SEATTLE — In a home-run contest between Cal Raleigh and Willi Castro, the winner on Friday was Carlos Correa.
Raleigh, the who’s-he name between Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge on the list of MLB home-run leaders, and Castro, slowly trying to find the form that made him an All-Star last summer, both homered twice. But Correa, booed all night by a rowdy crowd of 31,614 at T-Mobile Park, launched the first pitch of the 10th inning into the Mariners’ bullpen, completing a remarkable comeback to deliver the Twins’ 18th victory of the month, 12-6 over Seattle.
Zebby Matthews pitched a career-high seven innings, six of them masterful. But five batters into his start, he had handed his teammates a 4-0 deficit, allowing two singles and back-to-back home runs.
But the Twins and Matthews didn’t buckle. The 25-year-old righthander didn’t allow another Mariner to reach second base and didn’t allow a hit to the last 15 batters he faced, becoming the first “fifth starter” the Twins have used this season to pitch more than five innings. So impressed were manager Rocco Baldelli and pitching coach Pete Maki, Matthews was sent out for the seventh inning, even after the Twins closed the gap to just one run. He responded by retiring the Mariners in order on two routine grounders and a strikeout.
Meanwhile, the Twins’ offense, so often sluggish this year, gathered steam as the night went on. Trevor Larnach homered off Seattle starter Bryan Woo in the fourth inning, Ryan Jeffers followed with a double, and Brooks Lee drove him in with a groundout.
Castro added his first home run, which just cleared right fielder Leody Taveras’ glove, in the seventh.
And in the ninth, facing Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, who had yet to allow an earned run this season, the Twins scored three times with two outs to tie the score. Ty France, making his first visit to the ballpark where he spent the past five seasons of his career, fittingly opened the inning with a solid single to right. Kody Clemens and Royce Lewis each struck out, and the crowd of 31,614 stood and cheered in anticipation of Muñoz’s 18th save.
But Castro had other plans. After waiting out a 3-1 count, Castro finally swung at a 98-mph fastball and drove it 410 feet into the seats in right-center, the second time in three innings that Castro had pulled the Twins within one with a home run.
