Cole Young leads Mariners comeback against Twins

Published 10:02 am Thursday, April 30, 2026

John Madden popularized the saying that if a football team has two quarterbacks, it actually means the team has none.

Well, the Twins don’t have a designated closer a month into the season or any relievers who are pitching well enough to deserve it.

Eric Orze entered with a one-run lead in the ninth inning Wednesday, April 29, and he recorded only one out before he blew the save in a punishing 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Target Field.

Cole Young produced the game-winning hit, poking a go-ahead, two-run single on a ground ball through the middle of a drawn-in infield. Young also scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Mariners a comeback victory.

“This is definitely one we should’ve had, and I didn’t do my part,” said Orze (0-1), who issued a leadoff walk and didn’t throw a strike until his seventh pitch.

The Twins have lost 11 of their past 13 games, dropping two of three games to Seattle, and they have lost four consecutive series.

Orze, who has four career saves, was two outs from securing a win when he allowed a single to Dominic Canzone in a seven-pitch at-bat that started with a 1-2 count.

Young followed with his back-breaking two-run single. Orze, a righthander who throws a lot of splitters, drew the assignment against a lefty-heavy bottom of the Mariners lineup. Lefties were batting .167 with a .422 OPS against him entering the outing.

Manager Derek Shelton noted if the Twins used lefty Taylor Rogers in the ninth, the Mariners would have countered with righthanded hitters Mitch Garver and Rob Refsnyder off their bench.

“I have to do my part,” Orze said. “That’s a situation I always want to be in, and I appreciate the belief from Shelty to be in that spot there. I have to do better.”

The Twins have lost four games this season when tied or leading after the eighth inning. They’re the only team in baseball without a one-run win.

There are challenges, Shelton said, when trying to hunt the right matchups without a proven closer.

“We just haven’t had a lot of consistency down there and guys filtering into roles,” Shelton said. “I think we’re still trying to figure out who’s going to pitch in those defined roles.”

The loss spoiled Taj Bradley’s seven-inning, 114-pitch outing, and the Twins lamented their many missed opportunities with their offense.

The Twins outhit the Mariners 12-7, but 10 runners were stranded and they left the bases loaded after scoring the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.

“You saw two really good starting pitchers,” Shelton said. “That was dominant stuff on both sides and not a ton of hard contact. Again, we had opportunities.”

With the score tied in the eighth, Ryan Jeffers lined a leadoff single off Mariners lefty reliever Gabe Speier, who entered after Matt Brash exited with an injury — right side discomfort, Mariners manager Dan Wilson said — two pitches into his appearance.

James Outman ran for Jeffers and stole second on the next pitch. Outman has more stolen bases (four) than hits (three) this season, and he scored a go-ahead run when pinch hitter Victor Caratini grounded a two-out RBI single through the left side of the infield.

Speier allowed another single and a walk before Byron Buxton flew out to left field with the bases loaded against reliever Cooper Criswell (1-0).

Pitching with a one-run lead in the seventh inning, Bradley surrendered a two-out double to Canzone, the first hit he allowed since the fourth inning. Shelton opted to stick with his starting pitcher when lefthander Anthony Banda was ready in the bullpen.

Young drove a 98-mph fastball to the center-field wall for a tying RBI double.

“He pitched his butt off,” Shelton said of Bradley. “You can’t ask for more in a start than he gave us.”

Bradley, who yielded four hits and two runs across seven innings, rebounded well from his worst start of the season last week in Tampa Bay. He struck out seven, overpowering hitters with his curveball and splitter and still holding upper-90s mph velocity on his fastball throughout his outing.

His 114 pitches were the most by a Twins starter since Kenta Maeda threw 115 in an eight-inning start Aug. 18, 2020.

Bradley served up a solo homer to J.P. Crawford in the third inning, a low curveball that was lifted over the right-field wall. Bradley, who owns a 2.85 ERA through 41 innings this season, responded by retiring 12 of his next 14 batters, and one of the exceptions was an infield single.

“I had command of my off-speed early,” Bradley said. “I feel like I could pitch backwards, pitch forwards, and I felt like I had good command of the fastball.”

Brooks Lee gave the Twins a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning with a two-out, two-strike, two-run single against Mariners starter George Kirby.

“How they were attacking me, I recognized it,” Lee said. “I knew that was his go-to pitch against lefties for the day.”

The Twins, however, left two more runners on base after Lee’s hit, two more runners in the sixth inning and the bases loaded in the eighth.

“We’re going through it,” Bradley said. “We’re all picking each other up after tough games like this.”