Cole Young sparks Mariners' ninth-inning rally to beat Twins
MINNEAPOLIS - Cole Young couldn't hide the grin as he stood at first base.
Over in the third-base dugout at Target Field, his teammates were screaming and celebrating his latest accomplishment.
He looked at the video replay and then at first base coach Eric Young Jr. and said, Oh my God, bro."
Young couldn't help but feel like he might have just stolen a victory away from the Twins and given it to his team on a getaway Wednesday afternoon.
With one out in the top of the ninth and the Mariners trailing by a run, Young, who had already provided a game-tying double in the seventh inning, delivered when needed once again in Seattle's eventual 5-3 victory.
With runners on second and third and the infield playing in on the grass to cut the run at home, Young made a lunging swing on a 2-2 splitter from reliever Eric Orze.
With the ball running away from him, Young was able to get just enough of the pitch, which was about three inches off the outside part of the plate, somehow resulting in a slow bouncing ball with an exit velocity of 65 mph. The softly hit ground ball got past Orze and then hopped off the pitcher's mound and past the diving attempt of second baseman Luke Keaschall into the outfield for a seeing-eye single.
Randy Arozarena, who was running on contact, raced home with the tying run. The ball was hit so slowly it died in the grass in shallow center field, allowing pinch runner Leo Rivas to score from second without a throw for a one-run lead.
"That was a lucky, lucky hit," Young said with the same grin as the ninth inning. "I'm just happy I got the job done."
He's gotten the job done in clutch situations quite often this season. Young has six go-ahead or game-tying RBI in the seventh inning or later this season; that's the most in Major League Baseball.
"It's just calming myself down and not trying to be someone I'm not," Young said of his approach in those situations. "I'm not trying to be a hero in every, every situation, just pass the baton. I'm just trying to get on base, and I feel like that's helped me out a ton."
It was Young's sixth consecutive game with at least one RBI, which is the longest active streak in MLB and the longest in Mariners history since Eugenio Suárez's club record of 10 consecutive games back in 2023.
"He doesn't let the game speed up on him," manager Dan Wilson said of Young. "He's got really good control of his emotion. The moment doesn't seem too big for him, which is huge. And then being able to see the pitch, let it get deep enough and not chase. He's not afraid to go the other way with it. He's done it several times for us, and almost every time he has used the middle of the field and opposite field."
On the road trip, Young went 11 for 22 at the plate with two doubles, a homer and eight RBI.
Seattle tacked on an insurance run with Cal Raleigh's deep sac fly to right-center.
Andrés Muñoz closed out the victory with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, notching his sixth save of the season.
With the win, the Mariners won their second straight road series and finished the road trip with a 5-1 record. They moved to back to .500 at 16-16 for the first time since April 3 when they improved to 4-4 with a win over the Angels.
"A really good way to end the road trip," Wilson said. "A nice 5-1 road trip, we'll take that every time."
Twins starter Taj Bradley stymied the Mariners offense for most of his outing. The right-hander worked seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. He threw a whopping 114 pitches in his outing.
Seattle grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning when J.P. Crawford pulled a low breaking ball from Bradley just over the elevated fence in right field for a solo homer.
But the lead was short-lived for the Mariners and starter George Kirby.
With one out in the fourth, Kirby gave up a soft single to Ryan Jeffers, walked Kody Clemens and allowed another bloop single to Keaschall to load the bases.
When Kirby came back to strike out Matt Wallner, it looked like he might get out of the inning unscathed. Instead, Brooks Lee dumped another soft single into right field to score a pair of runs.
"There was a lot of that today," Kirby said of the soft contact. "I thought I did a good job executing and getting either soft contact or swing and miss in most of those situations. Some good hitters, they find a way to put the bat on the ball. I can't be mad about anything, I did my job.
Kirby ended his outing in disappointing fashion. With his pitch count nearing 100 in the sixth inning, he issued a two-out walk to Wallner, who had struck out in his previous two at-bats. Kirby's final line: 5⅔ innings pitched, two runs allowed on eight hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
It forced Wilson to go to his bullpen.
Right-handed Eduard Bazardo needed just two pitches to end the sixth, getting Lee to hit a soft comebacker to the mound.
Down 2-1 in the seventh, Dominic Canzone doubled to right field off Bradley with two outs to bring Young to the plate. He had a deep fly ball off Bradley that was caught earlier. After fouling off a nasty 2-2 splitter, Young took advantage of a fastball left up in the zone, sending it to the gap in left-center for a double that scored Canzone.
Bazardo and Jose A. Ferrer combined to provide a scoreless seventh.
But in the eighth, reliever Matt Brash exited the game after just two pitches due to discomfort in his right side. Gabe Speier was forced to come in from the bullpen. He allowed a single to the batter he inherited and then gave up a two-out single to pinch-hitter Victor Caratini that put the Twins up 3-2.
The Twins, who have one of the worst bullpens in baseball, turned to Orze in the save situation. He walked Arozarena on his first four pitches and gave up a one-out single to Canzone, who was replaced by Rivas.
BOX SCORE
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 4:54 PM.