The Seattle Mariners are no strangers to rain in the damp Northwest.
But after losing their series opener on a cold, soggy Monday night against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis, the Mariners might be glad to see that the weather forecast is better for the rest of the week.
The Mariners will look to bounce back on Tuesday after the Twins ended Seattle’s four-game winning streak.
“The weather was a little difficult,” Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo said after he started in an 11-4 loss against the Twins on Monday. “The mound was a little wet and a little slippery. There was a fear of sliding and hurting yourself. But I felt like when I wanted to or if I needed to put more velocity on it, I could.”
On Tuesday, the Twins will go for back-to-back victories for the first time since April 11-14. Minnesota also is pursuing its first series win in two weeks, when it took two of three games against the Boston Red Sox.
Twins manager Derek Shelton praised his hitters after they erupted for 11 runs on 12 hits Monday. Kody Clemens homered and drove in five RBIs, and Byron Buxton belted a two-run homer.
Shelton hopes to see more success at the plate from the Twins, who managed only one or two runs four times in their previous five games before Monday’s breakout.
“It’s nice,” Shelton said. “Sometimes, you go through stretches, and (Monday) was a good day, and we seemed to capitalize on a bunch of opportunities. We had a little bit of luck — a ball hit a base — but sometimes you need those things.”
Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (2-2, 3.90 ERA) will make his seventh start of the season. He will look to bounce back from a bumpy performance against the New York Mets, who tagged him for seven runs (four earned) on seven hits in five innings on Thursday. New York won 10-8.
Ryan has 33 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings this season. Opponents have only a .208 batting average against him, average along with a .265 on-base percentage and a .367 slugging percentage for an OPS of .632.
This will be Ryan’s sixth career start against Seattle. In his previous five outings, he is 1-3 with a 4.13 ERA and has struck out 32 batters in 24 innings.
Seattle will counter with right-hander Logan Gilbert (1-3, 4.36), who also will make his seventh start of the season. Gilbert will seek to recover from his shortest stint of the season on Wednesday, as he allowed three runs on six hits in four innings in a no-decision vs. the Athletics. The Mariners won 5-4.
Gilbert is 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in five career starts against the Twins. He has not faced them since the 2024 season, when he went 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA against Minnesota.
Cal Raleigh will look to stay hot at the plate for the Mariners. He homered in Monday’s series opener, which marked his seventh home run of the season and his fifth in the past seven games.
The Twins are 8-6 at home this season; Seattle is 4-9 on the road.
–Field Level Media
