Mike Carp and Alex Liddi steal the spotlight as Seattle Mariners beat Minnesota Twins 5-4
Things could not have gone better for the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, September 20. The club went in to their series opening fixture against the Minnesota Twins with a basketful of rookie ballplayers. Fortunately for Seattle manager Eric Wedge, the young
stars delivered as the club edged a 5-4 victory over the American Central League team at Target Field in Minneapolis.
The true stars of the show were Mike Carp and Alex Liddi. The two rookie stars turned in an excellent result to land their team on a respectful platform in recent days. The club has now won two back-to-back games and the pressure is on the Twins.
The 2010 American League Central Champions are currently on 94 defeats and they were unable to break their losing streak of ten games on Tuesday when Liam Hendriks went on to the mound against the Mariners. He struggled to keep his team in play as he allowed
four runs on ten hits. He still earned a no decision, though, as Brian Duensing picked up a loss when he conceded a run off two hits.
Jason Vargas however did very well for the Mariners. The regular starter picked up the important win when he ended his six innings of pitching with four runs allowed off nine hits and two walks. Nevertheless, the game was all about hits and the Mariners
were in the right frame of mind to take the victory home.
Mariners began the first with two runs. Ichiro Suzuki scored the first of the night when he ran home off a double from Kyle Seager.
Seager made it 2-0 later when Mike Carp came in to smash an RBI double through centre-field. The left-fielder was on fire and he would record a 5-for-5 outing in the night.
The Twins looked keen to cut their bad run in the recent games and they responded to the Mariners challenge with equal effect. Ben Revere scored for the Target Field faithful after Trevor Plouffe slammed a double to left-field.
Plouffe scored the second for his team when Chris Parmelee managed a double through the right-field cover area. The score had turned 2-2 by the end of the first innings.
Things began tilting towards the Twins’ end when Brian Dinkelman scored on a Ben Revere single to centre-field in the bottom of the fourth. The club managed another run in the fifth when Parmelee smashed a grounder to Seattle left-fielder Mike Carp and forced
a fielding error. Michael Cuddyer was the man to run home safe on the play. The two runs brought the Twins to a modest 4-2.
The situation turned on its head after the fifth, as Hendriks allowed Miguel Olivo on to second base with a double. He then conceded a game changing homer to Alex Liddi. The Italian star smashed a two-run homer to left-field. The score had changed to 4-4.
Mariners held strong and worked out a game winning run in the top of the seventh when Seager scored on a throwing error by Duensing. Adam Kennedy had delivered a soft grounder to the pitcher for a single. The reliever scrambled on the throw and the Mariners
scored.
Unable to score again, the Twins crashed out of the contest. They did have bases loaded in the ninth against Brandon League but their efforts went out of the window when Cuddyer struck-out, Rene Tosoni got called out at the home plate and Danny Valencia
ground out in quick succession.
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