Seattle Mariners at Minnesota Twins

Cole Young and Josh Naylor were eons away from the Majors when they got their first taste of Target Field during All-Star Week back in 2014. And that made their game-sealing hits in the Mariners’ 7-1 win on Tuesday night feel nostalgically full circle. Young punched an opposite-field RBI single during the seventh inning that pushed Seattle ahead for the first time in this series. Then Naylor delivered the dagger with a massive three-run homer that featured a bat flip appropriate for the moment in the eighth. And they each did so from the left side of a batter’s box that is more familiar to each than you’d think. Young took part in the Pitch, Hit & Run Competition at this venue just weeks before his 11th birthday, and Naylor was here for the MLB Junior Home Run Derby at the ripe age of 17. “Hitting a ball and seeing it fly in a big league stadium,” Young recalled, “just gave me the idea like, 'I want to do this when I'm older. I want to come back to a stadium when I get older and do it.'”