SEATTLE– Byron Buxton extended Minnesota’s home run streak to 18 consecutive games with a three-run shot in the sixth inning, Pablo López allowed one run in six innings and the Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 5-1 on Saturday night.
Minnesota improved to 5-3 on its current nine-game road trip and recorded the 5,000th victory in franchise history since the Twins moved from Washington before the 1961 season.
Buxton scored for the second time in three games, this time opening the game on a shot by Seattle reliever Trent Thornton with two outs in the sixth inning. Thornton was about to escape trouble after the first two batters of the inning reached, but he left a 2-2 fastball up the middle of the plate and Buxton didn’t miss his eighth home run of the season.
“He’s finding ways to just have good at-bats, put himself in good counts. But the swing, as he’s said a few times, seems very synchronized. It looks very tight and is very impactful. He’s finding the barrel and the ball really takes off when he hits good swings,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.
Minnesota’s 18-game long ball streak is tied with the franchise record set last season between April 18 and May 6, 2023. It is the second-longest streak in the majors this season, behind the 22-game streak. Baltimore games earlier this month, and the Twins hit 29 homers during that span.
Buxton also had an RBI double in the fourth inning off Seattle starter Bryce Miller, who narrowly escaped Luke Raley’s diving attempt to left field. The four RBIs were the most of the season for Buxton and the most since July 21, 2023, against the White Sox.
Buxton is hitting .478 with four home runs and four doubles on the current road trip.
“Once you figure out what you don’t have to look for all the time going into the cage, without spending 40 minutes on that little piece you’re trying to figure out, it simplifies the game a little bit more,” Buxton said, “When I say, ‘See the ball, hit the ball,’ it’s more about simplifying it to just go out there and have a quality hit.”
Coming off a 14-hit performance in his last start, López (8-6) scattered four hits and struck out nine. He has allowed six hits and one earned run in his last 14 innings, and has retired 12 of the last 13 batters he has faced.
López’s only outing from Seattle came via a solo home run by Mitch Haniger in the third inning. It was Haniger’s seventh home run of the season, but his first since May 14.
Miller (6-7) was lifted after five innings and allowing just two runs. But he had to work to get through those five innings, throwing 87 pitches and with the heart of the Twins’ order coming in the sixth.
Miller allowed five hits and struck out six.
“He had to throw a lot of off-speed pitches tonight, probably the most he’s thrown all year, but he was able to overcome that,” Seattle coach Scott Servais said. “It was not easy. …He had to get over it.
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Twins: RHP Joe Ryan (5-5, 3.31) has pitched at least six innings in his last four starts. He allowed four runs in six innings in his last start against Arizona.
Mariners: RHP Luis Castillo (6-9, 3.79) will take a regular rest rather than give him two extra days off and have him start Tuesday’s series opener against Baltimore. Castillo has lost three of his last four games.
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