Cole Young delivers game-winning at-bat in MLB debut as Seattle Mariners beat Twins 5-4 in 11 innings

SEATTLE - Cole Young had a debut to remember for the Seattle Mariners.

The 21-year-old rookie delivered the game-winning at-bat for the Mariners, driving in Miles Mastrobuoni in the 11th inning for a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Young became the first player in Mariners history to deliver a walk-off at-bat in his debut appearance in the major leagues.

"That was unreal. I can't even describe it, the past 24 hours. It has been insane," a stunned Young said. "I mean, I never thought I would be in that situation to hit a walk-off in my debut, but that was unreal."

In their third extra inning game in as many nights, the Mariners finally prevailed after two disastrous performances prior. Seattle had allowed 13 runs combined in the 10th inning over the last two games in losses to the Twins and Washington Nationals. 

Facing Cole Sands in the 11th, Young delivered a chopped ground ball up the first base line. Former Mariner Ty France cleanly fielded the ball with one-hand and made a good throw home, but Mastrobuoni beat the tag charging from third base for the winning run.

"This game had a little bit of everything," manager Dan Wilson said. "And you know, it's feels really good to come on top of that one."

The game-winner was nearly identical to Young's final full game with Triple-A Tacoma on Thursday night.

"It was like the same exact hit," Young said. "Just crazy. I'm just glad I put the ball in play and good things happen.

"With runner on third  and one out, I'm trying to, like, drive the ball to the outfield, so he can tag. I was trying to do that first two pitches. And then got the two strikes, I was battling, trying to put the ball in play. And, yeah, luckily I hit it soft enough where they couldn't make an out. So that was awesome."

Young was told mid-game last night by Rainiers manager John Russell that he was getting the call-up to Seattle today. He began calling friends and family to let them know he'd be making his debut on Satuday.

"I think they were a little confused since it was like mid-game," Young said. "I think the best reaction was my mom. She was just like, screaming on the phone, and I started crying. And I think that's when it hit me, really, when I started crying, and she was crying too. And then, like, I called some of my friends, and they were just like, in shock. So that was just, it was funny to see the reaction."

His mom and dad, his brother and his fiancé, and one of his best friends were able to make it in time for the game.

"I didn't sleep last night. I was just thinking of every scenario that could happen, and walk-off was not in my mind," he said.

Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford each hit two-run home runs for the Seattle Mariners, and Collin Snider bounced back with two scoreless innings pitched in the 10th and 11th innings to set the table for Young's heroics.

Raleigh's 22nd home run of the season tied him with Shohei Ohtani for the major league lead, and Crawford's blast in the seventh inning gave Seattle a 4-3 lead. 

In his first start back form the injured list, Bryce Miller had to work through trouble in the second in his first start off the injured list. Matt Wallner's two-run home run gave Minnesota an early 2-0 lead. Willi Castro singled and stole second base before scoring on Byron Buxton's two-out RBI single for a 3-0 Twins lead.

"I felt good," Miller said. "I think first inning was as good as it gets. That felt like the old me. But, yeah, everything felt good. I think if I could do anything over, it would be the lead-off walk to (Carlos) Correa and then falling behind, gave my heater in a hitter's count (to Wallner) and and he got to it. But other than that, you know, the rest of the game, I think everything felt pretty good."

Miller was on a limited pitch count in his return to the rotation, throwing 71 pitches with 45 strikes over four innings of work. He allowed three runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts. A 10-minute delay for a stadium alarm didn't help.

"I just have to make sure I keep body and the arm and the elbow warm, especially, you know, on a cool night and whoever set the fire alarm off, that wasn't ideal for me, but we got through the fourth," Miller said.

Raleigh's magic continued in the third inning. He hammered a Bailey Ober fastball way above the strike zone deep to right field to cut the Minnesota lead to 3-2.

Ober ran into trouble again in the fifth inning that would end his outing. Ben Williamson's lead-off double was followed by a J.P. Crawford single to put runners on the corners. Louis Varland entered from the bullpen for Minnesota and bailed the Twins out of the jam, striking out Raleigh looking and Julio Rodríguez swinging, and forced Randy Arozarena to fly out to left field to end the inning.

Young drew a lead-off walk against Jorge Alcalá in the seventh inning to reach base for the first time. Crawford's two-run blast with one out followed to give the Mariners a 4-3 lead.

Carlos Vargas then came in looking for his second career save as both Andrés Muñoz and Matt Brash were unavailable out of the bullpen after pitching the prior two days. After getting a pop out for the first out of the inning, Vargas wildly threw wide of first base on a chopper back to the mound by Byron Buxton. The throwing error allowed Buxton to reach third base as the tying run.

Trevor Larnach followed with a sharp single through a drawn in infield to score Buxton to tie the game at 4-4.

Young checked off his first major league hit in the ninth inning and Crawford added a two-out double that put the winning run 90 feet away. But after an intentional walk of Raleigh, Griffin Jax struck out Rodríguez to send the game to extra innings for a third straight night.

It's the first time the Mariners have played three straight extra inning games since April 11-13, 2015, when they played went to extras twice against the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Dodgers, all of which were on the road. The last time they did so at home were four straight extra inning games – all against the Texas Rangers – September 16-19, 2002.

After disastrous 10th innings each of the prior two games, the Mariners escaped disaster this time around.

Collin Snider had allowed seven runs, five earned in the 10th inning of Thursday night's 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. He walked the first batter he faced on Saturday in Castro before Kody Clemens ripped a single into center field. Matt Wallner attempted to score from second base, but Rodríguez delivered a perfect strike to Raleigh at home plate for the first out of the inning. Snider then forced a double play ball from Harrison Bader to keep the game tied.

"That's a huge bounce back," Wilson said of Snider. "And you know, he was disappointed after the other night, and to come back in today, facing like almost the exact same situation and having a completely different result, that's pretty impressive mental capacity right there. And you know, it wasn't easy. He had to fight through a lot of situations, but he delivered, and delivered big."

Rodríguez advanced to third base as the inherited runner in the bottom of the 10th inning, but Jhoan Duran struck out Mitch Garver looking to send the game another inning.

Snider allowed the lead-off batter to reach again as Ryan Jeffers singled to advanced inherited runner Bader to third. After Snider struck out Buxton, Rowdy Tellez snared a Trevor Larnach liner at first base to keep the go-ahead run at bay. Brooks Lee's grounder to first gave Seattle another chance to win it.

"Some great defensive plays behind the pitching today," Wilson said. "Randy's double play was It was huge. And then obviously julio's throw from center field to cut the runner down at home.

"The D-Mo (double) play, you know, coming in the game cold like that is not easy to do, and to get a ball that's sharply hit like that, and just did a super job of being able to knock it down and then be able to turn that double play with Cole. You can point to so many turning points in this game, but it seems like we were on the top side of all the turning points in this one."

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