Josh Naylor, Julio Rodríguez and Cole Young each collected three hits in the Mariners 7-1 win over the Twins Tuesday. The Mariners’ lineup picked up 12 hits in total, including five for extra bases, in what wound up being a comfortable win.
But the game wasn’t so comfortable early. Joe Ryan started for the Twins and was good as always, pounding the zone, getting ahead, and keeping the Mariners off balance through the first five innings. He got 13 called strikes on his fastballs, and five whiffs against
the splitter and curve. I wouldn’t even say it was a bad performance by the Mariners against a pitcher like Ryan, who finished the day top 10 in the majors by WAR, but they were often caught in between and guessing wrong. This is what the first five innings looked like:
Things changed when the middle of the order stepped to the plate for the third time. With two outs, Julio got a hanging curveball and laced a grounder down the left field line, hustling into second for a double. Naylor followed by, flicking a single the other way to make the game 1-1.
The Mariners couldn’t get any more runs in the sixth, but they made Ryan work. After a leadoff double from Randy Arozarena in the top of the seventh, Ryan’s day was done. The Twins were forced to turn to a far less intimidating bullpen, and Young eventually plopped a single the other way to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead.
J.P. Crawford drew a leadoff walk in the eighth. Julio then hit a screaming double past the outstretched arm for Austin Martin in right field to put runners on second and third. That brought Naylor to the plate to face Cole Sands, who threw a top-rail cutter that bled back over the plate. Naylor turned on it and crushed it way out to right, taking a few steps back to admire the shot before proceeding around the bases.
The Mariners weren’t quite done. Young lead off the ninth with another single, Leo Rivas took a hit by pitch, and Julio doubled them both home with a sharp line drive to left, to finish off the score at 7-1.
It was another great day for the offense. The Mariners are up to a 105 wRC+ despite their early struggles and entered the day with a 126 wRC+ since April 10 (when they began the four-game route of the Astros). It’s largely coming from the middle of the order, too, with Julio, Cal, Arozarena and Naylor each beginning Tuesday’s games with a wRC+ between 138 and 143 over that stretch. If they keep scoring five runs per game on average, the wins will eventually follow.
Logan Gilbert got the start for the Mariners, and it went the way it always does. He showed off a deep arsenal, got some whiffs and strikeouts, and ultimately struggled before exiting after five innings.
It was the fourth that got him, even if it wasn’t quite his fault. Josh Bell lead off the inning with a sharp grounder right down the line at first. The ball was so down the line, in fact, that it hit the bag, popped 15 (or 20? ) feet in the air over Josh Naylor’s head, and landed in right field for a single. Kody Clemens followed with what looked like a double play ball, but Cole Young forgot that he’s a good defender now, and dropped the ball on the transfer, putting runners on first and second. Gilbert later walked Luke Keaschall to load the bases. After battling to get two outs, Gilbert got Royce Lewis to hit a sharp grounder to Leo Rivas at third base, who raced to the bag and got the lead runner with a dive.
Gilbert got into more trouble in the fifth, this time on his own. Byron Buxton stepped to the plate to lead off the inning. Gilbert threw him a first-pitch fastball up — a pretty decent pitch — but Buxton seemed to be sitting on it and yanked it to left for a solo homer. It was somewhat amusing that ROOT was in the middle of presenting a graphic showing Buxton as the top home run hitting center fielder in the majors. “Did we do that?” Aaron Goldsmith asked, following a brief silence as the ball flew through the air.
The very next pitch, Gilbert hung a changeup middle-middle to Trevor Larnach, who launched it off the top of the high wall in right field for a double. Gilbert would eventually escape the inning with the game still 1-0, but by the time he did, the pitch count read 93 and his day was done.
Again, it was the standard five-and-dive outing that has been the standard for Gilbert throughout his career. (For a refresher, Zach Mason dug into this over the offseason). Outings like Tuesdays technically make him a top 25 starting pitcher in the majors, and they often help the Mariners win, but that in-game longevity continues to stand in the way of reaching the next level.
Still, Gilbert did his job, got the ball to the bullpen with just one run on the board, and the lineup eventually found some runs. The Mariners go for their first back-to-back series wins of 2026 on Wednesday at 10:40 a.m.
