Minnesota had already taken Saturday's opener 5-3 before Seattle answered with a 4-3 win in the nightcap, setting up a rubber match with the Twins clinging to .500 at 56-56 and the Mariners trying to climb back over .500 at 54-58. Neither team came in with much separation, which is exactly how this one played out.
Both rosters have been treading water for two weeks, and it showed. Minnesota's mixed 3-2 stretch and Seattle's 2-3 slide before Sunday made this feel like a coin-flip series between two teams jockeying for position rather than separating from each other, and the finale played out that way from the first pitch to the last.
The absences mattered on the field. Minnesota's lineup without Buxton looked thin for seven innings, and a rotation that's lost five starters to the IL leaned hard on Bradley to give length. Seattle, playing without Crawford up the middle and Raley in the corner outfield, still had enough thump to build a big early cushion before its bullpen had to survive a late scare.
Seattle led 6-0 through seven innings and looked like it was cruising to an easy one. Then Minnesota put together a 5-run eighth to make it a one-run game, and tied it at 6-6 with another run in the top of the ninth. Seattle had an answer waiting, scoring in the bottom of the ninth to walk it off 7-6 — a game that flipped from laugher to nail-biter to walk-off in the span of three innings.