SEATTLE — Edouard Julien was a temp, a fill-in while Jorge Polanco's hamstring heals. Max Kepler is trying to hold off the Twins' crowd of younger outfielders, and his batting average has dipped below .200 for weeks at a time. And Kenta Maeda, two years removed from Tommy John surgery? Who knows if he'll ever be the same?
On Wednesday, in delivering the Twins' second consecutive victory, 6-3 over the Mariners, each of them made a pretty compelling case for job security.
Julien, the rookie who looks like he'll never return to the minors, continued one of the hottest streaks of hitting the Twins have seen all year. Kepler homered for the second time in the series, has a hit in every game since the All-Star break, and made the most subtly important play of the game while running the bases.
And Maeda? His velocity hit 93 miles per hour, his slider was hitting all the corners, and he dominated the Mariners. "It's the best stuff I've ever seen him have," crowed manager Rocco Baldelli. "A phenomenal outing."
The veteran pitcher was dazzling, retiring 21 of the 24 Mariners he faced, including 15 in a row at one point, and striking out a season-high nine hitters while walking none.
"I've been searching for ways to get better, obviously, but the preparation I put in this week, playing catch, tinkering with things, I think I've found the right groove," Maeda said. "What's huge is that I don't really have to worry about my elbow. In the past, if I put a little force into my pitch, I would feel it in my elbow."
Maeda made only one mistake, a slider to Mariners catcher Tom Murphy that he left in the middle. Murphy deposited it into the seats in center field. He left with a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning after allowing a single to Jarred Kelenic — then watched as Griffin Jax, who hadn't allowed a run since May 19 and hadn't given up a home run all year, left a two-strike sweeper in the middle of the zone.
Eugenio Suarez clobbered it over the scoreboard in left field, tying the game and setting off a loud celebration by the 25,825 in attendance.
But the Twins shook off their disappointment right away, with Kepler making a big play. The right fielder led off the eighth with a single, and when Willi Castro followed one out later with one of his own, Kepler hustled around second base and beat Teoscar Hernández's throw to third.
"Off the bat, I knew I needed to get to the closest spot to scoring position as possible," Kepler said. "It's the go-ahead run. Eighth inning, it's an important [play]."
Sure was, because with pinch hitter Donovan Solano at the plate, Murphy allowed a pitch to glance off his glove. Kepler trotted home, and the Twins never let the lead slip away again.
"He's a great athlete. He's capable of being an explosive athlete. He's taking to some of the encouragement that we're giving him to force some action on the bases, too," Baldelli said. "He doesn't have to be a conservative baserunner. He can be an aggressive baserunner at times. Pushing him to do that is a good thing, and he's taken to it. It was a big play, it really was."
There were other big plays, of course, like Alex Kirilloff's two-run homer in the ninth, after striking out in his first four at-bats. An Jhoan Duran's impossibly fast fastball, which hit a new career high of 104.8 mph against Suarez.
His velocity "keeps going into outer space. I don't know where it's going to stop," Baldelli said. "He's living on his own planet at this point."
And so is Julien, the rookie who can't stop hitting.
He saw seven pitches in drawing a first-inning walk, and nine more in walking in the seventh. In between, the Canadian infielder singled in the third inning and hammered a middle-of-the-plate fastball from All-Star righthander Luis Castillo into the seats in right-center, his ninth home run of the year.
Julien — whose playing time and even his position remain a question mark as Polanco nears a return from the injured list — is now 15-for-23 over his past seven games, a .652 batting average that includes three doubles and three home runs. He is 8-for-11 in three games this week in T-Mobile Park.
"He is raking. It's fun to watch," Kepler said. "It's not so much the balls he puts in play, the hits — that's amazing. But he's the guy who has five to eight pitches each at-bat. If he's not getting a hit, he's walking. It's a great motivator for the team."
Almost as good a motivator as players seeking a little job security.
