Twins defeat Mariners as Paddack strikes out 10 and gets offensive support
After completing five innings in 92 pitches, Chris Paddack put on a jacket in the Twins dugout and walked over to manager Rocco Baldelli and pitching coach Pete Maki.
"I said, 'Hey, at least give me one more,'" said Paddack, knowing the Twins had a taxed bullpen.
It was a brief conversation and Paddack returned for the start of the sixth inning. He recorded one out, striking out a batter after giving up a leadoff single, but the Twins bullpen needed every out they received from him.
Caleb Thielbar, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran covered the last 11 outs as the Twins held off the Seattle Mariners for a 6-3 victory Wednesday night at Target Field. Jax, who made his first multi-inning appearance in two years, surrendered a two-run, two-out double to Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh in the seventh inning, but the Twins scored two insurance runs with two outs in the eighth.
"We needed a big effort from our starting pitcher and Paddack gave it to us," Baldelli said.
Paddack left the mound to a standing ovation from fans behind the Twins dugout. He allowed one run — an opposite-field homer to Mitch Garver — in 5⅓ innings. He matched a season-high 10 strikeouts and his 99 pitches were the most he has thrown in a game since 2021.
When Baldelli came to the mound, Paddack said he thanked him for trusting him to pitch to a couple more batters. He knows the Twins will monitor his innings this year, his first full season after recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, and he won't often be successful lobbying to pitch deeper into games.
"I looked up there in the fourth inning and I was at [79] pitches," Paddack said. "I was like I've got to find a way to get out to at least the sixth, especially with the bullpen kind of beat up, a couple guys down. The 10 punchies were nice, but I'm a guy that I want to get deep into games. That's how we win."
The Twins offense did its part against Mariners starter George Kirby, who finished eighth in last year's American League Cy Young voting. Kirby had allowed one run over his past 20 innings entering Wednesday, and the Twins had two runs after three batters.
Carlos Correa and Trevor Larnach bashed back-to-back 400-foot homers in the first inning. Correa connected on a curveball that floated over the middle of the plate, and Larnach followed two pitches later with a second-deck homer to right-center field.
"Our offense has shown up," Baldelli said. "You can't just pace your way through these games and think if you just have decent at-bats it'll work. You have to have an exceptional plan. … You're not going to face better pitching."
The original Rally Sausage, which Baldelli suggested would be trashed after the Twins' 12-game winning streak ended, returned to the dugout Monday when the Twins were no-hit through four innings in the series opener.
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Willi Castro tapped the summer sausage when he saw it while warming up Wednesday. He hit a 432-foot homer and an RBI triple in his first two at-bats. After Castro carried the packaged sausage through the dugout following his homer, per team tradition, he sniffed his gloves when he set it down.
"I thought I smelled something, but no," Castro said. "I know that it's going to open one day. That day is almost there."
In the eighth inning, with a one-run lead, Edouard Julien singled to snap an 0-for-14 slump. Running on an 0-2 pitch, Julien scored from first base when Ryan Jeffers pulled a two-strike sinker down the left-field line for a double. Max Kepler followed with an RBI double off the right-field wall to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
"There was a lot going on that I liked," Baldelli said. "Good baseball is what I'd call it."
