Twins win series from Mariners 5-3 on Trevor Larnach’s eighth-inning homer

SEATTLE – Trevor Larnach crushed a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning Sunday, and Cole Sands was the winning pitcher after the Twins earned a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

It’s a little cruel Joe Ryan doesn’t receive more credit in the boxscore.

It was Ryan, after all, who pitched the Twins out of disaster in the fifth inning when defensive mistakes piled up. Ryan struck out 10 batters, his ninth career start with at least 10 strikeouts, while yielding two runs (one earned) in 5⅔ innings.

“It was bizarro,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was really, really bizarre. I don’t know if I’ve ever really seen an inning play out in that manner.”

It looked like the Twins could do nothing right in the fifth inning. Two comebackers to the mound, including a bunt, didn’t turn into outs. Center fielder Byron Buxton lost a ball in the sun. A ground ball to second base didn’t turn into an out because first baseman Carlos Santana slipped before he could cover first.

Ryan, somehow, refused to let the inning snowball further and maintained a one-run lead despite the Mariners receiving three or four extra outs.

The Mariners tied the score in the seventh inning when Jorge Polanco hit an RBI single off Cole Sands. Jose Miranda responded with a one-out single in the next inning. Two pitches later, Larnach clobbered an elevated splitter from Ryne Stanek over the center field fence, a 406-foot homer.

It was the Twins’ 19th consecutive game with a home run, a team record. The Twins, who had a 6-3 record on their West Coast road trip, won two of their three games in Seattle, giving the Mariners their first series loss at home since mid-April.

“I do think we are improving as a group,” Baldelli said. “I still think we’re getting better this year. You can see it, I think, in the way that the at-bats unfold, what the at-bats actually look like.”

The Twins began the fifth inning with a 3-0 lead. After Dylan Moore hit a leadoff triple and the next batter lined out, Josh Rojas dropped a bunt in front of the plate. Ryan, thinking it was a squeeze play, flipped the ball to catcher Christian Vázquez. Moore opted to remain at third, and Rojas was safe at first.

Julio Rodríguez, with runners on the corners, hit a comebacker to the mound. Moore was running on contact, caught between third and home, but Ryan fumbled the ball before his throw to the plate, giving Moore enough time to slide under a tag for Seattle’s first run.

“Just double clutched, dropped it, made a bad throw,” Ryan said. “He would’ve been an easy out at home. Obviously, a bad error on myself.”

Buxton lost the next ball in the sun to load the bases. Then a run scored when Santana slipped.

“I don’t think we played good defense at all today,” Ryan said. “All around, that just wasn’t good. It was sloppy. We can do better than that.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 5, Seattle 3

Ryan, still pitching with the bases loaded and one out, struck out pinch hitter Ryan Bliss on three pitches and induced an inning-ending pop-up.

“Joe still was able to go out there and execute pitches,” Baldelli said. “I think many guys, understandably, their brains would get scrambled out there. Things would get very fast, very frustrating and they wouldn’t be able to pitch well.”

Ryan retired the first two batters in the sixth inning before Baldelli called for Caleb Thielbar out of the bullpen. Ryan, who threw 99 pitches, tried to wave off Baldelli when he saw him.

Baldelli, who used all three lefty relievers against a lefty-heavy Mariners lineup, wanted Thielbar to enter with no runners on base. Thielbar walked the two lefty batters he faced before Rodríguez lined out to first base.

“Honestly, I’m just mad if there is a 5 in front of there,” said Ryan, referencing his innings pitched. “It feels like a failure.”

In the three-game series against the AL West-leading Mariners, Twins starters Ryan, Bailey Ober and Pablo López combined to give up three earned runs in 17⅔ innings (1.53 ERA) while striking out 28.