[nfbwatlk] Griffey's homer wakes up M's in 5-3 win vs. Twins

[Mike Freeman]

http://www.seattlepi.com/baseball/2011ap_bba_mariners_twins.html

Last updated May 10, 2009 2:47 p.m. PT

Griffey's homer wakes up M's in 5-3 win vs. Twins
By DAVE CAMPBELL
AP SPORTS WRITER


        Minnesota Twins' Nick Blackburn pitches against the Seattle 
Mariners in a baseball game Sunday, May 10, 2009, in Minneapolis. (AP 
Photo/Jim Mone)
MINNEAPOLIS -- Ken Griffey Jr. hit a tying two-run homer in the eighth 
inning Sunday to rouse the Seattle Mariners in a 5-3 victory over the 
Minnesota Twins that stopped their six-game losing streak.

Wladimir Balentien added an RBI double in that breakthrough eighth, 
ruining seven shutout innings by Nick Blackburn and helping the Mariners 
bring their record back to .500.

Brendan Morrow, making his first appearance since April 23 after sitting 
out with biceps tendinitis, picked up his sixth save with a shaky ninth. 
He gave up a two-out RBI single to Joe Mauer and walked Justin Morneau 
and Michael Cuddyer on four pitches each, before getting Brendan Harris 
on a grounder to end the game after going to a full count.

The only four runs Morrow has given up this year have been at the 
Metrodome. Miguel Batista (2-0) got the last out of the seventh for the 
win.

Blackburn rebounded from his worst start of the season with his best, 
surrendering only five hits and a walk while striking out six against a 
Seattle lineup that produced a total of 10 runs in the previous five 
games.

But the Mariners broke out late, scoring half that many in the last two 
innings against a Twins bullpen that has been trying to steady itself 
for the better part of the past two years.

Jose Mijares walked Jose Lopez in front of Griffey's 614th career homer, 
and Jesse Crain (1-1) gave up three straight hits - including a single 
by Russell Branyan that clipped off the top of first baseman Morneau's 
glove. Another run scored on a wild pitch, and Balentien's big hit off 
the top off the old blue trash bag in right field brought boos from the 
crowd.

Seattle's Erik Bedard minimized the damage, but he didn't exactly turn 
in a slump-stopping performance. It took him a season-high 110 pitches 
to complete a season-low 4 2-3 innings. Mauer walked and scored on a 
third-inning double by Morneau, who scored in the fifth on a two-out 
single by Cuddyer after moving up on a wild pitch.

Bedard still has not beaten the Twins in nine career starts.

Notes: Mike Sweeney, who has shared designated hitter duties with 
Griffey, hurt his lower back in his last at-bat of Saturday's game. But 
manager Don Wakamatsu said the injury, described as a minor muscle 
spasm, was in a different place than the one that kept Sweeney out for a 
few days in April. He should be able to play on Tuesday. ... Twins 
manager Ron Gardenhire was groggy, but feeling a bit better after 
dizziness and chills sent him from the dugout to his office for the 
final six innings on Saturday. ... Mijares gave up his first home run in 
16 1-3 innings in the majors. ... Mariners RHP Felix Hernandez was 
feeling fine after a rough start the night before. Wakamatsu, who took a 
team trainer to the mound to check on Hernandez at one point, said 
Sunday the problem was purely mechanical. "Trying to do too much," the 
manager said. ... Twins 3B Joe Crede (hamstring) sat out the whole 
series, but is expected in the lineup on Tuesday. ... Minnesota's Carlos 
Gomez has played sparingly of late, but he reached on a bunt single and 
made an over-the-head, tumbling catch in CF in the ninth.
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