ERST LESEN! » ost nine of their 10

SEATTLE -- When Samuel Deduno is on the mound, Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau hears a litany of complaints from opponents. "Guys, if they ever do get to first, say, Man, I dont know what to look for off this guy," Morneau said. "And then its got so much movement they cant get locked in on anything. You rarely see guys square the ball up off him. Its fun watching him pitch. Hes got some great intensity." Deduno kept the Seattle Mariners off balance for seven scoreless innings Saturday and Morneau and Brian Dozier each homered to lead the Twins to a 4-0 victory. Deduno (7-4) allowed three hits, walked three and tied his season high with six strikeouts. He has thrown seven innings in each of his last three starts, all wins, and has a 1.29 ERA in that span. Saturday, he had his pitches working early as he struck out two in each of the first two innings. "You can see their hitters, there were balls they were swinging and then looking back trying to see where the ball went, and that tells you his balls really moving," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. In three career starts against Seattle, Deduno has allowed only two earned runs over 20 innings. "Hes got real life on his ball," Mariners acting manager Robby Thompson said. "Hes effectively wild at times, and he has really good stuff." In the rare cases where Seattle was able to put some men on base, the Twins defence came through for Deduno. In the fourth, Deduno walked two but a double play ended the inning. In the seventh, Gardenhire kept Deduno in even after he gave up a one-out single to Kyle Seager and walked Justin Smoak, and the confidence was rewarded when Deduno got Endy Chavez to ground into a double play. "That makes me very excited. I said to myself, I can do it because they believe in me," Deduno said. "Theyve done it a couple times, leave me in the seventh inning, and if I get in trouble I make the pitches." Once Deduno left, relievers Josh Roenicke, Jared Burton and Anthony Swarzak preserved the Twins fifth shutout of the season. Minnesota has won four of its last six games -- all on the road -- and has a chance to win its fourth straight series when it concludes the four-game set against Seattle on Sunday. Aaron Harang (5-9) threw 107 pitches in five innings, the ninth time in 17 starts he has gone five innings or less. Harang gave up one run on three hits, struck out five and walked two. Morneau led off the fourth with a double for the Twins first hit. With one out, Chris Colabello hit a shallow pop fly to right field that fell between the Mariners defenders, and Morneau scored on Clete Thomas groundout, giving Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Reliever Charlie Furbush came on in the sixth inning. After getting two quick outs, Furbush gave up a single and walked two to load the bases. Yoervis Medina came on and walked Aaron Hicks, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead. Medina had more trouble in the seventh. Dozier led off the inning with his ninth home run and Morneau hit a solo shot with one out to knock Medina out of the game. "Not a lot of offence, but a couple of big homers extended the lead," Gardenhire said. "It was just kind of one of those hold-on-ers -- we played good defence, made the plays we had to and went from there." Medina has given up three home runs in his last two appearances after also allowing a homer to Colabello on Friday night. He had not allowed any home runs in his previous 36 appearances. Seager and Brad Miller each had two hits for the Mariners, who have lost three of four. Both teams had issues with missed opportunities. The Twins were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10, while Seattle was 0 for 8 and left seven men on base. NOTES: The Seattle Mariners recalled RHP Brandon Maurer from Triple-A Tacoma before the game. "Hes going to go in the bullpen and probably be our long guy right now," Thompson said. ... Seattle also optioned RHP Hector Noesi to Tacoma. ... Newly signed free agent C Humberto Quintero was the seventh different catcher to start for the Mariners this season. ... The Twins are 10-5 against AL West teams and have won eight of their last 11 games against West teams. Kemba Walker Jersey .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. https://www.sportsstarsjerseys.com/steve-nash-jersey/ . And when it opened, every player was at his stall. Thats a sure sign that a team is in a slump and is searching for answers. "Its embarrassing to be at home and play the way we did," said defenceman Josh Gorges. Tim Tebow Jersey . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Michael Jordan Jersey Swingman . How great will be revealed in the next couple of days at the board of governors meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. The Washington Wizards had chances to win road games against the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. They just could not make plays when necessary to get those wins.Washington has had two days to digest its last-second loss to the Spurs and is hoping to get it done Monday night when it visits the Brooklyn Nets.The Wizards are 6-12 with three losses in their last four games. It is the last two defeats that are especially frustrating.Last Wednesday against Oklahoma City, the Wizards came back from a 16-point deficit and held a seven-point lead with 5:35 left on a 3-pointer by Bradley Beal. They wound up with a 126-115 overtime loss by going 6-of-19 the rest of the way.Two nights later in San Antonio, Washington held an 11-point lead early on and wound up coming back from 10 points down to get the game tied twice in the final 84 seconds. The ending was a Kawhi Leonard 20-footer with 20.1 seconds remaining and when Otto Porter missed a floater with 1.2 seconds remaining, the Wizards wound up with a 107-105 loss.Once again, we competed well and the game came down to one play, Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. I didnt like the way we played against them last week at our place, but tonight we did everything we could possibly do to get the win except get the win.It is a familiar refrain for the Wizards. Of the Wizards 12 defeats, half have been single digits with two of those close losses coming in overtime.We fought and we are making strides -- we just have to find a way to make stops, Wall said after getting 17 points and 15 rebounds. We need to get over that hump. You cant have that many turnovers and beat a team that executes as well as San Antonio; for us to even be in the game with them at their home place with that many turnovers is impressive.On Friday, in the final three minutes of quarters, the Wizards were 8 of 24 from the floor. They were 7 of 20 in tthose situations in the first three quarters, which eventually set up the frustrating finish.ddddddddddddLet another one go, Wall said. There are about seven games already this season for us that can haunt us (in regards to playoffs).The Nets have lost nine of their 10 games since they held a 4-5 record Nov. 12. Only two of those losses have been by single digits and most of those often feature a bad quarter.For most of this skid, third quarters were problematic. In Saturdays 112-103 loss at Milwaukee, the Nets outscored the Bucks by seven in the third only to have the collapse occur late in the fourth.In the final 12 minutes, the Nets held four one-point leads and a two-point lead on a 3-pointer by Brook Lopez. In the final 5:20, the Nets were outscored 20-9 by missing seven straight while allowing the Bucks to make four of their last six shots and hit 12 free throws.We were down one with five minutes, I thought we couldnt score, Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. We struggled to score.Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets with 24 points but Lopez was held to 13 on 3-of-17 shooting. He made 3 of 9 shots from 3-point range but was 0-of-8 from inside the arc.We just kind of hurt ourselves, Lopez said. I definitely wasnt happy with the way I played. I am very disappointed in myself. That definitely affected the outcome. I think I let us down tonight, no question.Lopez is averaging 19.6 points but shooting a career-low 45.2 percent. He is shooting 37.3 from long range as he consistently becomes a perimeter threat for the first time in his career but inside the arc has been difficult at times as Lopez is 1 of 12 on two-point attempts.The Wizards have won eight of the last 10 meetings and have swept the season series in two of the last three seasons. ' ' '