Sports

POSTED: Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008

BASEBALL: Twins avoid sweep by M's

SEATTLE — Maybe the 20-foot wall separating the two bullpens at Safeco Field wasn’t enough of a barrier. Because it appears that some of the ineffectiveness of the Minnesota Twins’ bullpen filtered its way into the Mariners’ bullpen and infected some of the Seattle relievers.

Given a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning, thanks to Raul Ibañez’s solo home run to right, the Mariners simply couldn’t make it stand up. The relievers gave up three runs Wedneday afternoon at Safeco Field, and the Twins escaped with a 6-5 win to salvage one victory from the three-game series.

“It’s been rough playing them,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of the Mariners. “It was a good win. We needed that win.”

Indeed, the Twins (75-58) are locked in a tight race for the American League Central title with the Chicago White Sox, and the win at least made sure they didn’t lose ground for a day.

When the normally reliable Sean Green entered the game in the eighth inning with a 4-3 lead, it appeared the Twins were going to swept out of Seattle and drop another game in the standings.

But Green, who has struggled of late, gave it away. Justin Morneau ripped a leadoff double to center and Randy Ruiz followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs for Jason Kubel.

Kubel, who has given the Mariners fits much of the season, doubled to left to score the tying run.

“He has just worn us out,” Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said.

In his past nine games against the Mariners, Kubel is hitting .625 with four doubles, three home runs, 10 runs and 11 RBI.

It’s why Riggleman didn’t bother with a left-on-left matchup against him.

“Kubel has not hit lefties at all this year, but he starts against us when we throw a lefty because he hits us so well,” Riggleman said. “I didn’t see the point. The eighth inning should belong to Sean Green and that’s the way we went.”

Green got Delmon Young to ground out for the first out of the inning, then Riggleman had reliever Cesar Jimenez face left-handed hit-ting pinch hitter Brian Buscher. Despite the left-on-left matchup, Buscher lined the first pitch he saw from Jimenez into right to score both runners and give the Twins a 6-4 lead.

“Our lefties have just not been getting left-handers out, it’s a simple as that,” Riggleman said.

Green (3-4, 4.05 ERA), who was credited with all three runs, took the loss.

“I didn’t make the pitches when I needed to,” Green said.

Given a two-run lead, the Twins weren’t exactly assured of a win because of their own well-documented bullpen issues. And the bull-pen lived up to its reputation by making things interesting.

Ex-Mariners closer Eddie Guardado, who recently returned to the Twins, gave up back-to-back two-out doubles to Kenji Johjima and Jeff Clement, cutting the lead to 6-5. Clement, representing the tying run, was replaced by pinch runner Tug Hulett.

Hulett had the chance to score the tying run when Miguel Cairo hit a sharp single to right field. Neither Hulett, nor third base coach Sam Perlozzo hesitated on heading for home. However, rookie Denard Span unleashed an Ichiro-like throw from right that beat Hulett easily. Given plenty of time with the good throw, catcher Mike Redmond easily blocked Hulett and tagged him out, ending the Mariners’ threat.

“That’s the only thing you can do is send him there,” Riggleman said. “It was a good decision by Sammy. You’re just hoping the throw is a hair off line.”

But it wasn’t. And instead of tying the game, the Mariners ultimately failed to win their fourth consecutive game, which would have been a season first.

The loss spoiled a solid start from left-hander Ryan Feierabend, who pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits. Perhaps his biggest mistake was a 1-2 changeup to Span with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Span sat on the change and hit a two-run ground-rule double.

“He just went down and golfed it,” Feierabend said. “It was a good pitch, but I think he was looking change in that situation. I was surprised how far it carried.”

Span’s double gave the Twins a 3-1 lead and it appeared that Feierabend was headed for an early exit. But he got out of the inning and got a bit of a second wind when Jose Lopez tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run homer to left.

“It definitely gave us some momentum,” Feierabend said.

And the pitcher fed off it, holding the Twins scoreless three scoreless innings to give the Mariners a chance to take the lead.

“He got better as he went,” Riggleman said.

Seattle (50-83) now has today off before opening a three-game series in Cleveland starting Friday.