MINNEAPOLIS -- While the Seattle Mariners are trying to avoid an early end to their season, the Minnesota Twins need a late-season win streak to avoid an ugly bit of franchise history.The Mariners remain in the thick of the American League wild-card race heading into Sundays series finale at Target Field but cannot have slip-ups like Saturday nights power outage if they are to make the postseason for the first time since 2001.Theyre all important, Mariners manager Scott Servais said after Saturdays 3-2 loss cost Seattle a chance to advance on the Detroit Tigers, who also lost. Tonight was important, tomorrows important, the next ones important. Its just where we are in the season.For the Twins, who head into their final home game of the season with 99 losses, the task is to avoid becoming just the second team in franchise history to reach triple-digit losses. The 1982 Twins lost 102 games -- a mark that this team could eclipse with seven games to play.The 1982 Twins were the first to play indoor baseball in Minnesota, with the Metrodome opening that season. They were hard to watch but included young players like Kent Hrbek, Frank Viola, Tim Laudner, Tom Brunansky and Gary Gaetti, who formed the nucleus of the team that would win a World Series five years later.If the Twins are to avoid that dubious distinction, theyll need to keep hitting home runs. They now have 192 this season, which is the most the franchise has recorded since that 1987 World Series championship team hit 196.This is a moment when I see my team play hard and I play hard too, said Twins slugger Miguel Sano, who blasted his 24th homer of the season on Saturday.On Sunday, the Twins will send left-hander Hector Santiago (12-9, 4.82 ERA) out to face Seattle right-hander Taijuan Walker (6-11, 4.32).Working on the mound at Target Field might bring back good memories for Walker, whose only previous start in Minnesota came July 31, 2015, when he threw a complete game, allowing just one hit and striking out 11.Of course, none of that will matter if the Mariners cant score runs, which was their problem in Saturdays loss that dropped them to 1-4 against the Twins this season. Nelson Cruzs towering homer, measured at 493 feet, was their only offense.After giving up the go-ahead homer to the Twins in the fourth inning, the Mariners pitchers retired the last 15 Minnesota batters in a row, but couldnt score again.Our bullpen did a nice job of keeping us right there, but offensively we just couldnt get much going, Servais said. Obviously, Nellie hit the big homer, but other than that there werent a whole lot of chances.The Seattle loss, coupled with a Baltimore win, has the Mariners 2 1/2 games back of the final wild-card spot, but the task is tougher, as they would need to leap-frog Houston, Detroit and Baltimore to get to play games after their Oct. 2 regular-season finale with Oakland at Safeco Field. Wholesale Hurricanes Jerseys . A lawyer for MLB, Matthew Menchel, confirmed Wednesday the league dropped its case against Biogenesis of America, its owner Anthony Bosch and several other individuals. 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He can barely remember his way to the locker room but James Tamou knows exactly where he wants to end up with new NRL club Penrith next season.Week one of the Panthers pre-season hasnt even finished but the big-name signing is already talking a big game, saying only a premiership will bring success to the club in 2017.From what I saw last (season), theres only room to grow. We had a couple of video sessions and Ive been excited to watch what the boys can produce, Tamou said.A premiership - thats the number one goal and thats on everyones mind.Tamou was knee-deep in a push for back-to-back titles with North Queensland in 2016 but admitted he had kept a close eye on the Panthers since signing a lucrative deal in June.And the 27-year-old couldnt help but be enamoured with their high-octane play that fell two games short of a fairytale grand final appearance.Ive been saying for a while, Ive been very excited to come in, he said.Their last 12 weeks of the season I was very impressed. Obviously because I had signed and knew I was coming here, I was keeping an eye on them.They were definitely premiership contenders. The way they went about the Bulldogs (elimination final), who are nothing short of walkovers.Obviously a bit of bad luck against Canberra (in the semi-final, but) just goes to show how young aand resilient this side can be.ddddddddddddItll be good for the club for everyone to stick around. It adds to the dynasty they can build.Tamou met his new teammates for day one of pre-season on Monday, almost two months before the former Kangaroos representative expected to arrive at the foot of the mountains.He was a shock exclusion from Mal Meningas Australian squad for the current Four Nations tournament and while he admitted the axing hurt, was glad to help uproot the family to Sydney.I wouldve went away feeling not well leaving the wife there with the kids. Im happy to be here. We can do some really good things here and day one is where it starts, he said.I know why I missed out. It just puts a bit more fire in the belly for next time.And already hes taken confidence from the way new teammate Trent Merrin experienced a career resurgence after a similar high-profile move from Wollongong last summer.I was reading something about him, he thought he was over representative-wise. We all know the valuable player he is, Tamou said.He came here and went to another level. Thats a bit of a goal for me. But first things first, get through a good pre-season and be injury-free. ' ' '