Cole Young, Mariners look for encore vs. Twins

Cole Young certainly won’t forget his major league debut.

Young drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Seattle Mariners edged the Minnesota Twins 5-4 on Saturday.

The three-game series will wrap up Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

Young was mobbed by teammates after his grounder to Twins first baseman Ty France scored pinch runner Miles Mastrobuoni with the deciding run.

While the Mariners were pouring water, sunflower seeds and whatever else they could find in the dugout on Young, the Twins challenged the call at the plate. A video review determined Mastrobuoni indeed beat the throw to the plate, and the celebration continued.

Young, a second baseman considered one of the game’s top prospects, learned he was going to be called up when he was pulled from his game with Triple-A Tacoma on Friday night.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” Young said. “I was just thinking of every scenario that could happen, and a walkoff was not in my mind.”

Young had plenty of “Welcome to The Show” moments in his debut.

He walked in the seventh inning before J.P. Crawford’s two-run homer that gave the Mariners a 4-3 lead. Young also got his first hit — a line-drive single to right in the ninth — and helped turn a pair of key double plays.

“He’s a big league player, and that’s why he’s here. He made the plays,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “He did an outstanding job, and that’s not easy to do when it’s your first big-league game. He was able to go out there and just be Cole Young. It’s just an outstanding ballgame for him.”

Cal Raleigh hit his 22nd homer of the season, tying the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead. It was Raleigh’s third homer in the past two days and his fifth in the past five.

Collin Snider pitched two scoreless innings of extra-inning relief to give the beleaguered Mariners bullpen a boost. Seattle had lost its previous two games in 10 innings, allowing a combined 13 runs in that inning — seven to Washington in a 9-3 defeat Thursday and six to the Twins in a 12-6 loss Friday.

Matt Wallner homered for the Twins in his return Saturday after missing six-plus weeks with a left hamstring strain.

“(Wallner) healed up well and responded to everything put in front of him,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “His body responded really well, so that was positive. He’s been swinging the bat good, so obviously his timing is at least in a decent spot to start. It feels great literally writing his name in there, scribbling it in there.”

Baldelli wasn’t around for the end of game because he was ejected — along with on-deck hitter Carlos Correa — in the seventh inning for arguing balls and strikes with plate umpire Austin Jones.

Baldelli watched from the manager’s office in the visiting clubhouse as the Twins failed to score in the 10th and 11th innings.

“We did about everything in the book except score,” Baldelli said.

The series finale will feature a pair of right-handers in the Twins’ Chris Paddack (2-5, 3.92 ERA) and the Mariners’ Luis Castillo (4-3, 3.32).

Paddack has lost his past two starts despite giving up just two runs over 5 1/3 innings in each game. He is 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA in five career starts against Seattle.

Castillo is coming off a no-decision in Houston last Sunday despite his third consecutive quality start. He gave up three runs and nine hits over six innings in Seattle’s 5-3 loss. Castillo is 1-2 with a 5.05 ERA in seven career starts versus Minnesota.

–Field Level Media