Mariners 4, Jays 2

With a two run lead to start the top of the 9th, the song bombtrack by Rage Against The Machine blares over the speakers at Safeco as it does every time Brandon Morrow takes the mound.  But tonight was the first time as a Mariners fan when i truly felt..this game was over. Done.  I think its safe to stay tonight a new star has been born officially.  Its has now been too long for this to be a fluke.  Morrow was lights out again as he continued one of the most dominating months of relief pitching I have seen from a Mariners pitcher in recent memory.  Hitting 97, and 98 on the gun and mixing in some occasional off-speed pitches, it just appears the batters have no chance.  Tonight, he didn’t strike out the side, but kept the batters guessing, and forced three fly ball outs to pick up his 5th save in as many chances.  Really…how can you put the ball in anyone elses hands right now.  J.J. Putz is supposedly closer to a return, but one must wonder if he fears he has lost his job and is rushing back.  In fact many Mariners fans (myself included) were hoping to see Morrow start in the near future.  I am now starting to re-think that a little bit, how could i not. 

In a game without much offensive spark, Jarrod Washburn had another quality outing going six innings, striking out four.  His only blemish was a two run shot by rookie slugger Adam Lind in the top of the 5th.

Miguel Cairo filled in nicely at second for Jose Lopez hitting two doubles, along with three RBI’s.  Ichiro Suzuki reached base four times, with three singles and walk while scoring twice. 

The M’s bullpen continued its stellar play as Cesar Jimenez had his second straight quality bullpen appearence since his call up, retiring the Jays in order in the seventh.  Sean Green took over in the 8th and overcame an error by Adrian Beltre to retire the next two Jays batters.  Arthur Rhodes came in to face the switch hitting Greg Zaun and forced him to fly out to Jeremy Reed in Center field to leave Marco Scutaro at second to end the threat in the 8th to set the table for Morrow who closed out the 9th.

The win marked the third straight series won for the Mariners under new manager Jim Riggleman.  It is becoming fun to watch the team play again.  Riggleman has been shaking up batting and fielding practices in an attempt to get a spark.  It seems so far that all his moves are paying off.  But, a true test for the M’s will be this 4 game set with the red hot Tigers.  If the team can hang with them, i think we will have a better guage of their recent success and whether or not it has been a fluke or not.

Dustin McGowan picked up the loss as his record fell to 6-7.  Washburn won his second straight start to improve to 4-7.  Tomorrow’s probables are Carlos Silva (4-9) for the Mariners and Justin Verlander for the Tigers starting the 4 game series at 7:10 PT.

Mariners Blog