Eh, what a terrible game for the Seattle Mariners on Monday night as they were shut out by the Kansas City Royals 3-0. That is not the way the M’s wanted to kick off their series down in Kansas City that is for sure.

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.

Mariners Blog

Silva to DL after league-leading 14th loss

In the past few days in Mariner Land, we saw a major league record tying four wild-pitches in one inning by R.A. Dickey, the shaky debut of Ryan Feierabend, and three-game sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins.  Raul Ibanez continues to give us something to cheer about, and really is strengthening his case for a extension.  And struggling, whining, over-paid Mariner Carlos Silva has been placed on the 15-day DL.

In the first game of the series against Minnesota, the M’s had the unfortunate task of facing a rejuvenated Francisco Lariano.  Lariano (3-3) pitched seven frames allowing only two hits while striking out five batters.  Silva’s performance was embarrassing to say the least, especially against his former team.  Silva was shelled (again) for nine runs on nine hits in 3.1 innings, and now owns the major league lead for losses with 14.  Jason Kubel went 3-for-4 with a home-run and 3 RBIs to pace the Twins to the 9-3 victory.

The M’s dropped Game 2 in a hard fought game 7-6 on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th by Brian Buscher scoring Joe Mauer.  Losing 5-0, Seattle put together a six-run sixth inning to actually take back the lead before losing it late.  Mauer also homered in the game.  Ryan Rowland-Smith was hit hard for his second straight start allowing five runs on ten hits, in five innings. Ichiro Suzuki and Jeff Clement picked up two RBIs on the day to lead the Mariner offense. 

In Game 3, it was the Jason Kubel show again as he went off with a 4-for-5 day with two doubles, totalling four runs and two RBIs.  The game was a slug-fest much like the recent series in Seattle and runs definitely weren’t at a premium, but Minnesota came out on top 11-8.  Ibanez continued to massacre Twins pitching as he went 5-for-5 with two doubles, one run and one RBI.  Adrian Beltre, Wladimir Balentien, and Kenji Johjima went yard for Seattle, but the Feierabend and Dickey before mentioned pitching performance ultimately let them down.

The Mariners begin a three-game set in the South Side of Chicago against Ken Griffey Jr. and the Chicago White Sox. Jarrod Washburn vs. Mark Buehrle will be the Game 1 match-up.

Earlier in the season, the Mariner offense was wasting a strong number of quality pitching outings especially from the relief staff, now it appears the offense has heated up with the Summer sun, and the pitching is awful.  I guess that is what makes you a last place team.

M’s Manager Jim Riggleman: “”If it’s not one thing, it’s another” 

Mariners Blog

We learned that Seattle just plain isn’t good enough to hang with the big boys over their recent four-game set with the Rays over the weekend.  After taking Game 1, the Rays snatched back the next three and took their “mojo” back.  We all know by now as Mariner fans about the post-game rant by “The Chief” Carlos Silva.  The only good thing about his rant is that at least he showed that he cared.  Other than that it was completely ridiculous.  He is having an awful season and threw his teammates under the bus.  You didn’t see his teammates say that he sucked all year.  Silva’s ERA currently stands at 5.93.  The M’s lost Fridays game 5-3.  Wladimir Balentien hit his 5th home-run of the season in the ballgame.

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.

Mariners Blog

Red-Hot Left Fielder hits Mariners first walk-off home-run of the season in the bottom of the 9th

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.

Mariners Blog

Game 2 - Saturday August 2, 2008

Orioles 3, Mariners 1

The Seattle Mariners continued their knack for making opposing pitching look like All-stars as Jeremy Guthrie had his turn through the M’s inconsistent offense for a complete game 3-1 victory Saturday at Safeco.

Guthrie (8-8) allowed only four hits and one run, while walking only one batter in nine innings of work needing only 106 pitches to get the win.

Adam Jones continued his good play against his former mates scoring two of Baltimore’s three runs with a 3-for-5 day at the dish.  Jones scored on a Melvin Mora double in the first inning, as well as an Aubrey Huff RBI single in the 7th.  Jones has been on a tear over the last month as Seattle has to be kicking themselves over the Erik Bedard trade.

Seattle scored its lone run thanks to back-to-back doubles by Jeremy Reed, and Raul Ibanez all the way back in the first inning.  Reed’s run on the Ibanez hit was the only offense of the night.

Jose Lopez saw his 19-game hitting streak come to an end thanks to a great grab by Jay Payton.  Lopez finished the day 0-for-4.

Felix Hernandez (7-7) picked up the loss.  It wasn’t really his fault since the team gave him no help.  Felix struck out six over five innings of work allowing two runs on eight hits walking two.  Lefty Jake Woods pitched a scoreless inning in the 9th as he was called up prior to the game to take the roster spot of Arthur Rhodes.

Tomorrow will be Dave Niehaus day at the ballpark.  The M’s will try to avoid the sweep with struggling Carlos Silva (4-12) throwing against hard throwing Daniel Cabrera (7-6) at 1:05 PT.

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

Sunday July 20, 2008

Indians 6, Mariners 2

American League All-star starter Cliff Lee picked up where he left off in the first half with his 13th victory of the season over the Mariners 6-2.  Lee gave up a season high eleven hits, but “controlled” the lineup with consistency, needing only 109 pitches for the complete game victory.  The big lefty was in control staying ahead in the count all afternoon and didn’t walk a single batter all game.  It was his fifth career complete game.

Mariners starter Carlos Silva had to leave the game in the fourth inning with back tightness.  Some might think (booing Mariner fans) that Silva just plain got yanked after he allowed a three-run home-run to Kelly Shoppach.  Either way, he is not living up to his lofty free agent contract.  Silva himself will be the first to tell you he is embarrassed with his pitching this season.

Roy Corcoran took over for SIlva and didn’t fare much better.  Corcoran allowed a double by Grady Sizemore, an RBI single by Casey Blake and a Shoppach RBI single to widen the Tribe lead to 6-1 in the fifth.

Jose Vidro and Miguel Cairo both had solid days at the plate against Lee as they both went 3-for-4 with one RBI for the M’s.  Cairo hit his first triple of the season in the 7th scoring Jose Lopez to make it 6-2.

The seventh inning marked the return of J.J. Putz back to the pitching staff and he didn’t disappoint. “Thunderstruck” retired the Indians side in order finishing with a Shin Soo Choo strikeout on some 96 mph heat.  That type of velocity alone is an improvement as Putz was barely above 90 mph before he went on the DL.

The Mariners will stay at home for a three game series against Boston.  Jarrod Washburn (4-8) will face Jon Lester (7-3) at 7:10 PT.  The Mariners have played the Red Sox tough in two series this season, winning the first series in May and losing a series in June for a 3-3 record.

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

July 12, 2008

Royals 5, Mariners 4

Brandon Morrow took the hill in the 9th inning Saturday night with a 4-3 lead.  After blowing his first save of the season earlier in the week against Oakland, Morrow was looking to get back on track.  Morrow retired the first two batters he faced, and only needed to get pinch hitter Billy Butler to end it.  Morrow walked Butler and put the winning run to the plate.  David DeJesus wasted no time jumping on a Morrow fastball and putting it over the right field wall to win it for the Royals 5-4.  It was the first walk-off home-run for the Royals since 2005. 

Mark Grudzielanek recorded his 2,000th career hit earlier in the game and became the 251st player to achieve that feat.  I’m sure Grudzielanek will never forget this game.

Former Mariner Horacio Ramirez picked up the win in relief for the Royals.  He pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of another former Mariner GIl Meche.  The M’s got to Meche for four runs on ten hits.

With Meche pitching with a 3-0 lead in the bottom of top of the 6th, Raul Ibanez hit his 11th home-run of the season scoring Ichiro Suzuki to cut the lead to 3-2.  A two-run double by Jeremy Reed scored Adrian Beltre and Jose Vidro to put the M’s up 4-3 in the inning.  The middle relief was stellar again for the M’s as Sean Green and Arthur Rhodes set the table for Morrow who couldn’t hold on in the 9th.  Jarrod Washburn pitched solid allowing three runs over six innings of work.

Recent call-up Tug Hulett played in his first game in the Majors and recorded his first career hit, a single in the 5th off Meche.  Hulett was the DH for the night.

Sunday Pitching Probables :

Mariners vs. Royals @ 2:10 ET

Carlos Silva (4-11) vs. Kyle Davies (3-1)

Mariners Blog