MINNEAPOLIS — Tyler Duffey came into the top of the ninth inning against the Mariners on Saturday looking to preserve a slim one-run victory for the Twins.
But he allowed three hits and two runs to set the Twins back a run instead.
Julio Rodriguez got his first major league hit with a lead-off, line-drive double to center. He went to third on J.P. Crawford's ground out. Duffey struck out Tom Murphy to face Adam Frazier at the top of the Mariners' batting order with two outs. But he allowed back-to-back RBI doubles from Frazier and Ty France to seal a 4-3 loss at Target Field.
Usually in that situation, the Twins would turn to All-Star reliever Taylor Rogers. But the Twins had traded him a day before the season opener to the Padres for starter Chris Paddack and reliever Emilio Pagan.
Just before that blown lead, the Twins had come back from a 16 at-bat run without putting a single man on base from the end of the second inning through the seventh. Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch with two outs in the second to load the bases, but when Luis Arraez missed that grand slam opportunity, the Twins entered the drought until the eighth inning.
Nick Gordon drew a walk from Seattle Reliever Andres Munoz in the eighth before Buxton crushed the reliever's 100.5-mph pitch 436 feet to the third deck near left-center field, with an exit velocity of 112.3 mph.
The dramatic homer and 3-2 lead had ignited the crowd, but the excitement was short-lived when the Mariners quickly responded. The Twins have lost each of their two opening home games by ne run.
Arraez had opened the scoring on his first at-bat. From the second spot in the batting order, the Venezuelan hit a solo home run in the first inning to sweeten his 25th birthday.
Starting pitcher Sonny Gray allowed the Mariners' first two runs in his Twins debut. He went 4 2⁄3 innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs, walking two batters and striking out four in his 76-pitch day.
The first run came in a troublesome third, when Gray allowed France an RBI double in a two-hit, two-walk inning. In the fifth inning, he gave up a solo homer to Murphy, batting eighth in the ninth spot.
