Major League Baseball

Twins-Mariners Preview

Published Apr. 26, 2015 2:32 a.m. ET

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Minnesota is starting to figure things out on the road, but Kyle Gibson's struggles away from home have carried over from the end of last season.

Gibson will try to shake his road woes Sunday against the Seattle Mariners and help the Twins to a rare series win away from Minnesota.

The Twins (7-10) got off to a brutal start on the road, totaling 19 runs while going 1-7. Saturday's 8-5 victory gave Minnesota, which has scored 26 runs in going 4-2 at home, its second win in three road games and a chance to take its first road series in nine tries.

Gibson (1-2, 5.87 ERA) has lost his last four road starts dating to Sept. 11, posting a 9.00 ERA while walking 14 batters in 19 innings. He has allowed nine earned runs in 8 2-3 innings over two road outings this year against Detroit and Kansas City. Meanwhile, the right-hander has won his last three home starts with a 2.75 ERA.

Safeco Field proved friendly in his last visit. He threw six shutout innings in an 8-1 win there July 9 and is 2-1 with a 3.00 ERA in three career matchups with Seattle.

Minnesota would especially benefit from a lengthy outing after six pitchers threw 5 2-3 innings Saturday in relief of Trevor May, who exited due to an elbow contusion.

The Twins relied on a balanced attack offensively with seven different players driving in at least one run.

"There were a lot of contributions," manager Paul Molitor said. "We talked about it, if we're going to be effective offensively it's going to have to be balanced."

They're hoping Brian Dozier's second two-hit performance in three games is a sign of things to come as he has just one homer and five RBIs in 17 games after a breakout 2014 in which he went deep 23 times with 71 RBIs.

Bad defense continues to plague the Mariners (7-10), who have 14 errors after committing three Saturday, and third baseman Kyle Seager has four after committing eight last year. Seattle is 4-1 when it doesn't have an error.

Hisashi Iwakuma was originally scheduled to start but went on the disabled list Friday with a right lat strain. He's expected to miss two to four weeks.

"I'm being very positive with the situation. It's minor," he told MLB's official website. "It's not bad, as we saw on the MRI, so I want to come back soon and help the team and contribute."

Roenis Elias is expected to be called up from Triple-A for his season debut. Elias was impressive in the second half as a rookie last year, recording a 2.31 ERA over his final 10 outings, but didn't make the team out of spring training after going 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in five games, including four starts. He's 2-0 in three starts for Tacoma despite allowing 14 earned runs in 15 2-3 innings.

His two matchups with Minnesota last year aren't encouraging, either, as he gave up 10 earned runs in 10 1-3 innings while losing both times. Dozier was 4 for 5 against him with a home run and two doubles.

Robinson Cano is 18 for 44 with nine runs during an 11-game hitting streak and 34 for 71 (.479) over his last 18 against the Twins.

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