Felix Hernandez was the starting pitcher for the Mariners and he got hit hard as he gave up 13 hits and five runs in six innings. Hernandez didn’t get the loss however as Mark Lowe dropped to 1-5 on the year with the loss. Lowe gave up three hits and one run in two innings of action. Lowe gave up a solo home run to Mark Teixeira that ended up being the winning run of the game.

Jose Lopez and Jeremy Reed both had rbi doubles for M’s in the game as they both finished with one rbi each. Miguel Cairo and Bryan LaHair both had rbi singles in the game as well to help out at the plate. The offense just came up short against the high powered Angels.

The M’s will try to split the four game series with a win on Thursday against the Angels. I really don’t like thier chances however and expect to see loss 101 for the year.

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Ryan Rowland-Smith was charged with eight hits and two runs over seven innings. He pitched well enough to win the game but the offense just wasn’t putting any runs on the scoreboard to back him up. Rowland-Smith is now 4-3 on the season. Roy Corcoran and J.J. Putz both pitched one inning of relief after Rowland-Smith was taken out.

The only run for the Mariners came in the third inning when Raul Ibanez grounded out to first and Luis Valbuena scored. At that time the score was 1-0, but it was the only run the Mariners would score as they offense struggled at the plate to knock in any runs.

The Mariners and Angels will face off once again on Tuesday night as they M’s try to even up the series and finish the 2008 season strong.

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Ryan Feierabend was terrible in his 3 1/3 innings as he was charged with six hits and eight runs. Feierabend gave up one home run while walking three and striking out two batters. Sean Green was bad out of the bullpen once again as he gave up two runs in relief. Jared Wells and Jake Woods both gave up one run as well.

And for the offense, well there really wasn’t any offense on Thursday afternoon. The M’s struggled at the plate as they only had three total hits. The offense sucked just as bad as the pitching staff!

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Carlos Silva pitched 5 1/3 innings while giving up eight hits and two runs. Silva took the loss to fall to 4-15 on the year. Yeah, 4-15 lol… Sean Green pitched one inning in relief and also gave up one run. Green can’t give up that run as the Mariners were struggling at the plate and three runs was just asking for too much out of the offense.

Yeah the offense, shut out against Kansas City. Talk about a big let down. The M’s only had four hits in the game against Kyle Davies who pitched eight strong innings. Bad game for the bats.

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Mariners starting pitcher Cesar Jimenez only pitched the first three innings and then was taken out of the game. He had only given up one hit and struck out four but walked two batters. Jared Wells pitched bad in his one inning of action as he gave up three hits and four runs including two two-run home runs. Jake Woods gave up a two-run home run as well in the game. Not to be left out, Miguel Batista served up a solo home run.

Roy Corcoran ended up getting the victory while J.J. Putz recorded his 13th save of the season.

Raul Ibanez led the M’s at the plate with two rbi singles and a rbi double to finish the game with three rbi. Kenji Johjima wasn’t too far behind as he finished the game with two rbi on a two-run single. Yuniesky Betancourt and Matt Tuiasosopo finished up the rbi’s with one each.

Good win for the Mariners even though the pitching staff gave up four home runs. The offense sure picked them up this game. Mariners Blog

The pitching staff threw the ball very good on Wednesday as they only gave up a run in the first inning on a sac fly. Starting pitcher Felix Hernandez gave up the sac fly and took the loss even though he threw 7 1/3 innings and only allowed the one run. Hernandez is now 9-9 on the season.

I would have to put the blame on the offense for this game. They had eight hits but left 13 runners on base and struckout five times. The just could never get a run across the plate to tie the game.

The M’s will now be off on Thursday and then start up a weekend series with the New York Yankees.

Mariners Baseball Blog

On Saturday the Mariners got Ryan Rowland-Smith back into the rotation and optioned Jared Wells back to Tacoma.  Rowland-Smith wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad either pitching 5.2 innings allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out five.  A bad sixth inning and bullpen woes got him a no decision before good old Miguel Batista got the loss.  It was the result of an 11th inning Dioner Navarro sacrifice fly scoring Ben Zobrist to win it for Tampa 8-7.  Ichiro Suzuki had a great day at the plate going 4-for-6 with a home-run and 3 RBIs.  It appears in this ballgame that the M’s lost Willie Bloomquist to a potentially season ending hamstring injury to make matters worse.

Sunday’s contest was a 11-3 bashing by Tampa over the M’s.  For Tampa it was their franchise-record 71st win of the season.  Jose Lopez hit his 10th home-run of the season on the day.  Tampa got great days at the dish by Willy Aybar (2-for-5, 4 RBIs), Eric Hinske (3-for-5, 3 Runs), and Cliff Floyd (3-for-4, 2 runs, RBI).  Catcher Shawn Riggans hit a three run home-run as well.  R.A. Dickey got lit up for eight runs in five innings of work.  The M’s recalled Tug Hulett from Tacoma as they placed Bloomquist on the 15-day DL.

The last bit of Mariner news to report from over the weekend was the Saturday start by Brandon Morrow for Tacoma.  Morrow got hit hard throwing 51 pitches over 2.2 innings.  Brandon allowed three runs on five hits walking two and striking out two.  Lets not overreact to his rough outing, he pitched in a hitters haven and he is still adjusting to pitching as a starter.

Some Rumors not confirmed by Seattle, but confirmed by others….

Peter Gammons of ESPN reported that the Mariners placed Raul Ibanez on waivers over the weekend.  Nobody else is reporting this but I feel Gammons is more than a reliable source.  There is talk the Rays would pick up the claim, but that the Red Sox would block it much like they did as with Brian Giles.

There also was a report by the Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times that Jarrod Washburn has already cleared through waivers.  Problem is nobody else is reporting it.  Other sources are saying that he is still in the process and we should find out if any team made a claim sometime in the next 24-hours.  An interesting thing to think about is that if Washburn is traded to an American League squad, they have first crack at any player coming back through waivers to them in a trade because they own the worst record in the AL.

There is much going on in Mariner Land…too bad there is no focus left on the team in the field.

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Mariners 2, Rays 1

Thursday August 7, 2008 - Raul Ibanez was 0-for-3 at the plate in a 1-1 ballgame in the bottom of the 9th on Thursday night.  Maybe his recent tear he has been on at the plate was finally coming to an end.  Crack! Ibanez led off the inning drilling a Dan Wheeler pitch over the right field wall for his fourth career walk-off homer to win it for Seattle knocking off the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.  It seemed as if for once this season, Tampa was on the losing end of some late inning heroics.

The Mariners nearly wasted a pitching gem by Felix Hernandez who pitched 8 fantastic innings allowing only four hits while striking out five.  The only blemish on the day for Felix was a wild pitch off of Jeff Clement that scored Carl Crawford in the 4th inning.  Hernandez got a “no decision” as he left the game when it was tied at 1-1 before the 9th. 

J.J. Putz entered in the top of the 9th with the task of facing the meat of Rays lineup.  Putz started the inning forcing Crawford to fly out to deep left field for the first out.  Then he got himself into his classic “J.J. 2009″ trouble.  With a 0-2 count to Evan Longoria, Putz hit Longoria with a wild pitch to put the go-ahead run at first.  Carlos Pena followed with a single moving Longoria all the way over to third base to put runners on the corners.  Putz then showed some brass by striking out Cliff Floyd and Dioner Navarro back-to-back to set the table for Ibanez’s blast in the bottom half.  Putz picked up the win improving his record to 5-4.  It was inspiring to see a guy that has struggled so badly at times this season get the job done like he knows he can.  He really showed the stuff that made him so dominant last season with his back against the wall.

The Mariners have been on the losing end of these types of games so many times this season, its great to see things going their way recently.  I think the Twins series has given this team a boost of confidence in clutch situations.  Game 2 of the series will be tomorrow night with Carlos Silva (4-12) taking the mound against James Shields (9-7) at 7:10 PT.  The loss for the Rays brings their division lead over the Red Sox to just 2.5 games.

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Twins 7, Mariners 3

Minnesota Twins rookie right-fielder and lead-off batter Denard Span had a day he will never forget on Wednesday afternoon at Safeco.  Span, who began the season playing in Triple-A Rochester had a coming out party of sorts as he batted 3-for-5 driving in a career-high four runs as the Twins table setter.  His biggest play of the day was with his glove however, when he robbed Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre of what would have been a go-ahead home-run in the 7th inning.  Beltre stood in disbelief after the former number 20 pick overall in 2002 jumped and snared the ball just above railing and screen in front of the first row of seats.

Brendan Harris added two doubles and two RBIs on the day, and Nick Blackburn picked up his 9th victory on the mound this season tying him for the league lead among rookie hurlers.  Blackburn allowed three runs in six innings of work to hand Seattle their American League leading 70th loss of the season.

Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn (5-11) picked up the loss in the ballgame as he allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits with six strikeouts.  Mark Lowe continued his recent struggles getting hit hard allowing five hits and three runs in one inning of work.  Newcomer Jared Wells pitched two solid innings allowing only one hit and striking out two.

Raul Ibanez went 2-for-4 on the day but failed to pick up any RBIs to add to his Seattle record book performances over the past few days.  Beltre hit the ball hard all night going 2-for-4 with two RBIs and would have had more if it wasn’t for the great catch by Span in the 7th.

Seattle will stay at home tomorrow night to start a four-game series against the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays.  They are coming fresh off of a walk-off home-run win yesterday as Carlos Pena hit a three-run blast in the 9th to beat Cleveland.  Andy Sonnanstine (11-6) will face Felix Hernandez (7-7) at 7:10 PT.

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Mariners 8, Twins 7

Tuesday August 5, 2008 – Another game, another record for red-hot outfielder Raul Ibanez.  His three-run homer in the third put him past Bret Boone for first place all-time in home-runs at Safeco Field with 63.  Ibanez then added a two-run single in the sixth to give him 11 RBIs in his past two games and 14 RBIs in his past three games to tie the both franchise marks held by Ken Griffey Jr.  Last night he set the Mariner record for RBIs in an inning with six. 

Tuesday’s contest was another ping pong match between these teams as leads came and went. R.A. Dickey was solid and pitched the M’s to a 6-3 lead when he left the game before the 8th inning. This time it was the Twins getting a big inning late as they put up four runs off of Cesar Jimenez, Roy Corcoran, and J.J. Putz to give the Twins a 7-6 lead.  Jason Kubel hit a two-run homer off of Jimenez to cut the deficit to 6-5, Corcoran relieved Jimenez after the home-run and allowed two singles before J.J. Putz came in with two outs and two runners on.  Mike Lamb ripped a Putz pitch for a two-run double to make it 7-6 Twins.  The runners that scored on the Lamb double were charged to Corcoran.  Putz struck out Denard Span to end the inning.

The Mariners didn’t panic in the bottom half as they continued to feed off the momentum from last night.  Ichiro Suzuki led off the inning with a single.  After a Jeremy Reed pop out, Ibanez hit a single to right to put runners on first and second for Adrian Beltre.  Beltre lined out to the shortstop for the second out leaving it up to Jose Lopez.  Lopez delivered a big two-out, two-run, left center field gapper for a double scoring Ichiro and Ibanez to give Seattle a 8-7 lead.  It was the 29th double on the season for Lopez who has been on a tear going 3-for-5 on the day.  His .309 batting average is a team-high.

“Thunderstruck” stayed in the game in 9th and quickly struck out Nick Punto and Joe Mauer for two quick outs.  J.J. then ran into some trouble as he walked Justin Morneau on five pitches before Jason Kubel hit a double and put the Twins in business with runners on second and third.  The M’s decided to intentionally walk Delmon Young to load the bases for Mike Redmond.  Redmond lined out to Ichiro in right to end the game as the Mariners escaped with their third-straight win.  J.J Putz (4-4) got the win.  Matt Guerrier (6-5) got the loss.

The M’s go for the sweep tomorrow night as Jarrod Washburn (5-10) will face Nick Blackburn (8-6) at 1:40 PT. 

They are fun to watch again!

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