Twins Let Late Rally Slip Away At The Worst Time

The Mariners outmaneuvered the Twins in a nail-biting finish, leaving the AL Central race in suspense.

The Seattle Mariners spent the weekend ignoring Zeus’s Law and taking care of business anyway.

In the finale against the Minnesota Twins, Seattle held off a furious late push and escaped with a 7-6 win, clinching two of three in the series. The game had the same shape as Friday and Saturday: the Mariners got out front early, built enough cushion to matter, then spent the back half trying to survive a Minnesota charge that nearly flipped the whole thing.

Seattle struck first in the opening inning. Cole Young started it with a first-pitch single, Randy Arozarena drew a four-pitch walk, and both came around on Josh Naylor’s double that slipped just beyond Trevor Larnach’s reach in left field. That made it 2-0, and the Mariners kept leaning on that lead.

Minnesota had chances to answer. Taj Bradley got out of a third-inning jam when Cal Raleigh launched a deep two-on, two-out fly ball to center that Luke Keaschall tracked down just in front of the wall. George Kirby got a nearly identical break in the fourth when Royce Lewis lifted a pop that Julio Rodriguez handled.

Seattle added to the margin in the sixth, piecing together a walk and two singles with two outs to make it 3-0. Kirby, the recently minted Player of the Month, finished with a quality start even without much swing-and-miss: 6 innings, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 4 walks and 2 strikeouts. He left with the Twins still scoreless.

Then the bullpen game started to unravel for Minnesota. Raleigh had been quiet through the first two games, but he unloaded in the seventh, crushing a three-run shot off Kendry Rojas to push the Mariners ahead 6-0.

The Twins finally got moving in the eighth. Ryan Kreidler reached on an error, then Trevor Larnach cut into the deficit with a homer off Eduard Bazardo.

Josh Bell followed with a double, Brooks Lee added a single, and Royce Lewis came up with the chance to keep it rolling. By then, it was a game again at 6-5.

A.J. Minter held Seattle scoreless in the eighth, giving Minnesota one more shot in the ninth against closer Andres Munoz. Luke Keaschall needed just two pitches to tie it, and the Twins still had traffic on the bases afterward, but they couldn’t break through for the lead.

Seattle went to Yoendrys Gomez and tried to end it in Manfredball fashion, but Minnesota couldn’t get there either. Naylor and Victor Robles singled to put runners on first and third with one out, and even with a fifth infielder in play, Colt Emerson punched a single through the dirt to bring home the winning run.

Final: Seattle Mariners 7, Minnesota Twins 6.

The Twins now head toward the 2026 Trade Deadline on Monday at 5 PM CST sitting 4 games back of the AL Central-leading White Sox and roughly a game off the pace for the final Wild Card spot. They’ll be back in Kansas City on Tuesday, and the roster could look different by then.

Kirby’s line: 7 innings, 5 hits, all singles, no earned runs, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

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