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Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

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April 9, 2009 1:47 PM

The defense rules

Posted by Geoff Baker

Brandon Morrow had to take a walk around his mound and try to compose himself after that four-pitch, leadoff walk in the ninth. What was Morrow saying to himself?

"I think I kind of relaxed after that,'' he said. "I kind of said...I don't want to use any profanity, but, I said 'Screw this. I'm not going to let this happen again.'

"And then, just kind of relaxed and went back to what I'd been doing in the bullpen.''

Two strikeouts and a flyout later, Morrow had his first save of 2009. And the M's had a well-earned series split with the Twins, courtesy of a 2-0 win led by Jarrod Washburn and the Seattle defense.

Morrow spent yesterday reviewing video footage of past outings and what went wrong for him on Tuesday night, when he walked three in a row. He did make some mechanical adjustments to avoid throwing across his body. Looked like they worked.

As for the defense, both Franklin Gutierrez and Ronny Cedeno thought they had no chance on those two spectacular plays from today.

Gutierrez was positioned about 100 feet away from where he caught that Alexi Casilla drive to the left-center gap in the first inning.

"I didn't think I had a chance,'' Gutierrez said. "I was playing the other way, so when he hit that ball, I just ran to it. When I realized I had the chance, it's like, OK, I'm going to dive for it and see what happens.''

But the toughest part came after Gutierrez snagged the ball inches from the turf.

"It's just holding on to it,'' he said. "When you hit the ground, it usually comes out.''

Cedeno also thought there was no way he'd throw Mike Redmond out at first base in the third inning after his hard smash deflected off Washburn's calf.

"I started running when it hit the pitcher, but I didn't think I had a chance,'' he said. "Then, I saw maybe I could get the runner but I had to make a perfect throw.''

That he did.

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