Clutch hitting, defense keys to Mariners' win

It took 10 innings of bend-but-don’t-break baseball for the Mariners to put together arguably their strongest win of the young season, a 4-3 victory over the two-time American League Central champion Twins on Saturday afternoon at Target Field.

It wasn’t Seattle’s most thrilling or most dramatic victory through the first eight games, but it was perhaps the most promising. The context of the opponent, the effort of Yusei Kikuchi given the state of the Mariners’ rotation, the high-leverage 1-2-3 shutdown from Kendall Graveman to send it to extras, the stout defense that prevented runaway innings and the ability to manufacture runs in the most critical moments all played into the well-rounded win.

“Relentless,” center fielder Taylor Trammell said.

Here’s a breakdown of why Saturday carried more weight -- and what it means moving forward:

Clutch hitting manifests

Mitch Haniger scoring Trammell on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th was as fitting as could be and an encapsulation of who is driving the Mariners’ offense most strongly to this point, along with Ty France. The 2018 All-Star also crushed his second homer during the third inning, an upper-deck shot off Michael Pineda to put his season slash line at .281/.306/.563.

“I know he's going to get the job done,” Trammell said of his mindset on third base. “He's going to put the ball in play, and then obviously, my job is to score that run.”

Seattle entered the day hitting .209/.310/.320 and hadn’t received consistent production beyond Haniger and France, who went 0-for-5. And while Haniger was the hero, Kyle Seager logged a go-ahead RBI single with two strikes and two outs in the eighth inning, before Rafael Montero blew a save opportunity that pushed the game to extras.

Yet on Saturday, the bottom half of the order also delivered, most notably with No. 7 hitter Trammell -- who entered Saturday hitting .105/.320/.158 -- crushing his first big league homer. And pinch-hitter Braden Bishop’s well-timed bunt pushed Trammell to third and in position to score on Haniger’s sac fly.

The Mariners had big-inning comebacks of more than six runs on Opening Day and Wednesday against the White Sox, but Saturday had more of a grind-it-out tempo, which will likely be more representative of the types of circumstances they’ll see throughout the season.

Winning a Kikuchi start

For a Mariners rotation that is down James Paxton due to a left forearm strain and whose No. 1 starter, Marco Gonzales, struggled with command during his first two starts, Kikuchi has shined and given the club optimism. Winning starts such as this on Saturday will be vital for sustained success.

Kikuchi reached the six-inning threshold that manager Scott Servais had set pregame, marking just the second time he’d thrown back-to-back six-inning starts in the same season since facing the Twins on May 19, 2019, in his 11th big league start.

But Kikuchi is a far different product than the pitcher who faced that Minnesota lineup nearly two years ago.

“Stuff-wise, he's not even in the same ballpark,” Servais said. “I don't think people realize how hard he's throwing and how his stuff has really jumped up. I've said it many times, I’ll continue to say it: He's one of the hardest-throwing left-handed starting pitchers in the league. He’s a different guy, and he wasn't that guy in 2019.”

A more stingy Kikuchi than the one from 2019-20 overcame command issues in the first and fourth innings and mostly quieted a loaded Twins lineup other than yielding a two-run homer to Nelson Cruz in the third inning. That long ball was more an impressive piece of hitting by the former Mariner than a poor pitch by the Japanese left-hander, who struck out six and allowed only four other hits and two walks despite throwing 58 of his 94 pitches for strikes.

Defense shines again

J.P. Crawford continued his early case for a second straight Gold Glove Award with more stellar work that directly backed Kikuchi in a few high-pitch-count innings and sealed the win in the 10th on a scorcher hit by the red-hot Byron Buxton, which was no easy task against one of the Majors’ top speedsters.

Dylan Moore also made a remarkable, over-the-shoulder grab to lead off the eighth, which would’ve led to more than one run against Montero.

“The defense helped me out a lot,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “J.P. made a couple of good plays, so did the outfielders, making big time plays in key moments. Also, [catcher Luis] Torrens, he called a great game.”

Bullpen picks up Montero

Montero is the closer, but pitching the eighth was always the plan given the matchups against Nos. 2-4 hitters Garlick, Cruz and Buxton.

And he nearly got out of his one-out jam in the eighth with runners in scoring position, but he spiked a changeup to Max Kepler that allowed the tying run to score. That blown save put the onus back on the offense, but also on fellow relievers Graveman and Keynan Middleton, who were unhittable in the ninth and 10th.

Graveman, in particular, has looked outstanding in his three scoreless outings this season.

“Gravey was very efficient. I feel good about the way he’s throwing the ball -- all the guys, really,” Servais said. “We’re starting to come together in the bullpen. It’s about throwing strikes and if we're ahead in the count or controlling the count the way we should, it gets a whole lot easier. … We’ve got to focus on that. We were better today.”