Mariners fans can breathe a sigh of relief as X-Rays for the 22 year old ace came back negative.  Mets Shortstop Jose Reyes slid into his ankle as he was covering the plate on a wild pitch in the dirt.  The injury is being called a “mild sprain”.  

Felix Hernandez himself has stated he will not miss a start, but the team may have to hold him back a few extra days.  But all in all this is good news for a team that can’t afford any bad news at this point.

In other injury news, manager Jim Riggleman said he doesn’t expect closer J.J. Putz back until late July with still lingering elbow problems.  This is good and bad in my opinion for Seattle.  Good that we get to see Brandon Morrow close games for the next month.  Bad because it may reduce J.J.’s value on the trade market with the July 31st deadline approaching right around his scheduled return.

In the top of the second inning with the bases loaded Mariner’s Ace Felix Hernandez came to the plate against one of the leagues best, Johan Santana.  It took one pitch for Hernandez to deposit the Santana fastball out of the park opposite field to right for the first grand slam by an American League pitcher since 1971. The Felix slam put the Mariners up 4-0, and was the first homerun of his career.  Hernandez also was pitching a nice game.  That was until he was forced out of the game in the 5th due to an ankle injury after Jose Reyes slid into home to make it 5-1.  Hernandez left only needing one more out to officially qualify for a win in the game.

In a game that lacked offense, the Mariners only got one other run in the ballgame on a 5th inning single by Jose Lopez scoring Willie Bloomquist.

The Mets only recorded 4 hits as the Seattle bullpen got out of some jams relieving Hernandez.  Roy Corcaran (1.1 innings), and Ryan Rowland-Smith (2 innings) helped keep the score 5-1 going into the bottom of the 9th.

With Miguel Batista starting the later in the week, and Brandon Morrow due back Tuesday, along with J.J. Putz still on the DL, the Mariners went into the 9th with Sean Green.  Green struggled giving up a run on two hits and a walk.  Then enter…Arthur Rhodes.  With one out and two baserunners on, Rhodes shut the door.  The 38 year old vetran one year removed from Tommy John surgery, struck out Carlos Delgado, and Damion Easley to end the game.

Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-1) picked up the victory. Johan Santana (7-6)got the loss.  These two teams meet again tomorrow night at 7:10 at Shea Stadium.  Seattle is expected to go with struggling knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (1-1) as the Mets counter with Oliver Perez (4-5) . David Wright is expected to get the day off for the Mets. 

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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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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)

It took a ninth inning rally but the Seattle Mariners were able to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by the score of 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon.  Raul Ibanez hit a rbi single to right field that scored Ichiro Suzuki for the go ahead and winning run in the game.  Ichiro stole second and third in the ninth inning.  Good win for the Mariners who really needed to pick up a victory.

Yuniesky Betancourt got the Mariners scoring started in the seventh inning when they were down 1-0.  Betancourt roped a rbi triple to deep right center field and Richie Sexson scored the first run for the Mariners.  There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the Mariners, but it was enough to come away with the victory.

I was very impressed with the Mariners pitching against the Blue Jays.  Felix Hernandez tossed eight strong innings while only allowing four hits and one run while striking out eight Blue Jays.  Hernandez was able to improve his record to 5-5 on the season with the victory.

J.J. Putz came in at the beginning of the ninth inning but was pulled out of the game after walking the first batter.  Brandon Morrow was then brough in and he was able to get the Mariners out of the game and pick up the save.  Morrow got the save which was his first of the season as the Mariners ended their road trip with a 3-3 record.

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The Seattle Mariners dropped a close one to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon as they lost 5-4.  It was the fourth straight loss for the Mariners and they were swept by the Angels in the three game mid-week series.

Carlos Silva threw eight innings and gave up eight hits and five runs to take the loss for the Mariners.  Silva is now 3-6 with a 5.96 era on the season.  Brandon Morrow came in and pitched a scoreless ninth inning after Silva was taken out of the game.

Jose Lopez had another good game as he went 3-5 with three rbi’s including a solo home run and two run single.  Yuniesky Betancourt also had a rbi ground out in the second inning for the Mariners.

The Mariners will try to snap their four game loosing streak on Friday against the Boston Red Sox.  It sure isn’t going to be easy, and I see the Mariners losing atleast two out of three games if not all three.

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The Seattle Mariners got into a big hole early in the game and then went on to lose to the Detroit Tigers by the score of 9-2 on Thursday afternoon.  It definately was not the way the Mariners wasnted to end the series as they were swept in the three game series and now have to goto New York and take on the Yankees in a weekend series.

Miguel Batista only lasted three inning as he gave up seven hits and five runs.  Batista is now sporting a 6.47 era on the season.  R.A. Dickey pitched two innings of relief after Batista exited and he gave up two runs.  Following Batista, Sean Green came in for an inning and also gave up two runs.  Finally Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz were able to pitch the final two innings without giving up a run.

Raul Ibanez had the only rbi for the Mariners as he had a rbi single in the third inning that scored Yuniesky Betancourt.  Ibanez also grounded into a double play in the fifth inning that scored the second run for the Mariners.  No rbi was given on the play since he grounded into the DP however.

The Mariners will now go into New York City hurting after being swept by the Tigers.  Can they turn things around in the Bronx? I’m going to say no as they will only win game out of three against the Yankees.

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The Seattle Mariners scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to take the game into extra innings but then went onto lose on a walk off home run in the tenth inning to the Texas Rangers by the score of 13-12.  Ramon Vazquez took Brandon Morrow deep to win the game for the Rangers.  Morrow took the loss and is now 0-1 on the season.

Starting pitcher Erik Bedard was roughed up in only two innings of action.  Bedard gave up seven hits and six runs as he was hit hard all night long.  Cha Seung Baek pitched the next two innings without letting in a run but then Ryan Rowland-Smith gave up two runs and Mark Lowe gave up four more runs.

The Mariners did hit three home runs in the game.  Kenji Johjima had the big three run blast in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game.  Raul Ibanez had a two run home run in the first inning and Wladimir Balentien had a two run shot as well in the eighth inning.

Johima led the the Mariners with four rbi while Ibanez wasn’t too far behind with three rbi.  Balentein had two rbi and Yuniesky Betancourt finished up the game with one rbi.

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Carlos Silva is now 3-0 on the season as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics by the score of 8-1 on Thursday night.  Silva was dominate as he pitched seven innings and only gave up four hits and one earned run.

Ryan Rowland-Smith and Brandon Morrow pitched the final two innings of the game for the Mariners and did not allow a hit.

Jose Lopez and Jose Vidro both had two RBI for the Mariners.  Willie Bloomquist, Yuniesky Betancourt, Kenji Johjima, and Raul Ibanez all had one RBI each.

With the win, the Mariners record is now 9-8 on the season.

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