The dissappointing season for the Seattle Mariners got worse on Wednesday night as they were beaten by the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels beat the Mariners by the score of 6-5 and gave the M’s their 100th loss of the 2008 season. Yeah, things have been that bad this year.

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.

Mariners Blog

Outfielder Wladimir Balentien brought up from Tacoma 

Wednesday August 6, 2008 - The youth movement of the Tacoma (ahemm) Seattle Mariners continued today as the team optioned DH Jose Vidro for assignment, and recalled outfielder Wladimir Balentien back to the big leagues.

Seattle Mariner fans will be sad to lose their biggest whipping boy in Vidro as he has had a poor 2008 season.   Jose batted .234 with seven homers and 45 RBIs in 85 games this season for Seattle.  The M’s have 10 days to release, trade, option, or assign Vidro outright to the Minors.

Wlad got the call up in Vidro’s place to begin his second stint with the Mariners this season.  Balentien hit .196 with four home-runs and 9 RBI’s in 32 games earlier in the season.  Many including myself thought they should have let him ride his struggles out, but the team returned him to Tacoma.  Balentien struggled a little when sent down, but has gotten hot batting .270 with 12 home-runs and 35 RBIs in 44 games.

The Mariners lineup is now loaded with Rainiers as Jeff Clement, Bryan LaHair, and Balentien are all up with the big team.  Not to mention half of their pitching staff was down there at some point.  Its good to see the Mariners getting these guys up earlier before the rosters expand so they can see them against better competition before September.

Mariners Blog

Game 3 - Sunday August 3, 2008

Mariners 8, Orioles 4

“My oh my!” the Mariners gave long time broadcaster and recent hall-of-fame nominee Dave Niehaus some offense on his ceremonial day at the ballpark.  Every time the Orioles tried to respond to the Mariner offense, Seattle slugged runs right back en route to an 8-4 win.

The offense got three runs in the bottom of the seventh fueled a Raul Ibanez two-run single off Jamie Walker. Ibanez finished with three RBI on the day helping the Mariners avoid the sweep.  Seattle’s big seventh was thanks to Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera, who lost his control as he walked Bryan LaHair and Yuniesky Betancourt between a Jeff Clement infield single.  Ichiro Suzuki reached on a fielding error putting a run in for Seattle setting the table for the big hit by Ibanez to cushion the Seattle lead.  Clement’s RBI single in the 8th added some extra insurance for the Mariner relief staff.

J.J. Putz (3-4) picked up the win as he pitched his best game since coming off the DL.  J.J. worked the end of the 7th and the pitched all of the 8th allowing only one hit.  Putz acknowledged feeling better and hopes he is giving the team more confidence in him so they can convert Brandon Morrow to a starter by the end of the season.  Speaking of Morrow he pitched a scoreless 9th to nail down the win.

Other notes:

Jose Lopez hit a solo shot in the 6th for his 9th home-run of the season.

Betancourt’s walk in the 7th inning was only his seventh walk of the season.

The Mariners will begin a three game series tomorrow night at 7:10 PT against the Minnesota Twins.  Miguel Batista (4-11) will face Glen Perkins (8-3).

Mariners Blog

Game 1 - Friday August 1, 2008

Orioles 10, Mariners 5

Garrett Olson pitched eight scoreless innings and the Oriole bats picked up eight runs in the top of the 5th to help the O’s cruise past the M’s 10-5.

The oft rumored Jarrod Washburn got rocked for six earned runs on nine hits over 4.2 innings of work.  It appeared Washburn’s focus was altered a little after he was not dealt at the deadline.

Former Mariner Adam Jones picked up two-RBI in theballgame going 2-for-6, and Jay Payton picked up 3 RBI on the day with a triple in the 5th.  Surprsingly, none of the runs scored by either team were the result of home-runs.

Trailing 10-0 late, the Mariners picked up all their runs in the 9thas they picked up a season-high seven hits in the inning.  The M’s loaded the bases with three singles in the inning off of Olson who was attempting to pitch a complete game.  Kenji Johjima and Jeremy Reed had RBI singles, and Ichiro Suzuki picked up an RBI on a fielders choice ground-out.  Willie Bloomquist and Bryan LaHair added RBI singles to cut the lead in half, but the rally ended on an Adrian Beltre fly out.

Other Mariner notes:

Jose Lopez extended his hit streak to 19 games as he went 2-for-3 and raised his batting average to .306.

Ichiro was acknowledged before the game for his 3,000th hit he recorded against Texas.  GM Lee Pelekoudis and CEO Howard Lincoln presented Ichiro with a plaque as well as the base he stole for his team record 290th stolen base in May of this season.

The Mariners decided to play today’s game one player short on the active roster for the second straight game.  Manager Jim Riggleman said the player to be brought up will be a reliever.  He said they have three players in mind, but might wait a week or so to make a decision.

Wladimir Balentien continues to make a strong bid for a call-up as he went 3-for-5 with a home-run and five RBI for Tacoma against Round Rock last night. 

Erik Bedard is expected to play catch Sunday at Safeco.

Game 2 at 7:10 PT tomorrow night will see Felix Hernandez (7-6) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (7-8)

Mariners Blog

Game 4 - Thursday July 31, 2008

Mariners 8, Rangers 5

The Mariners players could finally relax for Thursday’s game against the Texas Rangers.

The trade deadline came and went on Thursday and the team remained intact minus the trade of relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes to the Florida Marlins.  It has been a stressful season full of uncertainty for many players on the roster.  At least now they know they are staying a little longer.

The Mariners got a strong performance by knuckleballer and former Ranger R.A. Dickey on Thursday to pick up an 8-4 victory in Arlington.  Dickey had his signature knuckler dancing going 7.2 innings allowing six hits and only two runs.  It took till the 8th inning til Javier Vazquez hit a two-run home-run to get the Rangers on the board.

Raul Ibanez was one of the rumored players expected to potentially be dealt today.  Ibanez was reportedly close to being dealt to the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the day until Seattle decided to back out of the deal.  Ibanez showed the M’s they made the right choice hitting an RBI double in the first, followed by a fielders choice RBI by Adrian Beltre to quickly put the M’s up 2-0.

The Mariners stayed hot in the second and got two more runs.  Catcher Jamie Burke reached base on an error and eventually scored on an RBI double by Ichiro Suzuki.  Ichiro would then score on Texas starter Matt Harrison’s wild pitch to put the M’s up 4-0. 

Seattle got more help in the 4th as Miguel Cairo scored on a fielders choice RBI from the bat of Jeremy Reed.  Bryan LaHair then scored on an Ichiro sacrifice fly to give the M’s the big 6-0 lead. 

In the 8th, Adrian Beltre blasted his 19th dinger of the year off of Texas reliever Dustin Nippert to increase the lead to 8-0.  Jose Lopez immediately followed with a single to extend his career-best hitting streak to 18 games.

The Vazquez homer in the bottom half ruined Dickey’s bid for his second career shutout.  The Rangers made it interesting in the 9th as they combined to score three more runs off of Mark Lowe and J.J. Putz, but it wasn’t enough as the M’s held them off.

The Mariners will return back home tonight as they begin a three game set against the Baltimore Orioles and former Mariners Adam Jones and George Sherrill.  The red hot Jarrod Washburn (5-9) will take the ball against Garrett Olson (7-5) for the birds.

With the Rhodes trade going down while Seattle was on the road, they chose not to fly a man to Arlington to replace Rhodes on the active roster.  The Mariner 25-man roster currently sits at 24 players, so expect a new Mariner to be called up for tomorrow nights game.

Mariners Blog

Game 2- Tuesday July 29, 2008

Rangers 11, Mariners 10

It sure has been tough to be a Mariner fan this season.  Tuesday night’s see roller-coaster against Texas was wild from start to finish.  This game had everything good and bad in all different aspects of the game.  It even had a little history as Ichiro Suzuki picked up his 3,000th professional hit in the first inning.  Congrats to Ichiro!

Ramon Vazquez hit a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth to win it for the Texas avoiding blowing a huge seven run lead after the 3rd inning.  Vazquez had three errors on the night and was responsible for blowing the one-run lead Texas held in the top of the 9th, but perseveered at the plate to get his team the victory.

The Good and the bad :

Texas

• The Good : The Rangers offense

Texas hammered Mariner starter Carlos Silva (who hasn’t?) for six runs on seven hits in 2.1 innings.  The game appeared as batting practice to Ranger hitters as they  pummeled his pitches all over the field.  Roy Corcoran didn’t fair much better getting hit up for three runs on six hits in 3.2 innings.  J.J. Putz surrendered two runs on three hits in 0.1 innings for the blown save and loss in the 9th.  

 CBS Sports:

• The Bad : The Rangers defense

The Rangers pitching wasn’t very good, but it was their defense that made them look even worse.  Texas committed a season-high five errors on the night as Ramon Vazquez committed three alone.  They allowed the Mariners back into a game that they trailed 7-0.  Yes the Mariners did hit well, but innings were constantly extended because of poor defensive play.

Seattle

• The Offense

Trailing 7-0, the M’s showed a lot of guts for one of the leagues worst teams fighting and scratching to get back into the game.  Good to see them packing it in yet even if the Rangers defense was trying to cover the point spread. 

Bryan LaHair and Jose Lopez both homered for the second straight night.  LaHair may have been the player of the game for Seattle.  His performance has been encouraging since his call-up.  Lopez has now hit safely in 16 games.  But overall, errors or no errors, The Mariners took advantage when they had a chance and gave their team a chance to win in the M’s best comeback of the season.

CBS Sports:

The Bad : Jim Riggleman

Can i just say “Bad Riggleman, bad!”  I give manager Jim Riggleman the dog-like nose slap for using J.J. Putz to close tonight.  I know that the M’s aren’t playing for much and maybe they want to see what they have in Putz to figure out a direction to go in the future, but give the ball to Bombtrack (Brandon Morrow) there.  Putz later or in a few weeks.  What are you saving Morrow for? You aren’t going to start him, so use him, especially against the Ranger bats. They threw Putz out there for the save when he hasn’t shown anybody he is ready yet.  This is the type of moves that get the Mariners in trouble.  Its like they feel bad that J.J. lost his job to injury so they run him out there when the kid has out performed him.  Nice guys finish last Riggleman/McLaren, and thats why you are where you are.  And spare me the J.J Putz was amazing last year line.  Eric Gagne was great once too.  The Closer spot is about performance and confidence, Putz has obviously lacked in both categories this season healthy or not.  Being a closer is a “what are you doing for me now?” postion. To win the game.  Not for charity, or to make veterans feel better. 

• The Ugly - Calros Silva

Carlos Silva still has three years remaining on his deal after this season.  I wonder if the reason that Jarrod Washburn is still a Mariner is because they are afraid of this guy being in there rotation next year (just kidding..sort of).  The M’s are still on the hook for a ton of his contract and are stuck with him.  He came into this season known as a “ground-ball pitcher”.  The only ground balls he is forcing are the ones he is throwing on the ground when he gets pulled within the first few innings of ballgames.

So much for that “Texas heat” helping Silva’s back Mariners.com.  If he is hurt DL him.  We are all getting sick of Riggleman’s/McLaren’s excuses for his poor pitching performances.  This includes Miguel Batista as well.  If they are hurt, get them out of there.

Game 3 on Wednesday will be Miguel Batista vs. Vicente Padilla at 8:05 PT.  Lets hope the M’s don’t make us cry.

Mariners Blog

Game 1, Monday July 28, 2008

Mariners 7, Rangers 5

Trade Beltre? Please.  Adrian Beltre showed everyone why he is currently the Mariners best all-round player as he hit two big home-runs to lift Seattle over Texas Monday night in a sticky 101 degree game.  Beltre homered in the first inning to give his team the lead, and then hit the big 8th inning homer to put his team up for good as he made the score 6-5.  In the bottom of the 8th inning, the Rangers had runners on second and third with RBI leader Josh Hamilton at the plate with one out. Kenji Johjima and Beltre teamed up to pick off Ramon Vazquez who was leaning a little too far down the line.  Johjima through a strike down to Beltre who blocked the front of the bag with his foot to pick off Vazquez.  Arthur Rhodes then got the strike-out getting the big hitting Hamilton to end the threat. 

Bryan LaHair hit his first major league home-run in the second, and Raul Ibanez also homered in the 6th to lead to power surge for the Mariners second straight win.

Sean Green (3-3) notched the win as he came in for Felix Hernandez and picked up the last out in the seventh.  Brandon Morrow pitched the ninth for his 10th save as he finally had a save opportunity, and got to take advantage.  Hernandez on the day allowed six hits and four runs over six innings, striking out six and walking four.

Ichiro Suzuki is now one hit shy of his 3,000 “professional” hit going 1-for-4 with an RBI sacrifice fly in the 9th.  Jose Lopez extended his hitting streak to 15 games going 2-for-4 with a double. 

Carlos Silva (4-12) is expected to take the mound on Tuesday night after missing his last scheduled start.  Luis Mendoza (2-4) takes the ball for the Rangers at 5:05 PT.  Can the M’s make it three in a row?

Still no word on Jarrod Washburn.

Mariners Blog

Tuesday July 22, 2008

Red Sox 4, Mariners 2

Patience at the plate is something the Mariners have seriously lacked this season.  Tonight was much of the same as Daisuke Matsusaka took the hill Tuesday night. The league knows to make “Dice-K” throw an abundance of pitches and force him to throw strikes .  Somebody forgot to tell Seattle.  The Mariners came out swinging at everything (just like last night) and constantly got behind in the count. The M’s lineup scraped together just five hits as Boston beat Seattle 4-2.  Dice-K was ahead in the count for most of the night as he struck out six on his way to his 11th victory of the season.  Matsusaka did walk three, but only threw 99 pitches in 7 1/3 innings.

Watching the Red Sox batters at the plate is the complete opposite.  Boston’s lineup will make you work for everything as they drew six walks and constantly waited on pitches from M’s starter R.A. Dickey.  All-star game MVP J.D. Drew displayed his patience at the plate in the first inning as he sat on the knuckleballers mid 80’s fastball.  Drew laid off the knuckler and slammed a second straight Dickey fastball over the right field wall for his 18th home-run of the season.  Dickey threw six innings of work, surrendering four runs on nine hits, walking three and failing to record a strikeout.

Boston scored three runs off Dickey in the top of the fifth. Drew and rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie added sacrifice flies in the inning and got some extra insurance on a Mike Lowell RBI double.

The Mariners managed to make it interesting off Matsusaka in the 8th.  Rookie first baseman Bryan LaHair led off the inning with his first big league hit, and later scored on a Ichiro Suzuki RBI double to make it 4-1.  Jose Lopez singled to center field on next pitch to score Ichiro to make it 4-2 with one out.  Dice-K got the yank for lefty Hideki Okajima who got the final two outs of the inning.  Jonathan Papelbon nailed down the M’s in order in the 9th for his 30th save of the season.

It was another solid outing from the Mariner bullpen as Roy Corcoran pitched a scoreless seventh, Arthur Rhodes struck out the side in the eighth, and Cesar Jimenez continued his successful call-up stint allowing a goose egg in the ninth.  Kudos to the Mariner bullpen as they have been by far the biggest bright spot in a rough season.

Mariners rookie catcher Jeff Clement had to leave the ballgame as he injured his right thumb in the netting try to catch a foul ball.  Apparently Clement lost the nail.  He had the finger wrapped and stayed in the game, but eventually gave way to Kenji Johjima.  I’m sure we will learn more tomorrow if Clement will miss any time.

Tomorrow afternoon’s 1:40 PT contest will mark the 5,000th game in Mariner history.  Its going to be a solid pitching match-up as Mariner ace Felix Hernandez (7-6) will toe the rubber against Boston’s Clay Buchholz (2-5).

Mariners Blog

Saturday July 19, 2008

Indians 9, Mariners 6

Shin-Soo Choo was a 7 year-old in South Korea when the Indians and Mariners wore the uniforms they sported at Saturdays contest at Safeco Field.  Too bad for Choo it can’t be 1989 more often.

Choo slammed pitches in two at-bats off of Mariners starter Miguel Batista as he hit a two-run homer in the first, and a ground-rule double for another RBI in the third.  He added another double in the eighth off of R.A. Dickey to round out his 3-for-5 day. 

It was another sad performance for Batista for the M’s.  I just don’t understand why they keep running him out there if he says he is not healthy and keeps getting consistently lit up.  Batista pitched two innings, allowing eight runs on seven hits.  At some point here the M’s need to shut him down or make a decision about his future if he is indeed healthy. Miguel has just been awful this season.  The process might already be underway as they pitched spot starter Ryan Rowland-Smith four innings today.  There has been some talk about converting Rowland-Smith into a starter as he performed well when called upon.

The M’s bats were not that bad today, but they had to dig out of a 9-1 whole by the third inning.  Left fielder Raul Ibanez homered for the second straight game as he hit his 13th big fly of the season.  Jose Vidro had an two RBI’s on the day including an RBI double in the second.  Ichiro Suzuki added a two run home-run, his 4th of the year, in the bottom of the ninth to make things interesting.  Rookie Bryan LaHair got his first career start at first base going 0-for-3 with a walk.

For Cleveland, the win ended their ten game road losing skid.  Jeremy Sowers was not overly impressive, but did pick up his first win of the season to move his mark to 1-5.  Jhonny Peralta went 2-for-5 on the day picking up two RBI’s and two runs scored for the tribe.  Washington native Grady Sizemore walked a season high four times on the day, but strangely never scored a run on the day.

In the series finale, Carlos Silva is expected to start.  Jarrod Wasburn was expected to try to go after missing his start with the flu.  Maybe they are moving him back again.  All-Star starter Cliff Lee is expected to get the ball for the Indians.  It will be 1:10 PT start.

Mariners Blog

Friday July 18, 2008

Mariners 8, Indians 2

Cleveland starter Aaron Laffey had two-outs in the bottom of the second inning with nobody on. Thats when things went bad.  A single by Jamie Burke, a hit batter (Yuniesky Betancourt), and an error by shortstop Jhonny Peralta on an Ichiro Suzuki grounder loaded up the bases suddenly for the Mariners.  Laffey then walked Willie Bloomquist on an ugly four-pitch walk to score Burke.  After the error and the four pitch walk, the crafty veteran Raul Ibanez stepped to the plate thinking fastball  all the way on the first pitch.  Ibanez deposited the 88 mph grapefruit into the right field bleachers for his sixth career grand slam to give the M’s the 5-0 lead.  Jose Lopez made it 8-1 in the 4th with a three-run jack off of Laffey for his sixth home-run of the season to give the Mariners an 8-1 lead.

On Felix Hernandez bobblehead night, Felix knew he had to perform on the mound.  The 22-year-old didn’t dissapoint striking out eight allowing just four hits and two runs in six innings.  Hernandez threw 98 pitches in his second start since returning from the DL.  Mark Lowe, Roy Corcoran, and Cesar Jimenez closed out the Tribe with three scoreless innings of relief to help the M’s pick up the win.

Yesterdays call-up Bryan LaHair got his first major league at-bat as he pinch-hit in the 8th inning.  Unfortunately for LaHair, he will never forget that he grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.

Former Mariners Shin-Soo Choo, and Asdrubal Cabrera where in the starting lineup for the Indians.  Choo started in right field going 0-for-4 with 2 K’s.  Cabrera started at second base going 1-for-3 with a walk and a run.  The M’s traded Choo for first baseman Ben Broussard in 2006, Cabrera was aquired by Cleveland for first baseman Eduardo Perez in the same season. 

Game 2 on Saturday was supposed to match up lefties Jarrod Washburn (4-8) and Jeremy Sowers (0-5) on the mound.  But thanks to the flu, Washburn will move his start to Sunday.  Miguel Batista will take the mound in his place.  Cleveland will try to avoid its 11th straight road loss.  Look for Bryan LaHair to get a start on Saturday or Sunday.

Reliever J.J. Putz threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings of work for Tacoma.  Putz threw 17 pitches and said he had no soreness in the elbow.  Putz might be activated by Sunday.  Its going to be a tough call for the M’s to send a pitcher down since they all have pitched well in relief.  I suspect it will be Jimenez though.