Mariners walk off Twins for much-needed win
On the first day of August, they celebrated a walkoff win like it was a postseason victory.
For nine innings, the anxiety and tension felt as such.
In a season where the playoffs were expected and their performance to this date has fallen miles short of that level, the Mariners took the field Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Park in an almost must-win situation, which seems odd with two months to play.
But in jeopardy of dropping yet another series and falling even further behind in the pillow-fight that is the American League West, the Mariners pulled out a needed 4-3 walkoff victory over the Minnesota Twins.
With one out and Randy Arozarena on third base having led off the inning with a double and Julio Rodríguez on first base from an intentional walk, Cal Raleigh hit a hard groundball down the first base line off Minnesota reliever Andrew Morris.
Twins first baseman Royce Lewis made a difficult lunging backhand stop on the grounder that took him right to the first base bag. He stepped on it quickly for an out and then turned to fire the ball to second for a possible double play. But Rodríguez wisely stopped running to stay hung up in a potential rundown instead of conceding the out.
“I was running right in the baseline just in case and just knew to stop,” Rodríguez said.
When Lewis spun to throw to second, Arozarena made an aggressive break toward home. His headstart allowed him to dive in safely ahead of Lewis’ panicked throw to the plate with the winning run.
“It was a tough play for the first baseman.” Arozarena said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “Cal hit that ball pretty hard, and Julio did a good job kind of entertaining the first baseman. From there, I just ran.”
Twins manager Derek Shelton lamented Lewis’ decision to step on first instead of firing to second immediately to start a double play that would’ve negated the run.
“Once he tags first then it’s a situation, even if Julio gets in a rundown, then Randy’s going to score,” Shelton said. “So, it’s got to be one of those ones that goes to second. We got to get the force first to come back. One of the reasons we walked Julio there was because we thought we had a chance to double up Cal if he put the ball on the ground and we just were not able to finish the play.”
The Mariners players didn’t know who to maul in celebration. Some went to Raleigh, others went to Arozarena and they all came together in the end.
It was a regular season win. But it felt like something more given their struggles since early July. It was their third win in the last 11 games.
“It’s huge,” said starter Logan Gilbert. “It really is. I know we say that all the time, but like today was big. This series is big. That’s a good team over there. We’re at that point when it’s like you’ve just got to find a way, find a way to win, find a way to get it done, whatever it takes.”
That mentality was evident when manager Dan Wilson decided to use closer Andres Muñoz in a multi-inning appearance for the first time since May 17, 2025.
With the two left-handed hitters – Trevor Larnach and Kody Clemens – in the top of the three spots of the Twins batting order looming, the Mariners went to lefty Gabe Speier to start the eighth inning of a 3-3 game. He retired Austin Martin quickly but walked Larnach and allowed a single to right-handed-hitting Ryan Jeffers to put the go-ahead run into scoring position. Speier came back to strike out Clemens for the second out of the inning, bringing right-handed slugger Royce Lewis to the plate.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Lewis crushed a crucial solo homer to left off lefty Jose A. Ferrer in the Twins’ victory Friday night.
Wilson wasn’t going to have a replay of that again. He called on Muñoz from the bullpen to finish the eighth and then handle the ninth. It’s something he’s been hesitant to do since taking over as Mariners manager. But all the surrounding circumstances made it necessary.
“Zardo (Eduard Bazardo) was down today,” Wilson said. “Lewis got us yesterday, and we weren’t going to have that happen again. We don’t do it often, but this was a situation where we felt like we could do it. When you’re close like this, everything, every win now has a greater importance.”
The strategy, which many fans believe should’ve been employed in the 2025 postseason, worked as Muñoz struck out Lewis to end the inning.
The Mariners let Muñoz know before the game that it was a possibility.
“The good thing here is the communication has been really good,” Muñoz said. “They let me know about the plan, and I was up to it. I said, ‘whatever the team needs to win.’ IT’s good they let me know so I could prepare. It didn’t catch me by surprise.”
After the Mariners failed to capitalize on Josh Naylor’s leadoff single in the bottom of the eighth, Muñoz came back out and pitched a scoreless ninth. He worked around a leadoff single, aided by an inning-ending double play when he struck out Victor Caratini and Mitch Garver threw out Luke Keaschall at second on the pitch.
“Just some outstanding defensive plays today,” Wilson said.
The Mariners got a quality start from Logan Gilbert, who worked seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts. It was more impressive considering he took 107-mph comebacker from Lewis off the outside of his right calf in the fourth inning. The ball bounced right to Josh Naylor for the final out of the inning. Gilbert could only shake his head after getting hit by a ball yet again.
“Right after, I thought I’d be fine,” Gilbert said. “It wasn’t like I couldn’t use it or anything. It was just a matter of if it tightened up or not or how much. It didn’t miss me. It got me got me pretty good.”
Similar to Friday, the Mariners jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings, including a solo homer from Arozarena, and then stopped hitting. After forcing Twins starter Connor Prielipp to throw 55 pitches in the first two innings, the Mariners allowed him to pitch into the sixth inning.
Meanwhile, the Twins chipped away at the lead with solo homers from Keaschall in the fifth and Larnach in the sixth off Gilbert.
With Bazardo unavailable, Wilson opted to push Gilbert instead of going to one of their non-leverage right-handed relievers for obvious reasons.
Gilbert started the seventh inning by giving up a leadoff double to Lee. The Twins played small ball, having Keaschall sacrifice bunt Lee to third base. The strategy worked out when Victor Caratini produced a swinging bunt that cued off the end of his bat toward third base. Weston Wilson had no play at the plate with Lee running on contact Instead he gloved the spinning grounder and fired to first for an out as the Twins tied the game at 3-3.
Raley sent to injured list
The discomfort in Luke Raley’s left forearm simply became too painful to try to play through. And his production simply wasn’t enough to try to keep putting him in the lineup on a semi-regular basis.
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Mariners placed Raley on the 10-day injured list with a strained left forearm. The team selected the minor-league contract of veteran outfielder Stuart Fairchild and added him to the active roster.