Thursday July 10, 2008
Athletics 3, Mariners 2
R.A. Dickey and Greg Smith dueled 7 shutout innings of a pitchers game until in the 8th things got crazy when it was handed to the repective bullpens.
In the top of 8th, Jose Lopez finally sparked the offense by leading off the inning with a double. After Oakland intentionally walked the hot hitting Adrian Beltre, Jose Vidro reached base on an infield single scoring Lopez to make it 1-0. Sean Green replaced Dickey and got through the bottom half of the inning. In the 9th with one out, Willie Bloomquist recorded a ground rule double to left field. With Lopez at the plate “Willie Ballgame” got a nice jump off the pitch and swiped third base. Bloomquist then scored on a Lopez double, his second of the game to make it 2-0.
Enter Brandon Morrow in the 9th and its automatic, ballgame over, see ya later…right?
Oakland finally got the bats around on those Morrow gassers. Jack Cust and pinch hitting Kurt Suzuki both went yard in the bottom half to tie the game at 2-2. Mark Lowe got the M’s off the hook and struck out Jack Hannahan to send it to extras. For Morrow, it was the first run allowed for him in well over a month, and his first blown save in nine chances.
Lowe got the M’s throught to the 11th, and handed the ball to Lefty Cesar Jimenez. Jimenez has been pitching fabulous for the M’s since his recent call up. Jimenez struck out Cust to start the inning, but Emil Brown homered to left field to break the Mariners hearts in the bottom of the 11th.
Once again, the Mariners kept up with their theme of stranding baserunners as they left 12 on base. With the release of Richie Sexson today, will the fire sale begin?
Huston Street picked up the win to improve his record to 2-2. Jimenez picked up first loss to fall to 0-1. The M’s fall to 36-56 on the season.
The M’s will head to Kansas City for the teams last series before the All-Star break. It will mark the return of Felix Hernandez to the mound. He will face Luke Hochevar for the Royals to start a three-game set.
