MINNEAPOLIS — After a one-day reprieve from a deep losing stretch, the same issues that have hampered the Minnesota Twins for the past two weeks resurfaced in a 7-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Target Field.

The Twins were hitless in 10 at-bats with a runner on second or third base, and the bullpen flopped after entering the seventh inning in a tie game. The Twins have lost 10 of their last 12 games, scoring fewer than three runs in five of their last seven.

Without giving the Twins bullpen any breathing room, Kody Funderburk surrendered a go-ahead RBI single to the Mariners’ Cole Young in the seventh inning, and Cole Sands served up a three-run homer to Josh Naylor in the eighth.

The loss spoiled a strong outing from Joe Ryan, who yielded six hits and two runs in six innings.

Ryan, coming off a rough start in which he gave up seven hits and seven runs (four earned) in five innings against the New York Mets, looked like he was in complete control for much of the evening. He struck out six, throwing a first-pitch strike to 18 of his first 22 batters. He induced three foul outs to third base.

He received some quality help from his defense. Ryan picked off Naylor in the fourth inning, and catcher Victor Caratini tossed Naylor out attempting to steal second in the sixth. Trevor Larnach, who is often pulled for defensive replacements in late innings, made a running catch in the left-center gap in the sixth inning that prompted Ryan to raise both of his arms in excitement.

But Ryan’s solid start crumbled against his final three batters.

Julio Rodríguez hit a two-out double off Ryan in the sixth inning — Rodríguez whacked three doubles in the final four innings — and he scored the tying run when Naylor lined an RBI single to left field. After Naylor was caught stealing for the second time (he was caught twice in 32 stolen-base attempts last year), Randy Arozarena opened the seventh inning with a leadoff double that knocked Ryan out of the game.

Funderburk, attempting to preserve a tie score, allowed a two-out RBI single to Young in a lefty-on-lefty matchup when a fastball was poked into left field.

In the eighth inning, Sands walked his first batter before giving up a double to Rodríguez. Naylor, the next batter, connected on a cutter at the top of the strike zone and sent it over the right-field wall for his fourth homer of the season. Naylor admired his swing for a moment, then flipped his bat as he stepped into his home run trot.

The Twins had only one baserunner after the Mariners tied the score in the sixth inning.

Byron Buxton lifted Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert’s first pitch in the fifth inning, an elevated 94-mph fastball, into the left-field seats for a solo home run. It was Buxton’s team-leading seventh homer of the season.

Too bad the Twins couldn’t pick when they wanted to use their best swing of the night.

The Twins were hitless in nine at-bats with a runner in scoring position against Gilbert. The Mariners’ starting pitcher tiptoed around a pair of one-out singles in the third inning, inducing a flyout against Larnach and a groundout versus Austin Martin.

The bases were loaded with one out in the fourth inning through Josh Bell’s leadoff single, an error and a walk. Gilbert escaped when he struck out Tristan Gray and induced a first-pitch groundout against Royce Lewis, who was batting ninth in the Twins lineup for just the second time since his rookie season in 2022.

After Buxton’s leadoff homer in the fifth inning — he’s hit all seven homers over his last 13 games — Gilbert stranded two more runners to end his outing. Larnach bashed a double off the top of the tall wall in right-center field, and Gilbert retired three of the next four batters without Larnach even reaching third base.

Rodríguez hit a two-run double to left field off new Twins reliever Luis García in the ninth inning.

____

©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.