Cole Young drove in the winning run in the 11th inning of his major league debut as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Minnesota Twins 5-4 on Saturday.
Cal Raleigh continued his home run barrage and J.P. Crawford also went deep as the Mariners snapped a three-game skid and moved back atop the American League West by a half-game over Houston.
Collin Snider (2-1) pitched two scoreless innings of extra-inning relief to earn the victory.
With Mitch Garver serving as the ghost runner at second base, Leody Taveras dropped down a sacrifice bunt off Cole Sands (3-2) to start the bottom of the 11th. Miles Mastrobuoni replaced Garver as the runner at third and beat the throw to the plate on Young’s grounder to first baseman Ty France. The Twins challenged the call, but the result stood.
With the Mariners having used closer Andres Munoz each of the past two nights, they brought in Carlos Vargas with a 4-3 lead in the ninth. After getting Ryan Jeffers to pop out, Byron Buxton hit a comebacker to the mound. Vargas fielded the ball but threw errantly down the first-base line, allowing Buxton to get to third. Trevor Larnach then grounded a single to right to score Buxton with the tying run.
Twins reliever Griffin Jax got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. With one out, Young got his first major league hit, a line drive to right field. Crawford doubled to left an out later and after Raleigh was intentionally walked, Jax fanned Julio Rodriguez to end the frame.
The Twins took a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Carlos Correa drew a leadoff walk off Bryce Miller and Matt Wallner, who was making his return after spending six-plus weeks on the injured list due to a left hamstring strain, followed with a homer to right. Willi Castro singled and stole second, took third on a groundout and scored on Buxton’s two-out single to center.
Ben Williamson led off Seattle’s half of the third inning with a single and, an out later, Raleigh went deep to right, his 22nd homer of the season and his third in the past two games to tie the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead.
It remained 3-2 until the seventh when Young drew a leadoff walk off Jorge Alcala. With one out, Crawford hit a blast off the facade of the second deck in right field at T-Mobile Park, giving Seattle its first lead.
Twins starter Bailey Ober went four-plus innings and gave up two runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Seattle’s Bryce Miller, fresh off the injured list due to right elbow inflammation, also went four innings. He allowed three runs on five hits, with one walk and two strikeouts.
