perhaps taking pity on their beleaguered pitcher, the Mariners actually made Prielipp throw some pitches in the bottom of the fifth, with Cole Young recording his second hit of the day, dunking a base hit into right, and Canzone working yet another walk to put two on for Julio. Julio put a solid swing on the ball, but it didn’t have quite enough to get over the fence, instead going as a flyout for the second out and bringing up Raleigh with two outs. The Big Disappointer struck out, ending the threat of an answer-back inning and keeping the score a tight 3-1.
That score got even tighter in the sixth, when Gilbert gave up another dinger, this time to Trevor Larnach, who tattooed a terrible changeup from Gilbert for a solo shot. Gilbert threw his changeup a lot today, and his slider even more so, an attempt to counteract the aggressive Twins hitters, who make a lot of contact on the fastball.
The Mariners again had an opportunity to pull ahead in the sixth, thanks to some more production from Mitch Garver, Walk-Master, and Colt Emerson finally getting a ball to drop, but with two outs, Cole Young just missed a pitch from new reliever (and new Twin) lefty A.J. Minter and popped out harmlessly. That would prove to be significant, as the Twins tied it up in the seventh against Gilbert, working deep into today’s game, thanks to a leadoff bad-luck ground ball double that scooted just fair past Naylor; the Twins were then able to bring that run around on some small ball to knot the score at three.
But again, the offense couldn’t answer back in the bottom of the inning against Tommy Nance; once again, it was up to Cal Raleigh with two outs to make something happen. He…did not. The Mariners countered with Gabe Speier, who needed an excellent Cole Young defensive play to keep his first runner, the nine-hole hitter Martin, off base; he then walked the lefty Trevor Larnach on five pitches and gave up a solid single to righty Ryan Jeffers to put two on with just one out. Speier was able to rebound to strike out the lefty Clemens for the second out, prompting Dan Wilson to go to his bullpen to get Andrés Muñoz for an early entrance. It wasn’t smooth, exactly, but Muñoz was able to get Royce Lewis hacking helplessly over a slider to send the game to the bottom of the inning still tied up 3-3.
The Twins brought out yet another lefty, Taylor Rogers, to face Josh Naylor, who promptly dropped a nice line drive base hit into center and then stole second; he advanced to third on a Mitch Garver groundout. But Weston Wilson couldn’t get the job done, grounding out too softly for Naylor to score from third. Wilson pinch-hit Rob Refsnyder for Colt Emerson and the Twins opted to walk him, which is, you know, A Choice. But the Twins wound up looking smart on that one as Cole Young grounded out harmlessly to strand the bases loaded.
With Leo Rivas (who pinch-ran for Refsnyder) in at short, obviously the ball immediately found him in the top of the ninth, and while I’m not saying Colt Emerson could have made a play on it, I feel better about Colt’s chances than Leo’s. Muñoz was able to get out of it, though, getting a groundout and then a good ol-fashioned strike ‘em out/throw ‘em out featuring once again Game MVP Mitch Garver.
In the bottom of the inning, the Mariners got a leadoff double of their own from Randy Arozarena, who laced a changeup from Twins reliever Andrew Morris into the left field corner. Canzone advanced him to third on a flyout, doing his job, and the Twins opted to pitch around Julio, bringing up Raleigh with one out. It wasn’t pretty, but Cal – already carrying three strikeouts in the game – did manage to make contact, hitting the first pitch he saw hard (105 mph EV) but directly at first baseman Royce Lewis. Lewis stepped on first, then looked to throw out Julio at second – except Julio was already halfway there, having taken off on first contact, and was clearly going to get involved in a rundown, hopefully long enough to allow Randy to score from third. Lewis opted to pivot and try to get the out at home instead, and Randy was able to slide around the catcher safely for the game winner.
It wasn’t pretty. Not even close. But it was everyone doing their jobs, from Cal putting the ball in play to Julio’s heads-up baserunning to Randy’s headfirst slide. It’s a low bar to clear, but it’s one the Mariners haven’t consistently cleared this season. Ugly wins are still wins.
