SEATTLE — It’s not fair to ask what took Brandon Morrow so long to overwhelm hitters the way he did Wednesday night in a 7-0 victory over the Oakland A’s.
The Mariners’ 25-year-old right-hander gave up only Rajai Davis’ infield single in the fourth inning and set a career high with nine strikeouts over eight innings in his final start of the year.
Nearly 13 months ago, Morrow did the same thing to the New York Yankees. He held them hitless through 72/3 innings on Sept. 5, 2008, and seemed destined for a productive 2009 season in the Mariners’ starting rotation.
Since then, Morrow’s career took more loops than a knuckleball.
He went to spring training as a starter, suffered an arm problem and then volunteered to fill the vacant closer job. He saved six games by May 10 but also blew three, including two in a row at Texas on May 13 and 14 that forced manager Don Wakamatsu to pull him as closer and insert David Aardsma.
Morrow pitched six more games in low-stress relief situations before the Mariners decided to re-convert him into a starter. They took the unconventional route with that process, letting Morrow build his pitch count at the major league level instead of the minor leagues.
He went 0-1 in six starts, often struggled with pitch count problems and relied too much on his fastball when the Mariners wanted him to throw more offspeed pitches. So, they sent him to Class AAA Tacoma for 10 starts before bringing him back.
In his fourth start since returning, Morrow was never a more complete pitcher than he was Wednesday night. He threw the fastball where he wanted it and mixed in his offspeed stuff.
“I don’t know if we’ve had a better-pitched start this year,” Wakamatsu said. “You can put that right up there with any of the top ones. It’s awfully nice to see the adjustments in a guy, especially having his last start end on a note like that and giving us a lot of hope for him going into next year.”
Speaking of hope, the victory also helped the Mariners break through an important barrier as a team.
It was their 82nd of the season, ensuring a winning record one year after they finished 61-101. If they win their final four, the Mariners can tie the 2001 franchise record for the greatest year-to-year improvement at 25 victories.
To take the next step, the Mariners could use more of what Morrow showed them Wednesday night.
“That game’s going on DVD and I’m going to watch it about 20 times,” Morrow said. “I’m moving in the right direction.”
His only hiccup was the eighth inning, when he reached the 100-pitch mark for the first time this season and walked two after getting the first two outs. After a visit from pitching coach Rick Adair, Morrow got Cliff Pennington to fly out.
“I was out of gas,” Morrow said. “I was trying to hurry everything. On the last guy, I slowed everything down again and got out of it.”
By then, the Mariners’ offense had given Morrow plenty of support.
They scored four times in the first inning off A’s starter Clay Mortensen, who pitched for Gonzaga in his college days. For the second straight game, Ken Griffey Jr. crushed a three-run homer, his 18th this season and 629th in his career.
Mortensen also became the 407th different pitcher Griffey has homered against in his career. He hit this one to a rare locale for him — straight-away center field on a 2-0 pitch.
“I hate center field,” Griffey said. “It’s a waste of distance.”
Three innings later, catcher Adam Moore became the 22nd different Mariner to homer this season when he hit an opposite-field drive over the right-field fence for his first career home run. Moore came into the game in the second inning after Kenji Johjima suffered a bruised left elbow when he was hit by a pitch.
The only Mariners position player without a homer this season is Michael Saunders, and he nearly got one in the third inning when he hit a line drive high up the right-field wall for a triple.
Saunders went 2-for-4, including a single in the eighth off A’s reliever Henry Rodriguez, whose fastball reached 100 mph on the Safeco Field radar gun.
That was a delight for the Mariners to see, because Saunders had spent much of the past month out of the lineup and working with hitting coach Alan Cockrell on driving the ball.
Nothing was better to see, however, than Morrow’s performance. It sends him into the offseason with a positive finish to a rugged year.
“I think I’ve improved since the beginning of the year. There was just no consistency,” Morrow said. “Now I’m feeling good with my mechanics. It’s a great way to finish after what I thought was a rough (season), especially first half of the year.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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