Mariners 9, Padres 2

Manager Jim Riggleman can finally smile today.  His team put together a full series for the first time this season, winning games with different phases shining through.  Today, unlike the first two games, the Mariners brought the bats..  They raked out 18 hits while scoring 8 runs in the final three innings for a 9-2 series ending sweep over the Padres at Petco.

Erik Bedard (5-4) went five and two thirds innings, allowing only one run on three hits, and striking out 3.  Ichiro Suzuki scored the first run of the game in the 3rd inning on an RBI single by Raul Ibanez to open the scoring.   Ichiro finished the day with a 5 for 5 performance at the plate which ties him for second all time in five hit games with 7 behind Dave Winfield’s 9.  Later in the 6th inning,  Adrian Beltre stayed hot hitting a towering blast into the second level balcony for his 15th home run of the season, a two run shot off starter Jake Peavy (L 5-5) two make it 3-0.

The Padres got one back on an Edgar Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, but in the top of the seventh the Mariners put the Padres away.

The Padres replaced Peavy with reliever Bryan Corey to start the seventh inning.  As fast as i wrote that sentence Corey was replaced.  He allowed four straight hits as Ichiro led it off with a single, followed by a Jose Lopez single.  Ibanez singled scoring Ichiro, and then Jose Vidro singled scoring Lopez.  Out Bryan Corey, In Carlos Guevara.  Same result as Betre singled scoring Ibanez, and Jeremy Reed singled to center field scoring Vidro and Beltre. And just like that 6 straight hits, all singles, and the it was 8-2.  Jeff Clement hit his second homer of the season in the 9th to round out the scoring.  Clement finished the game 2-for-4.

The win marked the teams 6th win in the 9 game interleague roadtrip.  I’m sure it was good for the team mentally to go on the road after all the recent turmoil surrounding the team.  Many of the players are probably wishing they could stay on the road.  However, they must return home to start a series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.  It will be the start of a seven game homestand as they play a three game set with Toronto ending Wednesday, and start a four game series with the Detroit Tigers Friday.  It will be interesting to see if the team can gain some confidence against AL teams after such a strong interleague performance.  Tomorrow night R.A. Dickey (2-3) and Roy Halliday (8-6) are the probables for the 7:10 PT start.

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Apparently facing the Padres lineup is the perfect remedy for any struggling pitcher.  One night after Jarrod Washburn picked up his first win since May 5th, M’s hurler Carlos Silva picked up his first win in 13 starts. (yes..really..13 starts)

Silva went 7 innings, allowed 8 hits, and struck out 3.  He walked none.  Silva forced alot of grounders, and had solid control throughout the night.  He pitched the type of  game that the Mariners expected from him when they signed him in the offseason from the Twins.  It was his first win since April 17th.

The win marked the teams fourth win in five games, but still gives them the worst record in the majors, 30-50.

Adrian Beltre led the way with 3 hits and 2 RBI’s.  Jose Lopez also added 2 hits, and scored twice.  Jeff Clement added a RBI on a sac fly.  Jeremy Reed also added an RBI.

Cha Seung Baek (1-4), who the Padres picked up from Seattle in May, was yanked in the 6th after allowing 4 straight batters to reach base.  He was responsible for all 4 of the Mariners runs.  Khalil Greene and Edgar Gonzalez each added two hits each for the Padres.  Tony Clark had the teams only two RBI’s adding a pinch hit single off Washburn in the 7th.

Brandon Morrow notched his 4th save, as he continues his dominance.  It was the first time getting back to back saves in his career.  I just can’t see how you can take Bombtrack out of the closer role.

Sunday’s pitching matchup should be a great one.  Erik Bedard (4-4), who missed his start Wednesday with back spasms, is scheduled to start in the series finale on Sunday against Cy Young winner Jake Peavy (5-4).

In another note, the Mariners announced Felix Hernandez will not start Tuesday at home against Toronto.  They said they want to give him more time to rest his ankle injury he suffered against the Mets earlier in the week.

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 Mariners 5, Padres 2

 In a flashback to 1978 the Mariners and Padres sported throwbacks to honor the 30th anniversary of the 1st all-star game in San Diego.  The Mariners wore the old powder blues and the Padres went with the old whites.

 Jarrod Washburn finally got off the schneid on Friday night in San Diego as he picked up his first win since May 5th.  Washburn (3-7) allowed 2 runs in 7 and 2/3′rds to pick up the win.  He credited a slight change in his mechanics for his recent success.  But facing the national leagues worst team is probably the real reason.  Washburn was solid all night till Rookie Chase Headley finally got to him in the 7th with a 2 run shot to left field.  The red hot Brandon Morrow was asked to come in to get the last four outs of the game.  He came in with runners on the corners and got out of the inning forcing a ground ball.  Then closed out the Padres in the ninth for his 3rd save.

 Padres starter Randy Wolf had a rough outing. The Mariners were all over the lefty from the start but left eight on base in the first three innings. It took four straight singles in the fourth to get runs across the plate, Raul Ibanez drove home a run, followed by an Adrian Beltre hit. Catcher Kenji Johjima doubled home Richie Sexson in the 6th, for the only extra-base hit of the night among the teams 12 hits.  Ichiro Suzuki and Jose Lopez, each had three singles and reached base four times. Sexson reached base safely for the 10th straight game adding a single and two walks.

The win for the Mariners was there third in four games.  Carlos Silva (3-9) gets the ball tomorrow night at 7:05 hoping to end his recent struggles.  If there was any team Silva would want to face to end his streak it would be the Padres.  Former Mariner Cha Seung Baek (1-3) will take the mound for San Diego.

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The Seattle Mariners started the weekend with a bang with a 10-2 win at Turner Field in interim manager Jim Riggleman’s debut.  Erik Bedard turned in a nice performance until being pulled because of back spasms after three scoreless innings. Bedard isn’t expected to miss much time.

Seattle’s offense matched a season high with 15 hits. Jose Lopez continued his nice first half at the plate with 3 hits, 2 were doubles, and 4 RBI’s. Adrian Beltre added 2 hits and 3 RBI’s

The Bullpen pitched in with a nice peformance relieving Bedard, as Ryan Rowland-Smith picked up the win.

Just as we all got excited about the impressive win, we all got brought back down to earth with the Braves taking game 2 and 3 of the series. The Braves won those two games 5-4, and 8-3 respectively as the offense went back to it dissapearing act.

In game 2, the M’s took the lead to the bottom of the ninth as Miguel Batista blew the save opportunity filling in for the sore Brandon Morrow. Greg Norton hit a key double and eventually scored as Brian McCann singled in the former Mariner for the winning run. The Mariners mustered only 5 hits in the loss.

Game 3 was completely dominated by Mark Teixeira. Tex blasted 3 home runs, 2 off starter Carlos Silva who failed to pick up a victory in his 12th straight start.

Raul Ibanez picked up two hits off Braves starter Tim Hudson and seemed to be the only player with an answer to his stuff. Jeff Clement‘s finally got the monkey off his back with a leadoff double in the seventh, and hit his first dinger of the year to center field in the 9th. Willie Bloomquist knocked in the final run with an RBI single late.

The Mariners head to New York for a series with the Mets starting monday. Game 1′s matchup will see Johan Santana against Felix Hernandez. Should be a fantastic matchup.

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In a game that ironically became the last for manager John McLaren, R.A. Dickey, who McLaren has backed, got roughed up in his second straight start.  R.A. gave up 5 runs, on six hits, 4 walks, and a HR.  It was ultimately decisions like the one to pitch Dickey that ironically summed up his managing style for the Mariners, which too often was sticking with players for too long.  This, along with  lacking the foresight to make key personnel changes,  in the end sealed the fate of the McLaren, Bavasi era.

Mike Jacobs (2 for 5, 3 RBI’s), and Dan Uggla belted big flys for the Marlins.  Hanley Ramirez went 2 for 3 with 3 runs on 3 walks.  21 year old rookie Ryan Tucker (2-1) picked up the win going 6 innings striking out 4, and allowing only 2 runs.

A positive for the Mariners was that they out hit the Fish 13-11.  The negative, as has been for most of the season was the 25 runners left on base, many in key spots.  Recent call up Jeff Clement started at catcher, and picked up where he left off on his last call up striking out twice, but did draw two walks.  Adrian Beltre was 2-5 scoring twice while he picked up his 11th double of the season.  Jose Vidro went 3 for 5 at the dish, and Jeremy Reed continued to swing a nice bat going 2 for 3.

McLaren was fired before the team left for Atlanta.  He will be replaced by Jim Riggleman who was currently on the staff as the teams bench coach.  Lee Elia, who recently took over as hitting coach is now the bench coach.  The remainder of the staff stays in place for the time being.  McLaren’s final record as Mariners skipper was 66-88.  Its going to be very interesting to see what Riggleman does with the lineup after McLaren was so indecisive about putting it together day in and day out.

The M’s head to Atlanta for a game on Friday against the Braves.  That game will start a nine game interleague road trip.  Lets see if getting away on this road trip from the mess that has begun to unravel in Seattle among the Mariners brass can be good for the team going forward.

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The Florida Marlins came into tonights contest looking to hand the Mariners their ninth straight home loss and fifth straight loss overall.  Tonight King Felix had other ideas. 

Going into tonights game, Felix Hernandez had been getting the 3rd least run support in the American League. But tonight the Mariners bats came to life early as they put up two runs in the bottom of the first.  Ichiro Suzuki led the game off with a single, then with Ichiro stealing second with the pitch,  Jose Lopez ripped a double to score Ichiro to make it 1-0.  After a Jose Vidro strikeout, Adrian Beltre belted a single to move Lopez to third, then Lopez scored on a RBI single by Raul Ibanez to make it 2-0.

In the Top of the 2nd inning Dan Uggla got Florida on the board with a solo shot to left field to cut the lead to 2-1.  It was shortly after that when Felix Hernandez took  over.

Starting with one out in the 3rd, Heranadez fanned 6 straight batters, falling one strikeout short of tying Mark Langston’s club mark of 7 straight.

The Mariners hit lefty Scott Olsen hard all night and got to him again in the 4th.  Ichiro scored Kenji Johjima on a sacrifice fly, and Lopez hit his second double of the game to score Willie Bloomquist to make it 4-1.  Seattle made it 5-1 in the 5th as Ibanez scored on a throwing error by relief pitcher Logan Kensing.

Florida finally got to Herandez in the 6th as Jeremy Hermida singled home a run, and Jorge Cantu hit a sacrifice fly to score Alfredo Amezaga to make it 5-3.  In the 7th, Matt Treanor scored Luis Gonzalez to make it a 5-4 ballgame.

Felix Hernandez started the 8th inning and got Hanley Ramirez to ground out and then walked Hermida before getting pulled.  Righty Sean Green took over to face Jorge Cantu and got a big strikeout to get the second out.  Green was replaced immediately by Arthur Rhodes who struck out pinch hitter Cody Ross to finish the 8th.

Brandon Morrow came on in the 9th throwing some straight up gas, striking out Uggla with a 99 mph fastball, getting Gonzalez to ground out to Lopez for the second out, and finally mowing down Wes Helms to get his second career save in as many chances.  Morrow has looked fantastic of late and fans must wonder if his dominating performances of late, along with drafting of strong armed closer Joshua Fields,  spell the end for J.J. Putz.

Hernandez picked up the win to improve his record to 6-5 recording 9 strikeouts.  Olsen got the loss to go 4-4.  The M’s look to close out the series tomorrow night at 7:10pm (PDT) against the Marlins before heading off to Atlanta to face the Braves on Friday. They are going with Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (1-2) against righty Ryan Tucker (1-1).

 (photo: John Froschauer/AP)

After a long day for the organization with a result they have become uncomfortably used to,  Seattle dropped their 4th straight contest overall, and 8th straight game at home to the Florida Marlins 6-1 to fall to 24-46 on the season. 

Carlos Silva got off to another slow start in the first,  giving up 3 consecutive hits along with a walk, with one out in the inning. Silva escaped giving up runs by Jeremy Hermida, who singled in the inning, and scored on a single by Mike Jacobs, and Jorge Cantu on a sacrifice fly by Luis Gonzalez.  Gonzalez finished the game with 2 RBI’s.  Silva was later ejected by umpire Bill Welke in the 5th for arguing a contreversial play that would have been an inning ending double play.  Silva saw his record fall to 3-8.

As has been the story of the Mariners offense this season, they left 18 runners on base.  In the 4th after a Richie Sexson single to load the bases with no outs in the inning, the M’s only mustered 1 run on a sacrifice fly by Kenji Johjima to score Adrian Beltre to cut the lead to 2-1. The offense was shut out the rest of the way.

The 23 year old lefty Andrew Miller (5-5), who was a key piece of the Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera trade with Detroit, pitched a solid game for the Marlins going 7 strong, allowing only 6 hits, and did a nice job pitching himself out of trouble in the 4th. 

In other Mariners notes, Ichiro Suzuki stole 3rd in the 5th inning for his 30th stolen base of the season. 

Sexson was 2-4 on the night, and has hit better recently since changing to a more open batting stance.

Miguel Batista, who recently was taken out of the rotation pitched a nice 8th inning getting 3 quick outs notching two strikouts.

Brandon Morrow got some work in late striking out Cantu, Jacobs, and Dan Uggla to strike out the side in the 9th. 

The Mariners will try to even it up tommorow for game 2 of the series at 7:10p.  Lefty Scott Olson (4-3) will face Felix Hernandez (5-5)

The Seattle Mariners and the Detroit Tigers combined for five home runs and 20 runs in Tuesday nights game but it was the Mariners coming out on the losing side.  The Mariners only had one of the five home runs, and only eight of the 20 runs in the game.

The Mariners made a comeback in the final three innings as they scored seven runs but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers had a huge lead.  Adrian Beltre led the Mariners with three rbi and then a slew of Mariners had one rbi in the game.  Jeremy Reed, Jose Vidro, Miguel Cairo, and Yuniesky Betancourt all had one rbi in the game.

Carlos Silva dropped to 3-3 on the season as he took the loss for the Mariners.  Silva only lasted four innings as he gave up nine hits and seven runs.  The bullpen wasn’t much better as Cha Seung Baek gave up for runs and and three home runs.  Mark Lowe pitched one inning and also gave up one run.  Ryan Rowland-Smith was finally able to come in and pitch a scoreless inning in the eighth inning but it was a little bit too late.

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The Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians were tied 2-2 heading into the ninth inning and that is when the Mariners exploded for five runs in the ninth inning.  Adrian Beltre provided three of those runs with a three run home run in the inning.

Besides Beltre’s three RBI, Jose Vidro and Yuniesky Betancourt both had two RBI at the plate.

Carlos Silva got a no decision in the game even though he pitched pretty good.  Silva threw seven innings and gave up seven hits and two runs.  Silva kept the Mariners in it so they had a chance to win in the ninth inning.  Mark Lowe ended up pitching in relief and picking up the win.  It was Lowe’s first win of the season.

Mariners Blog

The Seattle Mariners got out to a 5-0 lead after three innings but could not hold onto that lead as they lost to the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 on Thursday night.  Anytime you are up 5-0 that early in the game, you need to not let up and continue to put pressure on the other team.  The Mariners did not do that and that is why they lost.

Jarrod Washburn pitched five innings and gave up six hits to and two runs.  Wasburn didn’t pitch too badly, it was the bullpen that really blew the game for the Mariners.  Roy Corcoran, Mark Lowe, and Sean Green all gave up one run.  Arthur Rhodes actually gave up three runs without even recording an out.  Green ended up taking the loss and is now 1-1 on the season.

At the plate for the Mariners, Ichiro and Adrian Beltre both hit home runs.  Beltre hit a solo shot in the second inning while Ichiro and a two run shot in the seventh inning.  Ichiro and Jose Vidro led the team with two RBI each.  Beltre, Jose Lopez, and Raul Ibanez all finished the game with one RBI.

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