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Encarnacion belts grand slam as Jays blank Mariners

Apr 29, 2012 - 6:58 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Edwin Encarnacion hit a grand slam, Brandon Morrow tossed six scoreless innings and the Toronto Blue Jays easily handled the Seattle Mariners, 7-0, in the middle contest of a three-game set Saturday.

Encarnacion finished 2-for-3 with five runs batted in, while Jose Bautista and Adam Lind each drove in a run for Toronto, which snapped a four-game losing streak.

Morrow (2-1) struck out nine while allowing five hits and no walks to record the win as three Blue Jay relievers combined for just one hit and one walk over three frames to complete the shutout.

"I thought Brandon (Morrow) came out and set the tone," Toronto manager John Farrell said. "He was powerful, he threw a lot of strikes."

Ichiro Suzuki and Kyle Seager each had two hits for Seattle, which saw a four- game winning streak end. Kevin Millwood (0-2) surrendered three runs -- one earned -- on seven hits in seven innings.

Toronto opened the scoring in the home third.

After one-out singles by Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson, Bautista plated Escobar with a fielder's choice. Bautista was safe due to an error on Seager, and Johnson went to second on the play before scoring when Lind bounced a first-pitch fastball over the wall in the opposite field for an RBI ground- rule double.

Encarnacion capped the rally with a sacrifice fly, scoing Bausista, though the inning ended on Lind's attempt to move to third.

That was all the offense until the bottom of the eighth when, after a single, a double and an intentional walk loaded the bases, Encarnacion reached out and muscled reliever Hisashi Iwakuma's first offering over the opposite-field wall to secure the win.

Game Notes

Toronto's Brett Lawrie has an eight-game hitting streak...Seattle is in the midst of a 10-game road swing...The Mariners had just six hits, and left eight in scoring position...The probables for Sunday's finale are Jason Vargas (3-1) for Seattle against Henderson Alvarez (0-2).