The Seattle Mariners had spent much of August looking at their future, then Brandon Morrow brought up a touchy subject Wednesday – the past.
As the Mariners rebuild their team, roster and starting rotation, alumni Morrow flashed them the image of the pitcher they always thought he might be, pitching Toronto to a 5-1 victory at Safeco Field.
A Mariners team that had scored 13 runs in the first two games of the series was dominated by the pitcher Seattle took fifth in the 2006 draft – yes, ahead of Tim Lincecum – then traded for reliever Brandon League in 2009.
“Morrow was good, he had four pitches working and a live fastball that was jumping on us a bit,” manager Eric Wedge said. “Our guys were up there taking their hacks, but he had pretty good stuff.”
While Morrow was hitting 97 mph with regularity and striking out a season-high 12 batters in six innings, Seattle rookie Blake Beavan was roughed up by Toronto hitters who didn’t seem bothered by him or Safeco Field.
Pitchers park, eh? The two teams combined for 13 home runs in the three-game series, and the Blue Jays had three of those against Beavan, long balls by Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Jose Bautista.
“When Blake commands his fastball, its down in the zone and he works his secondary stuff in around it,” Wedge said. “We didn’t really see a lot of that tonight.”
The Mariners countered those three homers with three … hits.
Aside from an infield single by Ichiro, an RBI double by Franklin Gutierrez and a single by Mike Carp, who extended his hitting streak to 17 consecutive games, the only real drama in this one was a sixth-inning scare involving outfielder Casper Wells.
Wells, who had homered in four consecutive games coming in, was hit on the tip of the nose by a 97 mph Morrow fastball that sent him careening around the infield briefly.
He left the game under his own power, and X-rays showed no break, but when Wells was down on a knee surrounded by trainers and Wedge, a crowd of 26,579 was all but silent.
“It’s always scary when you get up there,” Wedge said of the high pitch. “He dodged a bullet.”
For the Mariners, who had run together a little three-game winning streak, this was their second straight loss to the Blue Jays, and it may have felt a little as if Toronto was rubbing it in.
Wells was hit by a pitch and rookie Kyle Seager had another pass just under his chin. And in the ninth inning, when second baseman Dustin Ackley was trying to turn a double play, third baseman Brett Lawrie went in hard and came up with an elbow to Ackley’s ribs. Dirty play?
The Mariners didn’t seem to think so – just old-fashioned hardball, the kind Wedge wouldn’t mind seeing his team play 162 times a season.
As for Morrow, this wasn’t about redemption or vindication, although he acknowledged Tuesday that he was nervous about Mariners fans booing him upon his return.
He needn’t have worried.
Morrow won his ninth game of the season and didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, didn’t give up a run until the sixth. He needed 110 pitches, walked two and had those 12 strikeouts.
The few chances the Mariners had, Toronto handled with relative ease.
With a run in, two men on and one out in the sixth inning, Morrow struck out Seattle’s hottest hitter, Carp, loaded the bases by hitting Wells and then struck out rookie Trayvon Robinson.
An inning later, against reliever Jesse Litsch, the Mariners put two men on with one out once again, this time with Ichiro coming up.
The Mariners’ designated hitter for the night grounded into a double play for the seventh time this year.
The best part of the Mainers’ effort in this one came out of the bullpen, where Dan Cortes worked another two scoreless innings, newcomer Chance Ruffin a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Jamey Wright finished.
Ruffin, the 21-year-old rookie obtained from Detroit in the Doug Fister deal, arrived in Seattle on Wednesday, suited up, met his manager and teammates, walked down to the bullpen and the appeared in his third major league game.
Cool.
“He was impressive, he had a lot of action on the ball and went right at guys,” Wedge said. “It was good to see Cortes have another good outing. We’re bringing these kids along.”
At one point, Morrow was one of those Mainers prospects, going 8-12 with Seattle over parts of three seasons in the rotation and the bullpen. Since going to Toronto, he’s 19-14 in 48 starts.
And 2-0 against Seattle.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
FRIDAY
Seattle (Felix Hernandez: 11-10, 3.38 ERA) at Tampa Bay (Wade Davis: 8-7, 4.60), 4:10 p.m., Root Sports, 710-AM
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