The Minnesota Twins will see 2011 Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez take the mound tomorrow night at Safeco Field in Seattle. On Monday night, they simply made young Michael Pineda look like a Cy Young candidate.
The Twins managed to scratch out just four hits, as Pineda threw seven innings of three-hit ball and led the Mariners past baseball's worst team by a score of 5-2. The win allowed the Mariners to stop their six-game losing streak, while allowing the Twins to stretch their losing streak to nine, the team's worst drought since they dropped ten in a row in September of 1998.
The Mariners struck first in this one, getting an RBI double from Jack Cust in the bottom of the first to make the score 1-0. They extended the lead in the bottom of the third with another RBI double, this one from Justin Smoak to score Ichiro. That made the score 2-0 in favor of Seattle, and it remained that way until the sixth inning, when Scott Baker gave up back-to-back solo home runs with two outs to Adam Kennedy and Carlos Peguero to make the score 4-0. Kennedy's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth gave the Mariners a 5-0 lead going into the final frame.
In the ninth, an error from Kennedy put Jason Kubel at first base to lead off the inning, and after Justin Morneau flied out to center, Michael Cuddyer singled to put runners on first and second. Delmon Young then hit a ground ball to Chone Figgins, who threw the ball away, allowing Kubel to come around and score the Twins' first run. A Danny Valencia ground out brought Cuddyer around to score, making it 5-2 in favor of the Mariners, and pinch-hitter Ben Revere grounded out to shortstop to end the game.
Baker took the loss, dropping his record on the season to 2-3 on the year. Pineda, the American League Rookie of the Month for April, got the victory to push his record to 5-2.
Same two teams on Tuesday night, starting at 9:10 PM Central time from Safeco Field. The Twins will send Francisco Liriano (2-5, 7.07 ERA) to the mound, and the Mariners will counter with the aforementioned Felix Hernandez (4-3, 3.36 ERA).