Seattle Mariners Get Clutch Win Over Minnesota Twins

SEATTLE -- — Frustrated and shut down by All-Star Sonny Gray for the first four innings, the Seattle Mariners changed their approach to solve one of the top pitchers in the American League.

Jarred Kelenic’s two-run single capped Seattle’s big fifth inning against 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.

“I thought the quality of at-bat got better as the game went on,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “It didn’t start off so good and Sonny Gray is really good. But after we made a few adjustments, understanding that you’re not going to hit the long ball off Sonny Gray. You've got to take your singles, work your walks and we were able to do that and put a big inning together.”

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, he was knocked around for six runs by Baltimore.

Max 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.

Minnesota made it interesting in the ninth when 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.

In game-2 Tuesday RHP Bailey Ober (5-4, 2.61 ERA) will take the mound for the Twins. Ober 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.

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.

The first pitch is 8:40 PM on ESPN 102.3/AM 1000 KSOO.