After lengthy rain delay, Twins' patience pays off in all-around win vs. Mariners

MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s said that good things come to those who wait, and the Twins took that concept to extremes on Thursday.

Trevor Larnach, Brooks Lee and Matt Wallner homered as the Twins beat the Mariners, 10-1.

The teams waited out a 4-hour, 22-minute rain delay -- 28 minutes short of the longest ever at Target Field -- and played a tight contest until Minnesota broke it open with an eight-run sixth inning.

“Sometimes [a delay] can be hard on some guys, but our guys have the mentality that we’re playing and we’re always ready to go,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson (3-4) pitched five scoreless innings, giving up two hits and walking one while striking out six. It was the second time in three starts that Woods Richardson gave Minessota five scoreless innings, a promising trend for a team that has struggled to find consistency in its starting pitching in June.

“When your starting pitcher holds the other team down, it just gives you every opportunity to win the game,” Baldelli said. “When you can take the lead in the middle of the game, it tilts everything your way. [Woods Richardson is] the one that allowed us to do that, and the offense stayed at it.”

Taking the mound more than four hours after you had expected to isn’t ideal for starting pitchers, who are known to religiously adhere to their pregame routines. But Woods Richardson found a way to cope with the delay.

“In that moment, you just try to stay present, stay in the moment,” he said. “It could be easy … to get out of our own flow of things, but I think we did really well just trying to stay in a routine today.”

The importance of that ability to stay focused was not lost on his catcher.

“That’s a lot of adversity for him to face right there,” Ryan Jeffers said. “That’s not easy to do, to come out and pitch like that after sitting around and waiting all day. That says a lot about who he is as a player and a pitcher.”

While Woods Richardson was grinding through the Mariners’ lineup, Seattle starter Emerson Hancock (3-4) was having similar success with Minnesota’s bats. But the Twins came to life in a big way in the middle of the game.

In the fifth inning, Byron Buxton earned a one-out walk and moved to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Hancock (3-4). The bonus base didn’t matter, however, as Larnach followed with a towering homer to right-center, his 12th of the season.

Lee greeted reliever Zach Pop by driving the first pitch of the sixth inning into the seats in right to give the Twins a 3-0 lead.

After a pair of one-out walks, Buxton doubled home a run. Another scored on third baseman Ben Williamson’s throwing error. Willi Castro hit an RBI double, and Carlos Correa followed with a two-run single. Wallner capped the scoring with a two-run homer into the bullpen in left-center.

“Offense is just pushing it line by line,” Buxton said. “If the next guy don't get the job done, you push it down to the next guy. That's kind of how we've been going about our business offensively.”

After losing five straight games to start the homestand, the Twins came within one out of posting back-to-back shutouts against the Mariners. That uptick couldn’t have come at a better time with a three-game series against the first-place Tigers looming this weekend in Detroit.

“When we're going out there doing what we're supposed to be doing, playing our game, everybody is doing their job, and we focus on what we know we can control, that's what happens,” Buxton said.