MINNEAPOLIS -- Nelson Cruz had a big homer in the fourth inning, but that was all the Seattle Mariners struggling offense could muster.Cruz tied Saturdays game against Minnesota at 2-all but the last-place Twins recovered for a 3-2 win Saturday night.Cruzs homer was estimated by MLBs Statcast as 493 feet, the second-longest home run in the majors this season behind a 504-foot strike by Miamis Giancarlo Stanton in Colorados Coors Field.Ive hit a few over there but they havent measured that far, Cruz said. You never know with Statcast, you never know how far its going to go until they say.Mariners manager Scott Servais was also impressed by Cruzs blast.Thats about as far as you can hit it in this park, Servais said. He absolutely killed it. Big hit at the time to give us a little momentum going forward, but then they quickly got it back with the Sano homer. I thought we had a chance there late, we just didnt get it done.Minnesotas Miguel Sano answered Cruz with a tiebreaking homer in the bottom of the fourth and Tyler Duffey pitched seven strong innings for his best start in more than a month to lead Minnesota.They hit a big homer there, Sano said. But I want the team win every day, and not a loss.Ariel Miranda (5-2) lost for the first time in five starts this month, lasting four innings and giving up three runs and three hits. Seattle fell 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore for the second AL wild card.Theyre all important, Servais said. Tonight was important, tomorrows important, the next ones important. Its just where we are in the season.The Mariners threatened in the ninth against Brandon Kintzler when Robinson Cano singled and Cruz reached on an error by Sano. But Kyle Seagers hard grounder was snared by Sano, who stepped on third and threw to first for a double play. Adam Lind flied out to end the game and give Kintzler his 15th save in 18 chances.Seattle has struggled offensively even while winning 11 of its previous 15 games. The Mariners have scored two runs or fewer in six of their past eight games.We certainly need to score more than two runs, Servais said. Not a sharp night all around; just not a lot going on offensively. Obviously we had some chances late and didnt get the big hit.NO UNDEFEATED MONTH FOR MIRANDAMiranda was vying to become just the 14th rookie in major league history to go 5-0 in September. Acquired from the Baltimore Orioles for Wade Miley at trade deadline, Miranda had allowed a total of six earned runs in four September starts.My secondary pitches were not very good, Miranda said through an interpreter. When I had a chance to throw my breaking ball, it was not working. So thats when I threw my fastball and got hit. The fastball was a little bit up.UP NEXTMariners RHP Taijuan Walker (6-11, 4.32 ERA) starts against Twins LHP Hector Santiago (12-9, 4.82). Walker gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings in a loss to the Twins earlier this season. Santiago was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in two starts against the Mariners this season with the Los Angeles Angels. But Santiago has a 6.20 ERA in nine starts for Minnesota after being acquired in a trade. Will Richardson Jersey . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. DJ Chark Jersey . Each of Houstons starters scored in double figures as the Rockets improved to 2-0 against the Spurs this season, with both victories coming on the road. They also moved within 3 1/2 games of San Antonio (22-7) for the lead the Southwest Division. http://www.jaguarsjerseyscheap.com/cheap-tanner-lee-jersey/ . The Browns coaching search remains incomplete. Leon Jacobs Jersey .C. -- Chris Thorburn thinks one of the reasons the Winnipeg Jets have been successful under new coach Paul Maurice is that theyre playing together as a team. Logan Cooke Jersey .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. Nobody wants to atone for last years road-like WACA pitch more keenly than the curator Matt Page. However, circumstances of climate and schedule have conspired to increase the degree of difficulty for the ground staff commissioned to restore a slowing surface to its former glory.The New Zealand Test began on November 13 last year, 10 days later than this one, providing extra time for the surface to harden under the Perth sun. Additionally, this year, an unseasonably cold Spring has prevented the WACAs block of 10 pitches from baking in the sort of heat more commonly associated with the venue.Moving the WACA Test to the start of summer, after more than 20 years of opening Test matches at the Gabba in Brisbane, has complicated life for Page and his staff. That decision was based around Cricket Australias desire to hold a second day-night Test in the 2016-17 season while ensuring both visitors - South Africa and Pakistan - played one apiece. Perth is considered too late a time zone to host a match starting any later than a day Test.Nevertheless, Page has worked off the knowledge gained last season to try to produce a livelier deck. Weve done things a little bit differently this year, he said on Wednesday. Weve left a little more green grass on it, weve also adjusted our water.Being November, we dont usually get the high temperatures we need to bake that surface to try to give us every possibility to get something that will go through and give the bowlers a good crack at the batters. [The weathers] not been great, but weve tinkered with our prep to try to get a harder surface than we would normally see here this time of year and just try to help it go through a bit quicker. Unlike the WACA practice pitches, which have retained their traditional clay base and have thus remained arguably the quickest in the world, successive operations on the WACAs square have left it less settled than it should be. So some strips are faster than others, with the central one not necessarily so, to suit the commercial demands of television.ddddddddddddThis years pitch is the same as last years.The ones on this [east] side of the block seem to be a bit quicker, theyve all got their own little characteristics, the 10 wickets out there, they all do little things, Page said. There are some that are a little bit quicker than others. This one is a normal Test-match wicket. We saw a couple of one-dayers here a couple of years ago with South Africa when it went through really well.Last year was not so good, so were hoping that its more towards that South African wicket of a couple of years ago. Hopefully itll [also] be something very similar to the last Shield game we had. There was a bit of bounce there, there was a bit of seam, something there for the bowlers, something there for the batters, there were three hundreds. Thats sort of what were looking for this time of year, being November.Page was philosophical about the chances of getting things back to the old days, even as the construction of Perths new multipurpose stadium meant many major matches will be shifted elsewhere. Its something were working towards and weve seen wickets here since the wicket that was reconstructed that have really gone through well, he said. Our biggest issue is our consistency, theyre not consistently quick. Thats what were working towards to make sure it happens.Theres pressure with every wicket you produce at the WACA, theres that reputation of the pace and the bounce and getting it back consistently to the way it was in the 1970s. Thats what we try to do with all our wickets, sometimes we get there, sometimes we dont. Im pretty confident well have a wicket that will have a bit in it for both batters and bowlers.One form of pressure that wont be on Page is to tailor a pitch to the specific demands of the home team. 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