Plate umpire Layne hit in mask, leaves Mariners-Twins game

The Seattle loss, coupled with a Baltimore win, has the Mariners 2 1/2 games back of the final wild-card spot, but the task is tougher, as they would need to leap-frog Houston, Detroit and Baltimore to get to play games after their October 2 regular-season finale with Oakland at Safeco Field.

Sano’s 24th homer, a solo shot, followed Nelson Cruz’s tying two-run shot for Seattle in the top of the fourth.

Minnesota’s lead doubled in the second inning when Kennys Vargas led off with a walk, advanced on a single and a lineout, and scored on Logan Schafer’s fielder’s choice.

Cruz’s 39th homer of the season would have gone 493 feet had it landed unimpeded, according to Statcast. Robinson Cano leads Seattle with 185 hits, Nelson Cruz has 98 RBI and Kyle Seager has 29 home runs.

More important, it tied the game at 2-2. Santiago allowed two hits over eight scoreless innings versus the Mariners on May 15 and has won both of his starts against them this season.

“I squared pretty good”. And they usually go far. “I’ve hit a few over there, but they haven’t measured that far”.

Say what you want about Tyler Duffey (and the consensus around these parts seems to be he’s better-suited for the bullpen) – the dude works fast.

“They’re all important”, Mariners manager Scott Servais said. Sano took Miranda’s first pitch in the inning deep to left, putting the Twins up 3-2. First pitch, it’s untied, and we got through that inning, but we weren’t in a position to give up a whole lot more. Layne was the crew chief for the game at Target Field. Nothing has been finalized, but Twins president Dave St. Peter confirmed that the team is in talks with North Dakota State officials regarding the Bison hosting a game in Minneapolis a year from now.

On Sunday, the Twins will send left-hander Hector Santiago (12-9, 4.82 ERA) out to face Seattle right-hander Taijuan Walker (6-11, 4.32).

With Schebler at first base and one out in the first inning, Votto gave Jungmann a rude welcome back in the first inning, slamming a two-run homer to left.