Connor Prielipp picks up first win as Twins beat Mariners
Final
Starting pitcher performance
Rookie Connor Prielipp, making just his second major league start, was nearly unhittable. He did not allow a baserunner until the third inning and didn’t surrender a hit until the fifth.
The young lefty ran into some trouble in the fifth — his final inning — allowing a pair of walks before Mitch Garver singled for the Mariners’ first hit. A sacrifice fly brought home the Mariners’ second run.
At the time he left, the Twins had a 7-2 lead. For his effort, Prielipp collected his first major league win as the Twins snapped their five-game losing streak.
“I knew what was at stake, and I was really excited to finish it off,” Prielipp said.
Player of the game
It was a good day all around for the bats, as the Twins had more than twice as many hits with runners in scoring position Monday (5) than they did during the entire weekend series against Tampa Bay (2).
Kody Clemens had the big swing of the game, a three-run home run in the third inning, and later drove in two more runs in the eighth as the Twins padded their lead. Clemens finished the day with five runs batted in after entering the game with just three all season.
“It felt good,” Clemens said. “I’ve just been working hard trying to get back to the feeling that I had last year in some of my swings. Over the past few days, I’ve felt really close.”
Key moment
A good slide by Josh Bell at home plate helped him evade a tag from Garver to score the Twins’ first run.
But it wasn’t until an inning later, in the third, when the Twins really pulled away. It started with a Trevor Larnach triple that Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez got a glove on but could not come down with.
A walk and a single followed, and Larnach scored, before Clemens sent his third home run of the season out into right field, giving the Twins a five-run lead.
Quotable
“I’m curious at times if he has a pulse. I think I said it in spring training, I walked by him and said he had to smile every day.”
Twins manager Derek Shelton, on Prielipp
Up next
The Twins will send Joe Ryan (2-2, 3.90 ERA) to the mound for the second game of the series. He will square off against Logan Gilbert (1-3, 4.36 ERA). Ryan gave up seven runs (4 earned) in his last outing.
