TORONTO – Brandon Morrow's fastball didn't do him any favors on Tuesday night.
Kyle Seager homered among his three hits, Erasmo Ramirez pitched seven innings for his first major league win and the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3.
Morrow (8-6) matched a career high by allowing 11 hits as the Blue Jays' four-game winning streak ended.
"He wasn't as powerful, wasn't as sharp," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "It was a little bit more difficult for him to command the bottom of the strike zone."
Morrow came in 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three career starts against the team that drafted him, but was in trouble from the start, giving up two runs and four hits in a shaky first inning. Seager singled home the first run and, two batters later, Michael Saunders made it 2-0 with a hit. John Jaso tried to score from second on the play, but was thrown out at the plate by Rajai Davis.
"We were ready for the fastball," Franklin Gutierrez said. "He's a power pitcher and obviously we need to get on the fastball first and that's what we did."
Morrow, who allowed four runs in 4 2-3 innings, conceded that that Mariners had feasted on his fastball.
"The only thing that kept that from being eight runs was probably my changeup," he said. "I had a decent changeup and was able to keep them off-balance a little bit that way."
Although the Mariners were focussed on Morrow's heater, Seager said that didn't necessarily make their task any easier.
"His offspeed is so good, you've kind of got to pick your poison because he throws 95, too," Seager said.
Seager had an RBI single in the first, doubled and scored in the third and homered in the fifth, his 18th. He leads the Mariners with 81 RBIs.
"He's had big hits at big times for us," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said.
Starting for the first time since June 30, Ramirez (1-2) allowed two runs and six hits, setting down nine straight at one stretch. He walked one and struck out six.
"I was so happy with the last out, the 27th," Ramirez said. "I was waiting for that since I got here."
Four relievers combined to work the eighth and Tom Wilhelmsen closed it for his 25th save in 28 chances as the Mariners stopped a three-game losing streak.
The victory was Seattle's 68th, one more than it recorded last season.
Trailing 2-0, Toronto got one back off Ramirez in the first on Yunel Escobar's RBI single, but Adam Lind was thrown out trying to go from first to third.
Morrow got the Mariners in order in the second but ran into trouble again in the third. Jaso made it 3-1 with an RBI single but was thrown out on the bases by Davis for a second time when he tried to go from first to third on Jesus Montero's single to left.
Seager's leadoff homer in the fifth made it 4-2, but the Blue Jays cut it to one with a run in the eighth. Colby Rasmus doubled off Charlie Furbush, who was replaced by Josh Kinney. Edwin Encarnacion flied out, with Rasmus advancing to third. Lucas Luetge came on to face pinch-hitter Moises Sierra, who hit an RBI groundout. Stephen Pryor took over for Luetge and ended the inning by striking out Escobar.
Gutierrez made a rare error on Kelly Johnson's deep fly ball to begin the bottom of the seventh. For Gutierrez, the miscue was his first in 301 games. He had gone 846 chances without an error, an AL record for outfielders.
Wedge said Gutierrez couldn't recover after getting turned around on the play.
"It's just one of those things that happen. For him once in about three years," Wedge said.
NOTES: Toronto is 11-22 in one-run games. ... Farrell said rookie RHP Chad Jenkins is being considered for a start in Toronto's doubleheader at Baltimore on Sept. 24. ... Toronto police and fire officials took part in pregame ceremonies to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. .. Attendance was 12,935, Toronto's smallest crowd this season.
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