104.8 MPH Pitch, Minnesota Twins Rock Seattle Mariners

Get our free mobile app

SEATTLE -- — Max Kepler scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball in the eighth inning and Minnesota pitchers struck out 14 in the Twins' 6-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

Kepler scored from third when a pitch from reliever Andrés Muñoz (2-3) got past catcher Tom Murphy, breaking a 3-3 tie. Kepler also hit a solo homer in the fifth inning off Luis Castillo and has a six-game hitting streak.

“I'm just trying to grind out at-bats and keep the line moving,” Kepler said. “See a couple of pitches or a lot of pitches from the starters to get them out of the game early. I think Castillo was at 85 pitches in the fourth, which was a great team effort offensively. I think that's just been a collective approach lately.”

Ryan Jeffers put the Twins ahead with a second-inning single, and rookie Edouard Julien and Kepler made it 3-0 with home runs in the fifth inning.

Julien had two hits and now has six multi-hit performances in his past seven games.

Emilio Pagan (4-1) was the winner after pitching a perfect eighth inning. Jhoan Duran pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 16th save. Duran's fastest pitch came in at 104.8 mph, a new personal best.

Castillo gave up six hits and three earned over six innings and had a season-high 11 strikeouts as the Mariners matched the Twins with 14 whiffs.

“That's about as good a stuff as we've seen from Luis Castillo in quite a while, really from the first inning on,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Oftentimes it takes him a couple of innings to get into the game and into his stuff, but that was not the case tonight. I thought he was really sharp.”

Thursday's series finale has RHP Pablo López (5-5, 4.24 ERA) is set to pitch for Minnesota against RHP George Kirby (8-8, 3.43 ERA).

The Twins Line-up Card airs at 2:00 PM. The first pitch is 2:40 PM on ESPN 102.3/AM 1000 KSOO.