SEATTLE — Denard Span his part to keep the Minnesota Twins from falling further behind in their playoff chase.
Span drove in two runs early and then threw out the potential tying run at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Twins beat the AL-worst Seattle Mariners 6-5 Wednesday, snapping Minnesota’s ill-timed losing streak at four.
Facing the possibility of falling even further behind in the playoff chase, the Twins put together a clutch inning of hitting in the top of the eighth, scoring three runs to take the lead. Span then helped preserve the advantage a few minutes later when Minnesota’s bullpen did its best to give up the lead.
Minnesota reliever Matt Guerrier got the first out of the eighth, before former Seattle closer Eddie Guardado entered. Guardado struck out Jeremy Reed, then allowed consecutive doubles to Kenji Johjima and Jeff Clement to trim the Twins’ advantage to 6-5.
Miguel Cairo grounded a single to right field and pinch-runner Tug Hulett was sent home by third base coach Sam Perlozzo. Span fielded the grounder cleanly and threw a perfect strike to catcher Mike Redmond, getting Hulett by a few feet.
Joe Nathan then worked the ninth for his 36th save in 40 chances, giving Minnesota just its fifth win this season when trailing after seven innings.
Fittingly it was Minnesota’s Justin Morneau who started the eighth inning rally. After Tuesday night’s loss, Morneau questioned the energy and enthusiasm of his team.
Trailing 4-3 entering the eighth, Morneau ripped the third pitch from reliever Sean Green (3-4), hitting it so hard that center fielder Wladimir Balentien had no chance to cut off the liner before it rolled to the wall. Randy Ruiz followed with a single to left and Jason Kubel capped his stellar season against Seattle pitching with a bloop double that fell between Balentien and Ichiro Suzuki to score Morneau with the tying run.
After a groundout, Seattle went to left-hander Cesar Jimenez to face Buscher, pinch-hitting for Brendan Harris. But Buscher didn’t give Jimenez a chance to get comfortable, lining a single to right to score two more runs.
Minnesota entered the day 2 1/2 games behind Boston for the wild card and 2 behind Chicago in the AL Central. Both played later Wednesday.
Glen Perkins won his 12th game for Minnesota, working seven innings, but twice gave up leads. His biggest mistake came in the fourth when Jose Lopez hit a two-run homer that barely cleared the 19-foot wall in left, just inside the foul pole.
Perkins (12-3) also gave up a solo homer to Raul Ibanez with two-out in the seventh that put Seattle ahead 4-3.
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