By Tim Booth / Associated Press
SEATTLE — Jarred Kelenic’s two-run single capped Seattle’s big fifth inning against All-Star Sonny Gray, and Eugenio Suárez added a two-run homer in the seventh as the Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6 on Monday night.
The Mariners overcame a shaky first few innings on the mound from Logan Gilbert to hand Gray his second straight loss and snap the Twins’ three-game win streak coming out of the All-Star break.
Minnesota made it interesting in the ninth when Max Kepler hit a three-run homer with two outs off reliever Ty Adcock to pull within 7-6. Seattle closer Paul Sewald entered and struck out Ryan Jeffers for his 19th save.
Gray cruised through four innings but fell apart in the fifth as Seattle sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times. Tesocar Hernández started the rally with a one-out double, Jose Caballero had an RBI single on a two-strike pitch and Julio Rodríguez laid off several borderline pitches to draw a walk with the bases loaded that tied the game at 2-all.
Kelenic followed by fighting off an inside fastball and dropping it into shallow left field to score a pair and break the tie.
Gray (4-4) wasn’t able to get through the sixth and his outing ended after a wild pitch that allowed Cal Raleigh to score from third. Gray allowed five runs, five hits, walked four and struck out five. In his last start before the break, Gray was knocked around for six runs by Baltimore.
Suárez hit his 12th homer with two outs in the seventh off reliever Oliver Ortega after Kelenic’s single kept the inning going.
Gilbert (8-5) was the AL player of the week prior to the All-Star Game after two terrific starts, including a five-hit shutout of San Francisco and seven innings of one-run ball against the Astros.
But the sharpness from those two stars wasn’t there against the Twins. Gilbert labored hard to get through three innings on 71 pitches, throwing 26 in the first. Consecutive doubles from Michael A. Taylor and Carlos Correa, and Alex Kirilloff’s sacrifice fly gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.
Gilbert settled down to get through the fifth with no more damage. He struck out five and walked one.
Joey Gallo hit his 17th homer in the sixth off Mariners reliever Gabe Speier.
STUMBLING DOUBLE
Kepler tried to get a rally going for Minnesota in the fourth in slightly unconventional fashion. He lined a shot to right field for what should have been an easy double. But he appeared to trip over his bat leaving the batters’ box, tumbled to the ground and had to hustle to get into second base with a headfirst slide.
UP NEXT
Twins: RHP Bailey Ober (5-4, 2.61 ERA) has pitched at least six innings and allowed three earned runs or fewer in his past five starts. In his last two, Ober has allowed one earned run in 13 innings with 13 strikeouts.
Mariners: Rookie RHP Bryan Woo (1-1, 3.63) makes his first start after the All-Star break. Woo threw six innings in each of his final two starts before the break and allowed a total of three earned runs.
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