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SEATTLE — Royce Lewis secured the ground ball hit that Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh had smoked towards him and, just steps away from the first base bag, his momentum took him there.
As he touched first, eliminating the force at second, he looked towards Julio Rodríguez in between the two bases, and then spun towards home, firing off a throw to catcher Victor Caratini. The ball beat Randy Arozarena home, but Caratini couldn’t place the tag on him first, and the left fielder slid in safely for the game-winning run.
The Mariners were walk-off winners on Saturday, beating the Twins 4-3 at T-Mobile Park with the game ending on that bang-bang play.
“Once he tags first, then it’s a situation, even if Julio gets in a rundown, then Randy’s going to score,” manager Derek Shelton said. “So it’s got to be one of those that goes to second. We’ve got to get the force first to come back. One of the reasons we (intentionally) walked Julio there was 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.”
For Lewis, who has played in just 38 major league games at the position after being moved there from third base earlier in the season, he said his instincts kicked in and the ball took him to the left, towards the first base bag, which is why he tagged the base.
“It’s still relatively new,” Lewis said. “You just do the best you can. Obviously, this game happened so fast. … It’s something that maybe if I played there for five years, maybe I’d still make the right read, but in that case, it’s always a tough play.”
It was a tough ending in a game that the Twins (56-56) had managed to tie up a couple innings earlier after initially falling behind by three runs on a day where Connor Prielipp’s start looked much like Zebby Matthews’ performance a day earlier.
Prielipp, like Matthews, labored through a long first inning. Both featured multiple walks and two Mariners (54-58) runs. By the time all was said and done, Prielipp had walked three, including one with the bases loaded and had thrown 35 pitches.
Like Matthews, he also gave up a solo home run an inning later, his to Arozarena. But from there, Prielipp settled in, pitching into the sixth inning and giving the Twins a chance to win.
“I didn’t have my best command in the first inning and then I was able to find a few things in the middle of the first and was able to settle down throughout the game,” Prielipp said.
The Twins used home runs from Luke Keaschall and Trevor Larnach to pull within a run and Caratini’s ground ball down the third base line in the seventh inning brought home Brooks Lee, who had doubled and advanced on a Keaschall sacrifice bunt, to tie the game in the seventh.
It was a weird day for Larnach, in particular, who woke up to a report online suggesting that the Twins had agreed to trade him to the Houston Astros for reliever Bryan Abreu before Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in to nix the trade.
It’s something that Shelton and Larnach had a conversation about and the left fielder said he appreciated how his manager has been “straight up about everything.”
“Everything that I do, I just focus on preparing for what I’ve got to do out there,” Larnach said. “That’s where my focus is. My focus isn’t where I’m going to be or what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day because … that’s not going to help me out so I try not to put too much energy or stock into that.”
The Twins have one final game to play in Seattle and then will have an off day on Monday, the day of Major League Baseball’s trade deadline. They have already been one of the most active teams ahead of the deadline with new bullpen acquisition A.J. Minter making his Twins debut on Sunday and recording one out in the loss.
“We did everything we could,” Shelton said. “Just, we didn’t finish the game there. So just a little bit challenging.”
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As he touched first, eliminating the force at second, he looked towards Julio Rodríguez in between the two bases, and then spun towards home, firing off a throw to catcher Victor Caratini. The ball beat Randy Arozarena home, but Caratini couldn’t place the tag on him first, and the left fielder slid in safely for the game-winning run.
The Mariners were walk-off winners on Saturday, beating the Twins 4-3 at T-Mobile Park with the game ending on that bang-bang play.
“Once he tags first, then it’s a situation, even if Julio gets in a rundown, then Randy’s going to score,” manager Derek Shelton said. “So it’s got to be one of those that goes to second. We’ve got to get the force first to come back. One of the reasons we (intentionally) walked Julio there was 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.”
For Lewis, who has played in just 38 major league games at the position after being moved there from third base earlier in the season, he said his instincts kicked in and the ball took him to the left, towards the first base bag, which is why he tagged the base.
“It’s still relatively new,” Lewis said. “You just do the best you can. Obviously, this game happened so fast. … It’s something that maybe if I played there for five years, maybe I’d still make the right read, but in that case, it’s always a tough play.”
It was a tough ending in a game that the Twins (56-56) had managed to tie up a couple innings earlier after initially falling behind by three runs on a day where Connor Prielipp’s start looked much like Zebby Matthews’ performance a day earlier.
Prielipp, like Matthews, labored through a long first inning. Both featured multiple walks and two Mariners (54-58) runs. By the time all was said and done, Prielipp had walked three, including one with the bases loaded and had thrown 35 pitches.
Like Matthews, he also gave up a solo home run an inning later, his to Arozarena. But from there, Prielipp settled in, pitching into the sixth inning and giving the Twins a chance to win.
“I didn’t have my best command in the first inning and then I was able to find a few things in the middle of the first and was able to settle down throughout the game,” Prielipp said.
The Twins used home runs from Luke Keaschall and Trevor Larnach to pull within a run and Caratini’s ground ball down the third base line in the seventh inning brought home Brooks Lee, who had doubled and advanced on a Keaschall sacrifice bunt, to tie the game in the seventh.
It was a weird day for Larnach, in particular, who woke up to a report online suggesting that the Twins had agreed to trade him to the Houston Astros for reliever Bryan Abreu before Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in to nix the trade.
It’s something that Shelton and Larnach had a conversation about and the left fielder said he appreciated how his manager has been “straight up about everything.”
“Everything that I do, I just focus on preparing for what I’ve got to do out there,” Larnach said. “That’s where my focus is. My focus isn’t where I’m going to be or what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day because … that’s not going to help me out so I try not to put too much energy or stock into that.”
The Twins have one final game to play in Seattle and then will have an off day on Monday, the day of Major League Baseball’s trade deadline. They have already been one of the most active teams ahead of the deadline with new bullpen acquisition A.J. Minter making his Twins debut on Sunday and recording one out in the loss.
“We did everything we could,” Shelton said. “Just, we didn’t finish the game there. So just a little bit challenging.”
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