SEATTLE _ For almost a month, the Seattle Mariners have labored below .500, that important break-even mark. Just getting back to .500, of course, is not the ultimate goal, nor is .500 the mark of a successful season. But it's something, especially for a team that started the season the way the Mariners did.
And thanks to Mike Zunino, who hit a two-run homer walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday, the Mariners had a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins, got back to .500, won their fifth straight and continued all the hard-earned momentum they've won in the last 10 days. Before Zunino's second homer of the game, it seemed the big moment had come in the fifth inning.
Until that point Mariners starter Yovani Gallardo had flirted with trouble, sure, but he'd avoided significant damage. He had done what all starters try to do, if nothing else: He had kept his team in the game.
He'd allowed a run in the third inning, but the Mariners answered with back-to-back home runs from two catchers: Zunino, who hit his third homer of the season, and Carlos Ruiz, who hit his first and who was only in the starting lineup as a DH because of an injury to Nelson Cruz and because a lefty was on the mound.
Anyway, the fifth inning: That's when Gallardo ran into his biggest trouble. It started with an inning that looked like it was headed for no trouble at all. Gallardo got the first two outs before allowing a two-out double. Then he walked Brian Dozier. And then a second run scored on a single from Joe Mauer. At that point, the game was tied 2-2, so Gallardo was still in good shape.
But that's when Miguel Sano, the Twins' power-hitting third baseman, stepped to the plate.
Gallardo made a mistake, and it happened to be a really costly one: Sano crushed a three-run homer that gave the Twins a 5-2 lead. That four-run fifth inning seemed liked it would prove decisive.
But thanks to Zunino, Gallardo's trouble in the fifth inning became an afterthought.
