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MINNEAPOLIS -- James Paxton was cruising along for the Seattle Mariners, as hes done often this season. Then Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and the middle of the Seattle Mariners batting order order broke out.Cano had four hits and two RBI, Cruz added a two-run homer among his four RBI and the Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins 10-1 on Friday night to stay on pace in the AL wild-card race.Nice to see the middle of our lineup come together, Seattle manager Scott Servais said. We havent had a game like that in a while. ... Those guys are huge in the middle. Theyve carried us all year. Nice to see them get going again.Seattle trailed Detroit by two games for the second wild card but passed Houston.Paxton (5-7) struck out nine and allowed one run on five hits. Seattle, which scored six runs in the seventh inning, entered Friday averaging just 2.88 runs per game while Paxton was on the mound.Feels good, Paxton said of pitching well while in the playoff race. This is what we need. We need to win right now. Guys are playing hard and were doing our best to stay right there, and try to climb up in the wild-card standings.Kyle Gibson (6-10) gave up two runs, five hits and four walks for Minnesota, which lost its seventh straight and fell to 99 losses, its most since 2011.Its tough to be too satisfied with a game where you only went five innings, threw a hundred pitches and your team loses 10-1, Gibson said. I think theres some positives but its hard to focus on those at that time.With a biting curveball at his disposal, Paxton allowed just three hits, two on infield singles, before waiting through the long top of the seventh. The only blemish on his night was Miguel Sano leading off the seventh with a triple off the wall in right field and scoring on Kennys Vargas single.He was in total control, Servais said. It was great to see. Fun watching him go like that because he gets on those rolls and the release points very consistent.Seattle supplied Paxton with the most run support hes received in a start this season.Cano and Mike Zunino had RBI bloop singles in the third and fourth before a big inning against three relievers.Cano drove in a run with an infield single. Cruz followed with a two-run double, Kyle Seager had an RBI double and Zuninos single led to two runs when left fielder Robbie Grossman committed two errors. Grossman let the ball bounce off his glove and then kicked the ball as he went to retrieve it.Byron Buxton made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Cruz of at least extra bases in the third, but Cruz hit his 38th homer in the eighth, a drive off the stone facing above the batters eye in center field. MLBs Statcast said the ball would have traveled 454 feet had it landed unimpeded.Seattle had scored two runs or fewer in six of its previous seven games.The start was delayed by 35 minutes due to rain, marking the 14th delay or postponement in Minnesota this season.HOLLANDERSeattle announced Friday that Justin Hollander has been hired as the teams director of baseball operations.Hollander, 37, was the Los Angeles Angels director of player personnel. He was hired by Los Angeles in 2008, serving multiple roles, where he worked under Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto.Hollander steps into the role left behind by Caleb Peiffer, who left the team to attend law school.TRAINERS ROOMTwins: RF Max Kepler was out of the lineup but was cleared to play after leaving Thursdays doubleheader with a mild neck strain from hitting the wall awkwardly. . 1B Joe Mauer was out of the lineup for the third straight game as he deals with sore quadriceps. He hasnt started since Sept. 17.UP NEXTSeattle LHP Ariel Miranda (5-1, 3.88 ERA) hopes to keep his surprising run going on Saturday. Minnesota will send RHP Tyler Duffey (8-11, 6.39) to the mound. Miranda has gone 4-0 with a 2.16 ERA in his last four starts with 20 strikeouts in 25 innings. Duffey has allowed at least five earned runs in three of his last four outings. Seattle Mariners Store . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Mariners Jerseys 2020 . -- Matt Kuchar and Harris English ran away with the Franklin Templeton Shootout, shooting a 14-under 58 on Sunday in the final-round scramble to break the tournament course record. https://www.cheapmariners.com/ . LOUIS -- Heading into the final stretch of the season, the issues for the Chicago Bears banged-up defence only seem to be getting worse. Custom Seattle Mariners Jerseys . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Mariners Jerseys China . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- At the end of the day, its a decision that wont be easy and it sure wont be fair.But if Team USA has a hope of winning the World Cup of Hockey, then it better be the right decision.Over the course of a handful of practices and two pre-tournament games, head coach John Tortorella and his staff will have to decide between a goaltender in Jonathan Quick, who has won two Stanley Cups and was once named playoff MVP, two-time Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop and the technically superb Cory Schneider.Theres certainly not enough time to make a true determination of who wins a job, Tortorella admitted on Tuesday after the teams second day of on-ice workouts. When we make the decision, its going to suck for the other guys. Plain and simple, its not going to be fair. So Ill put that out there right now. Its not going to be fair to the other guys, but we have to eventually make a decision [about] whos going to start.And no, he insisted, he does not know who his starter will be. But the clock is ticking.Its a nice problem to have, he said with a laugh, even if the goaltending conundrum has haunted him all summer.Although the U.S., like all of the eight teams competing in the tournament, has three pre-tournament games -- beginning Friday at 8 p.m. ET against Canada -- and it might seem simple to just give each netminder one game in which to make his case, Tortorella wants to have a starter in mind by the third and final pre-tournament game.That means each netminder will have less than a full game, plus practice sessions, to prove his bona fides.For guys who have already established themselves as elite starting netminders in their own markets, the dynamic here at the U.S. training camp is both challenging and more than a little nerve-wracking.Theres so little time to prove yourself and get in any kind of rhythm, said longtime NHL goalie Darren Pang, who is providing analysis for ESPN during the World Cup. You have to seize every single shot against. Its almost like youre playing every situation in practice desperately -- which can be good and it can be harmful.Bishop, who has led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup finals and the Eastern Conference finals the past two seasons, respectively, and has a .927 save percentage in 36 NHL playoff games, remains philosophical.I guess its a little different, but at the same time I think were all old enough and mature enough to realize the situation that were in, the 29-year-old said..dddddddddddd If Im in there, I feel like Im capable of winning, and if those guys are in there, I know they can do the same. Im glad I dont have to make the decision. I dont think theres a right or wrong answer.What Tortorella has made clear is that once he names a starter, that goalie will basically play the entire tournament -- barring a drop-off in play or injury.That means even the workouts that will lead up to Fridays first pre-tournament game take on even more importance in terms of staking a claim to the starters role.Its not like its written in stone or clear-cut like some other teams, said Schneider. I think here it could be any one of us. We all have to make sure were playing well because if you have a down practice or a down game, thats all its going to take because the other two guys, you know theyre going to be good. I think its good, though.It forces you to raise your game and brings me back to when I was playing behind guys like Roberto Luongo and?Marty Brodeur. You get that drive to try to out-compete them and beat them, and I think it brings the best out of?you as a player, added Schneider, 30. Im enjoying it. Were having fun. Were competing, but were also on the same team and we want the same thing. I think thats the most important part.Two days into the process, all three have looked solid -- although Quick has prompted some oohs and aahs from observers thanks to a handful of spectacular saves during drills.The mindset is, they give you an opportunity to play, [so] you try and help the team win, whether its preseason or tournament games, said Quick, who won Stanley Cups with the?Los Angeles Kings?in 2012 and 2014 and was the No. 1 for Team USA at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. I think thats not only working on your own game individually, but as a team youre working on winning.All three goaltenders have qualities that would make them ideal starters for this tournament, Pang noted.Quick is brilliantly athletic, Schneider is methodical and efficient and incredibly technically sound, Pang said. And Bishops play in crucial playoff moments the past two years has been outstanding. He is also the best puck handler of the three, Pang added.For those reasons, Pang said he would choose Bishop as the starter. Now we have to wait to find out whether the Team USA coaching staff shares that assessment. ' ' '