Morrison’s late-inning effort leads to M’s win

MINNEAPOLIS – Logan Morrison felt no pain on the swing. It helped that it was his only one of the game. Morrison drove the first pitch he saw from Minnesota reliever Brian Duensing to the gap in deep right-center for a run-scoring double, breaking a 1-1 tie in the 11th inning and leading Seattle to a 4-1 win over the Twins at Target Field. The Mariners salvaged a split in the four-game series and improved to 48-58. They will start a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field today. For the better part of the last five days, the discomfort and swelling in Morrison’s bruised right thumb has prevented him from taking batting practice and playing in games as anything more than a defensive specialist or pinch runner. He only started swinging a bat on Saturday – hitting off of a tee and soft toss. He wasn’t supposed to hit Sunday. He was brought in as a pinch runner for designated hitter Robinson Cano in the ninth inning and then moved to first base as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the inning. But when the Mariners lost a 1-0 lead in the ninth, it was clear Morrison eventually would have to step to the plate. With one out and Ketel Marte on second and Kyle Seager on first, Twins manager Paul Molitor called on the left-handed Duensing to face Morrison. Having seen Duensing often during his time with the Tigers, manager Lloyd McClendon called Morrison back to the dugout moments before the at-bat. “I gave him some instructions,” he said. Morrison didn’t say if swinging at the first pitch was part of the instructions. But that’s what he did. “I was looking for a pitch in the middle of the plate and it happened to be the first one,” he said. “I put a nice, easy swing on it and found a gap.” And the thumb? “When you barrel it up, you don’t feel it, no matter how bad your hand hurts,” he said. In a season where the bullpen has been unpredictable in close games, the Mariners added key insurance runs to ease the burden. With first base open, Molitor had Duensing walk Seth Smith to load the bases and set up a force-out. He then brought in right-hander Casey Fien to face Austin Jackson. The move backfired as Jackson hammered a single into left field to score two runs to make it 4-1. “You understand why they are doing it, but you kind of take offense to it a little bit,” Jackson said of seeing Smith walked to get to him. Tom Wilhelmsen worked around a leadoff double to pitch a scoreless bottom of the 11th and pick up his second save of the season. Fernando Rodney got the win in relief after pitching a scoreless 10th inning. The Mariners’ eighth win in 15 extra-inning games this season overshadowed a game they could have won in regulation with Nelson Cruz and Hisashi Iwakuma playing the heroes. Cruz set up Iwakuma to get his first shutout of the season. The big slugger crushed a solo home run off Twins closer Glen Perkins on a 3-0 count in the top of the ninth, breaking a scoreless tie. “I’m just trying to get something I can drive – something middle in,” Cruz said. “I knew he had to come with a fastball.” It was Cruz’s 29th homer of the season. He’s homered in each of his last three games. “He’s our guy,” McClendon said. “He hasn’t disappointed all year.” But Iwakuma couldn’t replicate what he had done for the previous eight innings – hold the Twins scoreless. As he has done all season, Brian Dozier came up with a big hit in late innings. Iwakuma hung a 0-1 curveball and Dozier yanked it into the left-field seats. It was Dozier’s 23rd homer of the season.