Here's a rather simple way to lose a baseball game: muster up less hits than the number of your opponent's runs. That is exactly what happened to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, who tallied only four hits in a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Twins ace Scott Diamond was tagged with his first non-quality start since July 21, but still pitched admirably, giving up five earned runs in seven innings while striking out two batters.
Seattle went up 2-0 in the third inning when third baseman Kyle Seager scored Brendan Ryan and Franklin Gutierrez with a double to right center. The Twins answered back in the bottom of the inning when Ben Revere plated Jamey Carroll with a sacrifice fly, but Seattle struck back in the top of the fifth with a Dustin Ackley three-run homer and wouldn't look back from there. Minnesota mounted a minuscule rally in the ninth off of Mariners reliever Charlie Furbush, but closer Tom Wilhelmsen snatched up a one-out save to lock the game down.
Game three of the series will start at 7:10 p.m CT on Wednesday.
Head over to Twinkie Town for more Twins news, and make sure to visit Lookout Landing for more Mariners coverage. Also check out Baseball Nation for even more analysis from around the league.
