Much is made about the so-called ‘sophomore slump’ in sports — you never know how a young player will respond as their opponents do anything and everything in their power to adjust to their game. After a slow start over the first couple of weeks, Cole Young has stabilized, and then some. It’s only fitting that he provided the exclamation point to close out the first full month of the year.
Behind a pair of clutch hits from Young in the late innings, the Mariners came from behind to defeat the Twins 5-3 Wednesday to take the series and guarantee a .500 record at the end of April.
Facing a drawn-in infield, down a run with one out in the ninth, Young snuck a grounder back up the middle to score two runs and give the Mariners the lead — and it wasn’t the first time on the afternoon that he came up huge. Just two innings earlier, he drove a double into the opposite-field gap to produce a tying run with two outs. Both of the hits came with two strikes.
“When we have that type of a hitter in those kinds of situations, you feel really good about your chances,” manager Dan Wilson said about having Young near the bottom of the order. “He’s really delivered.”
Things were looking bleak at multiple points later in the game, especially with the Mariners struggling to get runners into scoring position against Twins starter Taj Bradley, who eclipsed 110 pitches over seven innings and allowed only four hits and two walks. Prior to Young’s game-tying double in the seventh, Bradley’s only run was surrendered on a solo homer by J.P. Crawford in the third.
Thanks in part to Young, however, the Mariners were able to make the most of their few scoring opportunities, going 3-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
Meanwhile, for Mariners pitching, it felt like they couldn’t catch much of a break. George Kirby worked 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits — none of which came on hard-hit balls. Balls were dropping where fielders weren’t, and soft contact wasn’t resulting in outs the way they might’ve hoped.
Despite that, Kirby nearly made it through his outing unscathed, passing the game off to the bullpen with the game in reach. His two runs allowed both came across on a weak flare by Brooks Lee that dropped in for a two-out single in the fourth.
To add injury to insult, Matt Brash left the game after throwing only two pitches to begin the bottom of the eighth. Wilson said postgame that Brash has been feeling some discomfort in his side and that he will be evaluated again tomorrow.
Gabe Speier was sprung into action as a result. He allowed a Ryan Jeffers single to center, and pinch runner James Outman was able to steal second base to move into scoring position with nobody out. Though Speier was able to strike out both Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall to get the first two outs of the inning, pinch hitter Victor Caratini was able to slip a base hit just under a ranging Crawford’s glove to score the go-ahead run.
Needing only three outs to close the game out, the Twins called upon righty Eric Orze to face the 5-6-7 of the Mariners order. His first six pitches of the ninth were balls, and Randy Arozarena was able to work a lead-off walk as a result. After Orze bounced back to strike out Luke Raley, Dominic Canzone singled to right and move the tying run just 90 feet from home plate. Leo Rivas pinch-ran for Canzone and stole second to set up Young’s game-winning single.
Cal Raleigh tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly later in the inning, giving Andrés Muñoz some additional breathing room in the bottom half. This time, Muñoz had no problem, setting down the Twins in order to pick up his sixth save and close out a 5-1 roadtrip for the M’s.
The Mariners will return home to face the Royals for three games starting Friday night at 6:45 pm on Apple TV.
