SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 31: Royce Lewis #23 of the Minnesota Twins high fives third base coach Ramon Borrego #46 of the Minnesota Twins after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on July 31, 20 … (Olivia Vanni / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Royce Lewis hit a tying home run in the seventh inning and Luke Keaschall smacked a go-ahead double as the surging Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3 on Friday night.
Minnesota’s seventh victory in nine games gave the Twins (56-55) a winning record for the first time since April 21, when they were 12-11. They are tied with Cleveland for the final American League playoff spot, and both teams are three games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central.
The skidding Mariners (53-58) have lost three straight and eight of 10 to fall three games behind AL West-leading Houston.
Yoendrys Gómez walked two in the ninth but locked down his 14th save of the season. Kody Funderburk (2-1) tossed 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief after Zebby Matthews struck out a career-high 10 in five innings of three-run ball.
Lewis led off the seventh with a no-doubt drive to left field off left-hander José A. Ferrer (4-2) to make it 3-all. Alan Roden reached on an infield single and, one-out later, Keaschall put the Twins up for good with his RBI double off Eduard Bazardo.
Ryan Jeffers added an insurance run in the eighth. He drove a sweeper from Bazardo into the Twins bullpen for his 10th home run to give Minnesota a 5-3 lead.
Seattle took a 2-0 advantage in the first on a two-out, two-run double by Cal Raleigh off Matthews. A two-run homer by Brooks Lee in the second evened the score before Seattle went back in front 3-2 on a homer by Cole Young.
The Mariners placed third baseman J.P. Crawford on the 10-day injured list with left wrist inflammation and recalled infielder Leo Rivas from Triple-A Tacoma.
The Twins acquired right-hander Dean Kremer from Baltimore and veteran reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets in separate trades Friday.
Up next
RHP Logan Gilbert (8-6, 3.44 ERA) gets the ball for Seattle on Saturday against Minnesota LHP Connor Prielipp (3-5, 4.73).
The Source: Information in this story came from The Associated Press.
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