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Twins ‘Cruz’ to victory over Mariners

3 min read

Nelson Cruz homered and had three RBIs and utility infielder Ehire Adrianza’s hustle keyed a six-run sixth and the Minnesota Twins topped the Seattle Mariners 10-5 on Thursday.

Cruz, who played for the Mariners from 2015-18 before joining Minnesota as a free agent, homered in the third and added a two-run single in the sixth when Adrianza helped key the rally.

Max Kepler led off with a walk. Adrianza then singled Kepler to third. Mariners right-hander Brandon Brennan, on in relief, threw wildly past first trying to pick off Adrianza.

Kepler scored and Adrianza took second on the throwing error. Adrianza advanced on Brennan’s wild pitch and scored on a ground ball by Jason Castro with the infield in, sliding headfirst to beat second baseman Dee Gordon’s throw. Cruz and Kepler each drove in two runs with singles later in the inning.

Four of the six runs in the inning were charged to Brennan (2-6), who faced seven batters in the three-game series without retiring any of them. Seattle lost for the 24th time in 33 games and is 16-41 since its 13-2 start.

Cruz gave the Twins a 1-0 lead with his fifth home run in seven games, a line drive into the lower seats in left. That was the only run allowed in five innings by Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi, a Japanese left-hander who lost his previous three starts.

Twins starter Michael Pineda, facing the team that signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2005, limited Seattle to two hits in 5 2/3 innings and left the game with two on and a 1-0 lead.

Seattle’s Daniel Vogelbach, coming off a career-high four-hit game on Wednesday, singled against Twins reliever Ryan Harper to tie it, the run charged to Pineda.

Harper (2-0), a 30-year-old rookie who pitched into the seventh, was the beneficiary of the Twins’ rally.

C.J. Cron hit his 15th homer for the Twins, who lead the majors with 132. Jorge Polanco’s single in the sixth-inning rally gave him a career-high 14-game hitting streak, the longest active streak in the majors.

Seattle’s Mallex Smith extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single in the eighth, when the Mariners scored twice. The Mariners added two more runs in the ninth.

Ohtani hits for cycle: Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani has become the first Japanese player to hit for the cycle in the majors.

Ohtani completed his cycle with a single in the seventh inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays. He is the first Angels player to accomplish the feat since Mike Trout on May 21, 2013 against the Seattle Mariners.

Seager on IL: The NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers have placed shortstop Corey Seager on the injured list with a left hamstring strain.

The move made Thursday is the result of Seager getting hurt in the ninth inning of a loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.

The Dodgers say he had an MRI that revealed a strain less severe than initially believed.

The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Seager, who had a season-high, nine-game hitting streak during which he was batting .459 with seven doubles, one home run and nine RBI.

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