Music: {allcanada} Mariners keep playoff hopes alive with win over Blue Jays

Thursday, September 25, 2014

{allcanada} Mariners keep playoff hopes alive with win over Blue Jays

1989 - Taylor Swift / Nick & Knight - Nick Carter & Jordan Knight

TORONTO - Logan Morrison hit a three-run homer and added a solo shot to power the Seattle Mariners to a 7-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday at Rogers Centre.

The win ended the Mariners' five-game losing skid and kept their slim playoff hopes alive. Seattle (84-75) entered play three games behind the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics in the race for the two American League wild-card spots.

Fernando Rodney gave up a solo homer to Kevin Pillar before picking up his major league-leading 47th save.

The Blue Jays (81-78) were eliminated from post-season contention earlier in the week. Manager John Gibbons gave several regulars the day off and inserted some of the team's late-season callups into the lineup.

Toronto left-hander Daniel Norris turned in a decent performance in his first big-league start. The 21-year-old rookie allowed one hit and two earned runs over 3 1/3 innings.

The Blue Jays scratched out a couple runs in the second inning for an early lead.

Danny Valencia singled and moved to second when Toronto native George Kottaras reached on a walk. Kottaras was forced out on a Pillar grounder that moved Valencia to third.

Anthony Gose lashed a ball up the middle that second baseman Brad Miller couldn't corral and Valencia trotted home with the game's opening run.

Lucas Luetge replaced Seattle starter Tom Wilhelmsen and quickly gave up another run. Ryan Goins hit a grounder to second base but a hard slide by Gose prevented the double play and allowed Pillar to score.

Norris, who made four relief appearances earlier this month, retired the first eight Mariners in order. He issued a two-out walk to Brad Miller in the third before Austin Jackson flew out.

Chris Taylor picked up Seattle's first hit with a bunt single to lead off the fourth inning. Norris had a limit of about 60 pitches and was pulled after issuing a one-out walk to Kendrys Morales.

Todd Redmond came on in relief and gave up an RBI single to Kyle Seager and Morrison's 10th homer of the year.

Youngster Dalton Pompey of Mississauga, Ont., showed off his speed in the fifth inning. The Toronto left-fielder walked, took second on an errant pickoff attempt, stole third and scored on an Edwin Encarnacion sacrifice fly to cut Seattle's lead to 4-3.

Munenori Kawasaki walked to drive reliever Joe Beimel from the game. With Yoervis Medina on the hill, Adam Lind drove a ball into the gap that allowed Kawasaki to score the tying run, taking advantage of a poor relay throw by Miller.

Lind took second base on the error and moved to third on a Valencia groundout. Medina struck out Kottaras to limit the damage.

Seattle used the long ball to restore its lead in the sixth inning. Morrison took an Aaron Loup pitch over the wall for a solo shot and Mike Zunino went deep off Dustin McGowan for his 22nd homer of the year.

Rodney was Seattle's ninth pitcher of the game. The Mariners had three errors but outhit the Blue Jays 10-5.

Announced attendance was 17,173 and the game took three hours two minutes to play.

Notes: It was Morrison's second career multi-homer game. ... The Blue Jays will wrap up their regular season with a weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles. Drew Hutchison (10-13, 4.51 ERA) will start on Friday night against Baltimore's Chris Tillman (13-5, 3.26).

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