Logan Morrison homers twice, Mariners beat Jays
Mariners will go into the final three games of the season trailing wild-card contenders Kansas City and Oakland, who play later Thursday, by no more than three games.
TORONTO — Logan Morrison hit two home runs, Mike Zunino also connected and the Seattle Mariners kept their faint playoff hopes alive, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 Thursday.
Morrison hit a three-run blast off Todd Redmond in the fourth and added a solo shot off Aaron Loup (4-4) in the sixth as the Mariners avoided a four-game sweep and snapped a five-game losing streak.
The victory means the Mariners will go into the final three games of the season trailing wild-card contenders Kansas City and Oakland by no more than three games. Both the Royals and Athletics were due to play later Thursday.
It was the second multihomer game of Morrison’s career. Five of his 11 home runs this season have come in September.
Yoervis Medina (5-3) worked one inning for the win and Fernando Rodney, the ninth Seattle pitcher of the game, gave up Kevin Pillar’s leadoff homer in the ninth but finished for his 47th save in 50 chances.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead against Mariners starter Tom Wilhelmsen in the second, but the Mariners answered with a four-run fourth. Chris Taylor led off with a bunt single, Seattle’s first hit of the game and left-hander Daniel Norris left after a one-out walk to Kendrys Morales.
Todd Redmond came on and gave up an RBI single to Kyle Seager. Morrison crushed Redmond’s next pitch into the center field seats. The outburst snapped an 18-inning scoreless drought for the Mariners.
The Blue Jays tied it in the fifth on Edwin Encarnacion’s sacrifice fly and Adam Lind’s RBI single, but Morrison led off the sixth with a homer into the right field bullpen. One out later, Zunino drilled a Dustin McGowan pitch into the left field bullpen, his 22nd home run.
Seager made it 7-4 with an RBI single off Brandon Morrow in the seventh.