SEATTLE -- Cole Young couldn’t sleep Friday night.
The Mariners’ No. 3 prospect had been pulled in the fourth inning of Triple-A Tacoma’s game against Salt Lake, getting his callup to the Majors. He had been so shocked in the dugout that he made Rainiers manager John Russell repeat himself to fully comprehend the message.
He’d called his parents, who were more than a bit surprised to hear from him in the middle of a game. His mom had cried. He had cried. He called his friends. They went wild. He was going to be a big leaguer. Then, he went home and spent the night unable to sleep, imagining what the next 24 hours would bring.
His imagination still came up short of reality.
"I was thinking of every scenario that could happen,” he said, after Seattle’s 5-4 win over Minnesota in 11 innings. “Walk-off was not in my mind.”
But that’s exactly how Young -- Seattle’s highest-rated middle infield prospect to debut in a decade -- ended his first big league game, on national television, chopping a 1-2 fastball from Cole Sands up the first-base line and giving Miles Mastrobuoni a chance to dive home safely.
“Huge play,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Huge win. Great job in a debut that had a little bit of everything. I doubt he’ll ever forget that.”
Young became the first player in Mariners franchise history to have a walk-off plate appearance in his first career game. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the first player to do so since 2023, when Samad Taylor -- his teammate in Tacoma this time last week -- did so for the Royals.
The win snapped a three-game skid and put the Mariners back on the front foot after back-to-back meltdowns in extra innings. It also moved Seattle back into first place in the AL West, thanks to Tampa Bay’s win over Houston.
And it mirrored another highlight for Young, in what turned out to be the 21-year-old’s final full game in Triple-A before his callup.
On Thursday, Young came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie ballgame, with one out and the winning run on third base. Facing a 1-1 count, he chopped a bouncer down the first-base line, soft enough that the Salt Lake infield had no hope of cutting down the winning run at the plate.
Saturday, it was just about the exact same scenario -- there were just 32,000+ more people in the stands.
"It was like the same exact pitch,” Young said. “I’m just glad I put the ball in play.”
On top of recording his first career RBI on the walk-off, Young logged his first career hit in the bottom of the ninth, going down to one knee to line a Sands sweeper into right field. He got as far as third base after J.P. Crawford -- who hit one two-run home run in the seventh inning -- looped a double into shallow left field and Cal Raleigh -- who hit one of his own in the third -- was intentionally walked, but Julio Rodríguez struck out swinging to send the game to extras.
Seattle, which had allowed seven runs in the top of the 10th inning Thursday against the Nationals and six in the 10th on Friday, needed a couple of massive plays in the field to preserve the tie game this time around. First, Rodríguez fired a 96.5 mph seed to the plate to cut down Matt Wallner. Then, Dylan Moore got in front of a 108.5 mph Harrison Bader shot and knocked it down before recovering to start a 5-4-3, inning-ending double play.
Despite the hard contact, Wilson stuck with Collin Snider for a second inning of work, and the right-hander got through the top of the 11th, keeping the automatic runner stuck on second.
"You can point to so many turning points in this game, but it seems like we were on the top side of all the turning points,” Wilson said.
That set the stage for the bottom of the lineup to play perfect small ball. Leody Taveras dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Seattle’s automatic runner to third, and after taking two big hacks at the first two pitches he saw from Sands, Young shortened up, just wanting to put the ball in play.
"The first couple innings, I was a little nervous for sure,” he said. “But after the first at-bat, I realized it was the same game as Triple-A, just a lot more people here. After I got my first hit, that’s when I started to feel comfortable. That last at-bat, I kind of felt like I was back in Tacoma with my approach and everything.”
So Young did exactly what he’d done for his last full game back in Tacoma. Before the most chaotic day of his young life ended with a Gatorade bath behind first base.
"I can’t even describe the past 24 hours,” Young said. “It has been insane. I never thought I would be in that situation, to hit a walk-off, in my debut. That was unreal.”
Now, he just needs some sleep.