Morse caps win with first long ball

SEATTLE -- The way rookie shortstop Mike Morse ran around the bases in the eighth inning Wednesday night made it seem like he was trying for an inside-the-park home run.
But he wasn't going to get thrown out by anyone.

The baseball he hit to left field landed in the seats. But if Morse has a home run trot, he didn't show it off on this night. He circled the bases as quickly as he could, wishing later that he could have taken a little more time to enjoy the moment.

"I've never hit a home run in the big leagues before, so I didn't know what that was like," he said. "I wish I could go back and thought more about it. When I hit it, I wasn't sure it would go out. So I was running like it was a double or triple, and hoping it would go out."

He sprinted around the bases with the final run in the Mariners' 5-1 Interleague victory over the Phillies before 26,019 at Safeco Field. Right-hander Aaron Sele had one clean inning, but made it through the sixth and won his sixth game of the season -- three of them against National League teams.

The Mariners' scoring started and ended with home runs.

Ichiro Suzuki led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run off Phils starter Vicente Padilla, a towering blast to right-center field and Randy Winn slugged a 407-foot home run to right field in the third inning, his second of the season.

The lead remained at two runs until Morse stepped to the plate against Philly reliever Ryan Madson.

"He threw me a fastball on the first pitch and came back with a changeup and I put a good swing on it," he said. "When I knew it was [a home run] it was an awesome feeling, pretty much what you think it would be like. What makes it even better is we won."

The first career home run for Morse also was the first by a Mariners shortstop this season.

Wilson Alvarez played 42 games at shortstop and went 25-for-126 (.198) with one triple, eight RBIs and no home runs. Willie Bloomquist has played 16 games at shortstop and gone 6-for-36 (.167) with two doubles, one RBI and no home runs.

And Morse, promoted from Triple-A Tacoma on May 31, is now 15-for-37 (.405) with a triple, home run and three RBIs.

"He has come up here, kept his mouth shut for the most part, worked hard and paid attention to what people are talking to him about," manager Mike Hargrove said. "He's like a sponge. He listens to everything you say, so you have to be careful not to give him too much, too quickly."

Hitting coach Don Baylor has spent time on Morse's offense, while infield coach Carlos Garcia takes the 23-year-old onto the field before games to work on defense.

"It seems to have paid off," Hargrove said.

With the remnants of a shaving cream pie in the face during a postgame television appearance on uniform, Morse explained that he's just trying to do the little things that will keep him in the Major Leagues and in Seattle's lineup.


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"He threw me a fastball on the first pitch and came back with a changeup and I put a good swing on it. When I knew it was [a home run] it was an awesome feeling, pretty much what you think it would be like. What makes it even better is we won."
-- Mike Morse on his first Major League homer

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"I'm just trying to get on base, come out here and do my job," he said. "I want Mike Hargrove to be confident to put me in the lineup."

His name has been in the lineup 13 games now, with no signs of that changing. He had two singles and has four multiple-hit games so far.

As it turned out the Mariners didn't need much offense.

The Phillies greeted Sele with a run in the first inning on two singles sandwiched around a stolen base. But the Mariners retaliated in the bottom of the first.

Ichiro, who reached the 1,000-hit plateau in Tuesday night's opener with a drive off the bottom of the fence in right field, hit a towering fly ball over the fence in right-center field for his 14th career game-opening home run, the second this season.

The Mariners added another run after a walk, forceout, double by Richie Sexson and Jeremy Reed's sacrifice fly. Winn tacked on a run in the third and the Mariners' pitchers, starting with Sele and ending with Jeff Nelson, made it stand up.

Sele went the first six innings, pitching into and out of trouble in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings as the Phillies had a runner in scoring position in each of those innings.

"He didn't have his command, like he's had the last several times out, and threw a lot of pitches early," Hargrove said. "But he made pitches when he had to. He got some key ground ball outs and stayed away from giving up the long ball against a club where that is paramount."

The Phillies were 1-for-8 against Sele with runners in scoring position and had the bases loaded with slugger Jim Thome batting in the fifth inning. Sele won the battle, retiring Thome on a routine fly ball to right-center.

"I wasn't as comfortable as I had been in some of my past starts, but I thought I was in trouble only one time -- when they loaded the bases," Sele said. "I got behind early in the counts and really had to pitch back into even counts.

"For the most part, I only gave up singles and that's the kind of pitcher I am -- pitch to contact. If you give up hits and aren't walking guys, that makes it easier."

Sele walked one and struck out three as he improved to 6-5.

Source: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/