Major League Baseball
Seattle 4, Minnesota 3
When: 2:10 PM ET, Sunday, September 25, 2016
Where: Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Temperature: 65°
Umpires: Home - Jerry Layne, 1B - Hunter Wendelstedt, 2B - Toby Basner, 3B - Tripp Gibson III
Attendance: 22092

MINNEAPOLIS -- Not even a sore wrist could keep Seattle Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz from reaching the seats this weekend at Target Field.

Cruz hit two solo home runs and Jesus Sucre continued his hot hitting since his recall from Triple-A with a two-run homer as the Seattle Mariners held on for a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins, who lost their 100th game and will finish with the league's worst record and the top pick in next year's draft.

Cruz led off the second inning on Sunday with a 430-yard blast into the second deck in left field. In the sixth, Cruz grimaced and was attended to by medical personnel for what appeared to be a wrist or forearm injury when he swung through a Hector Santiago pitch.

On the next pitch, he drove a liner to the first deck in left field and appeared to wince as he followed through on the swing. He was later taken out with left wrist soreness.

"I still have my strength," Cruz said. "It hurts."

Cruz had four homers in the series, including one in each game for Seattle, which kept pace in the American League wild-card race. The Mariners remained 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore for the second wild card after the Orioles beat Arizona 2-1 on Sunday.

Cruz has enjoyed playing at Target Field, and he certainly made the park look small in the three games. Cruz homered off the facing above the batter's eye in center field on Friday at an estimated 455 feet. Saturday, he reached the third deck in left field for what was determined by MLB's Statcast at 493 feet, the second-longest homer in the majors this season.

He has a 10-game hitting streak at Target Field, and he's hit .442 (19-for-43) with nine homers and 16 RBIs.

"I've been dealing with it for like, four or five days already," Cruz said. "It's been like that for a few days. Hopefully, it'll come down and be able to go tomorrow. ... When I extend it is when I feel it."

Taijuan Walker (7-11) pitched 5 1/3 innings for the Mariners, allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out seven. Edwin Diaz finished with his 17th save in 19 chances.

Minnesota is on pace to surpass the club record for losses in a season (102 in 1982) after Santiago (12-10) could only last 5 2/3 innings while surrendering four runs, including the three homers.

"It doesn't sit well," Twins manager Paul Molitor said of reaching 100 losses. "I've never experienced it. Both sides, it doesn't happen very often and 99's not very good either. So, you live with it. It's going to stare at you all winter long, I know that."

Minnesota finishes the season with six games on the road against the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox.

"You definitely don't want to be on top of that list for most losses in a season," Santiago said. "Hopefully we can take six and finish off the season very strong."

Sucre's first homer of the season came in between Cruz's shots. Leonys Martin led off the fifth with a walk and Sucre homered to left.

In four games since being recalled, Sucre is 10-for-14 hitting with five RBIs.

"He just doesn't try to do too much, he just tries to put bat on the ball and get some pitches to hit," Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "He's not trying to kill it, he's trying to hit it and good things are happening."

Brian Dozier singled and came around to score on a double play to open the scoring in the first for Minnesota. Max Kepler hit his 17th home run of the season in the second to retake the lead after Cruz's first homer.

Robbie Grossman had three hits for the Twins and scored on Juan Centeno's single in the sixth.

The game was delayed momentarily in the first when home plate umpire Jerry Layne was shaken up after taking a foul ball off his mask. Layne stumbled backward and was immediately grabbed by the catcher, Centeno and Robinson Cano.

Layne was evaluated and stood with his hands on his knees for several minutes before leaving. He was diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms.



NOTES: The Mariners started Shawn O'Malley at shortstop against the left-handed Santiago. Ketel Marte has slipped to a .258 average this season and is hitting .211 in 142 at-bats from the right side. The switch-hitting O'Malley has hit .250 with one homer in 92 at-bats against lefties. ... The Twins have homered 41 times in their past 25 games, the second-most in baseball during that stretch. The 193 home runs this season are the fifth-most in Minnesota history, just behind the 196 hit in 1986 and 33 behind the club-record 225 set in 1963. ... The Twins conclude the home portion of the schedule with a 30-51 record. The 30 home wins are the lowest since winning just 29 at the Metrodome in 1995. ... The middle of Seattle's lineup in Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager have a chance to be the first set of Mariners' teammates to all finish with 30 or more doubles, home runs and at least 100 RBIs. Cano needs eight RBIs to reach the mark and Cruz needs three doubles. Seager needs one homer and four RBIs.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Seattle   Minnesota
Taijuan Walker Player Hector Santiago
Win W/L Loss
5.1 IP 5.2
7 Strikeouts 1
9 Hits 5
5.06 ERA 6.35
Hitting
Seattle   Minnesota
Nelson Cruz Player Robbie Grossman
2 Hits 3
2 RBI 0
2 HR 0
8 TB 4
.667 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Seattle 6 3 17 .182 14 5 4 2 0 0
Minnesota 9 1 14 .265 17 11 2 4 1 3