Left-handed hitters have been putting up big numbers against Mariners pitchers

MINNEAPOLIS — When the Twins honored Alex Kirilloff for being named American League player of the week before Monday’s game at Target Field, he could have tipped his hat toward the Mariners’ dugout as a thank you.

After all, a portion of Kirilloff’s award-winning numbers for last week came against Mariners pitchers. In four games at T-Mobile Park, Kirilloff had six hits in 19 plate appearances, with a triple, two homers and five RBI.

But it wasn’t just Kirilloff who tortured the Mariners in the four-game series; it was also fellow left-handed hitters Edouard Julien and Max Kepler and even Joey Gallo, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner.

Over the series in Seattle, Minnesota’s left-handed hitters produced a .337/.387/.639 slash line with 28 total hits, including two doubles, a triple and seven homers. They scored seven runs and drove in 15 runs.

“Kirilloff is on a good run and he’s swinging the bat really well,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Kepler had a really good series against us and Julien is a pretty hard guy to get out right now. They’ve mixed up their lineup and stacked them together, which is what you should do when guys are going hot and going well. They’ve been going well against us.”

So how do you combat that?

“If you can slow them down and get them to hit more off-speed stuff, it’s probably to our advantage,” he said. “But our team is driven by the fastball. We have good fastball pitchers, and we don’t want guys to get away from their strengths either.”

With a starting rotation of all right-handers, the Mariners are more susceptible to damage against left-handed hitters, which isn’t completely unsurprising. Left-handed hitters had a .255/.299/.463 slash line against Mariners right-handed starters coming into Monday.

Of the 19 homers Luis Castillo has allowed this season, 12 have come against left-handed hitters. Rookie Bryan Woo has struggled with left-handed hitters, who have a .403/.474/.851 slash line against him, with seven doubles, a triple and seven homers. Meanwhile, right-hander George Kirby has relatively dramatic splits as well. Left-handed batters have a .271/.296/.473 slash line against him with nine homers while right-handed hitters have a .231/.249/.327 slash line with four homers. He has a 5.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio against lefties and a 19.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio against right-handed hitters.

It’s like a heat wave

While the Twin Cities had been largely spared from the sweltering summer heat wave gripping the nation, their turn to deal with unseasonably warm temperatures comes with the Mariners in town.

Following a brief afternoon thunderstorm, the temperature for first pitch on Monday evening was 84 degrees, which was expected to be the most comfortable weather of the series.

Temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s over the next two days with a severe weather alert from the National Weather Service.

The Mariners weekend series against the Arizona Diamondbacks will be played in the climate-controlled confines of Chase Field. But temperatures outside the stadium will be above 110 degrees. The Mariners have Thursday off in Phoenix, where the high is expected to reach 116 degrees.

Also

The wait is over for Cade Marlowe. The rookie outfielder registered his first MLB hit in his first plate appearance on Tuesday. Marlowe stayed on a 1-2 slider from Twins starter Kenta Maeda and hit a hard ground ball up the middle and into center field. He picked up his first career stolen base moments later.

Called up Thursday, Marlowe had come to the plate five times without picking up a hit.