The Seattle Mariners held off the Texas Rangers by the score of 8-7 on Wednesday afternoon. The Mariners gave up four home runs to the Ranagers but answered back with plenty of rbi singles to somehow win the game. The two teams split the short two game series.

Mariners starting pitcher Cesar Jimenez only pitched the first three innings and then was taken out of the game. He had only given up one hit and struck out four but walked two batters. Jared Wells pitched bad in his one inning of action as he gave up three hits and four runs including two two-run home runs. Jake Woods gave up a two-run home run as well in the game. Not to be left out, Miguel Batista served up a solo home run.

Roy Corcoran ended up getting the victory while J.J. Putz recorded his 13th save of the season.

Raul Ibanez led the M’s at the plate with two rbi singles and a rbi double to finish the game with three rbi. Kenji Johjima wasn’t too far behind as he finished the game with two rbi on a two-run single. Yuniesky Betancourt and Matt Tuiasosopo finished up the rbi’s with one each.

Good win for the Mariners even though the pitching staff gave up four home runs. The offense sure picked them up this game. Mariners Blog

Ibanez picks up 5 more RBIs with 3-for-5 day

Mariners 8, Twins 7

Tuesday August 5, 2008 - Another game, another record for red-hot outfielder Raul Ibanez.  His three-run homer in the third put him past Bret Boone for first place all-time in home-runs at Safeco Field with 63.  Ibanez then added a two-run single in the sixth to give him 11 RBIs in his past two games and 14 RBIs in his past three games to tie the both franchise marks held by Ken Griffey Jr.  Last night he set the Mariner record for RBIs in an inning with six. 

Tuesday’s contest was another ping pong match between these teams as leads came and went. R.A. Dickey was solid and pitched the M’s to a 6-3 lead when he left the game before the 8th inning. This time it was the Twins getting a big inning late as they put up four runs off of Cesar Jimenez, Roy Corcoran, and J.J. Putz to give the Twins a 7-6 lead.  Jason Kubel hit a two-run homer off of Jimenez to cut the deficit to 6-5, Corcoran relieved Jimenez after the home-run and allowed two singles before J.J. Putz came in with two outs and two runners on.  Mike Lamb ripped a Putz pitch for a two-run double to make it 7-6 Twins.  The runners that scored on the Lamb double were charged to Corcoran.  Putz struck out Denard Span to end the inning.

The Mariners didn’t panic in the bottom half as they continued to feed off the momentum from last night.  Ichiro Suzuki led off the inning with a single.  After a Jeremy Reed pop out, Ibanez hit a single to right to put runners on first and second for Adrian Beltre.  Beltre lined out to the shortstop for the second out leaving it up to Jose Lopez.  Lopez delivered a big two-out, two-run, left center field gapper for a double scoring Ichiro and Ibanez to give Seattle a 8-7 lead.  It was the 29th double on the season for Lopez who has been on a tear going 3-for-5 on the day.  His .309 batting average is a team-high.

“Thunderstruck” stayed in the game in 9th and quickly struck out Nick Punto and Joe Mauer for two quick outs.  J.J. then ran into some trouble as he walked Justin Morneau on five pitches before Jason Kubel hit a double and put the Twins in business with runners on second and third.  The M’s decided to intentionally walk Delmon Young to load the bases for Mike Redmond.  Redmond lined out to Ichiro in right to end the game as the Mariners escaped with their third-straight win.  J.J Putz (4-4) got the win.  Matt Guerrier (6-5) got the loss.

The M’s go for the sweep tomorrow night as Jarrod Washburn (5-10) will face Nick Blackburn (8-6) at 1:40 PT. 

They are fun to watch again!

Mariners Blog

Ibanez Grand-Slam, 6 RBI’s in 7th leads M’s Attack

Mariners 11, Twins 6

Monday August 4, 2008 : The Minnesota Twins owning the best record in baseball over the month and a half, were cruising along going into the bottom of the sixth with a 6-0 lead.  All signs indicated the Twins were on their way to an easy victory against the slumping M’s lineup.

Not so fast.

The M’s got one back in the 6th when Jose Vidro grounded into a double-play but scored Adrian Beltre from third to cut the lead to 6-1.  Glen Perkins was still feeling confident with five-run cushion, and the Twins decided to leave him out there for the 7th.  That’s when the wheels came off for Perkins.

After a Kenji Johjima single to lead it off, Ichiro Suzuki drew a walk followed by a Willie Bloomquist single to right to load them up for Raul Ibanez.  Ibanez hit the second Perkins pitch over the right field wall for a Grand-Slam to suddenly put the Mariners down by only a run with nobody out in the inning.  Minnesota pulled Perkins after the home-run for Brian Bass.  Beltre smacked a double off of Bass, followed by a Jose Lopez RBI single, and just like that we are tied at 6.  That would be it for Bass as he gave way to Craig Breslow to try to stop the bleeding.  The nightmare for the Twinkies as Lopez moved to second base on a passed ball to move the go-ahead run into scoring position.  Breslow forced a Vidro pop out before walking Miguel Cairo. Breslow then promptly got yanked for Matt Guerrier.

Whew, taking a deep breath to continue.  First and second with one out.  Still the 7th.

Jeff Clement hit Guerrier’s fist pitch to right for an RBI single scoring Lopez from 2nd to give Seattle a 7-6 lead.  Cairo went to third base, and Clement advanced to second on a throwing error.  Safeco was rockin!  You knew it was all going right for Seattle when Yuniesky Betancourt reached on an infield single scoring Cairo and Clement to make it 9-6.  A bad throw to first to by Brendan Harris to try to get Betancourt helped Clement score and move Betancourt to 2nd.  Minnesota intentionally walked Ichiro, bofre Guerrier walked Bloomquist to load up the bases for the second time in the inning for Ibanez.  Ibanez smacked a single up the middle scoring Betancourt and Ichiro.  Bloomquist tried to score as a throw got away at third base but was thrown out at home to end the craziest Mariner inning of the year.  Seattle 11, Minnesota 6.

The six RBI’s in one inning for Ibanez was a team record for one inning passing Ken Griffey Jr.’s five he had in 1999 at the Kingdome. 

Pitching notes:

Miguel Batista got slugged for six runs on seven hits and walking four over three innings of work.  He appears to just have completely lost the ability to get batters consistently out.

Jake Woods pitched a decent outing throwing three innings in relief striking out four, while walking four, but allowing no runs. 

Roy Corcoran (2-0) was probably surprised to pick up his second big league win as he left the mound down by 5, and suddenly had had the lead when Cesar Jimenez took the bump in the 8th.  Jimenez and Mark Lowe pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings respectively to round out the win.

I’m sure the Twins can’t wait for tomorrow’s game so they can put that mess of a game tonight behind them. Tomorrow nights contest will see R.A. Dickey (3-6) against Scott Baker (7-3) at 7:10 PT at Safeco.  Lets see if the M’s can win three straight. 

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

Sunday July 20, 2008

2007 All-Star closer J.J. Putzis expected to be activated for today’s 1:10 PT game against the Cleveland Indians.  Manager Jim Riggleman said he was personally not sure of the plan for Putz but said it was likely he could be activated.  Putz was with the team on Saturday.  Riggleman mentioned that Putz would get middle to late inning relief work initially until they feel he may be ready to close.  It will be a tough call to see who the M’s option back to Tacoma.  The team has a banged up staff, and may not want to move down pitching. 

Without any knowledge of the situation, I would move Miguel Batista to the 15-day DL when they activate Putz.  Batista needs the rest, and Roy Corcoran, and Cesar Jimenez have been doing a great job in the pen.  I guess we will find out Sunday afternoon.

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.

Saturday  July 11, 2008

Royals 3, Mariners 1

Felix Hernandez finally made his return back to the Mariner rotation on Friday night against the Kansas City Royals.  Hernandez retired the first ten batters he faced, throwing five innings striking out eight.  The Royals got to Felix in the 5th for their only runs of the ballgame.  Joey Gathright scored Ross Gload on an RBI single to start off the scoring.  David DeJesus picked up a two run double in the 5th to give the Royals all the offsense they would need for the night.

The return of King Felix was overshadowed by a lights out performance by Royals starter Luke Hochevar.  Hochevar called it his best performance of his career.  Hochevar threw seven innings, recording zero walks, and striking out four.

Some Mariner notes

- Cesar Jimenez bounced back nicely from yesterdays loss and pitched two scoreless innings in relief striking out two batters.

- Adrian Beltre keeps raking going 2-for-4 with his 15th double of the season.  He scored the lone Mariner run.

- Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-4 ending a 26-game hit streak against the Royals.  It marked the first game Ichiro didn’t record a hit against the Kansas City in his career.

- Jared Wells was sent back to Tacoma with the return of Felix Hernandez from the 15 day DL.

- The M’s aquired 1B/OF Craig Wilson from the Pirates for a player to be named later.  Wilson has played this season in the Minors.  He will be assigned to Triple A Tacoma.

Game two of the series on Saturday will feature former Mariner Gil Meche on the bump against the recently hot Jarrod Washburn.  Tug Hulett is expected to play in his first career major league game as he will DH for the M’s.

Mariners Blog

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. 

Mariners Blog

Tigers 2, Mariners 1

In the series finale of a four game set, the Detroit Tigers finally tallied the winning run in the top of the 15th inning off of backup catcher Jamie Burke to come away with a 2-1 victory at Safeco.  The M’s had to use 7 pitchers to get through the day.

A Marcus Thames sac fly off of Burke scored Michael Holliman for the winning run to end a long offensively deprived baseball game.  Manager Jim Riggleman was really strapped for pitching options late.  With an already banged up staff, Riggleman was without already without Arthur Rhodes on the day who woke up with some arm soreness.  Riggleman also did not want to pitch Brandon Morrow because he has been used four of the last five games.  Ryan Rowland-Smith was not an options because he was used as a starter.  And all other relievers were used in the ballgame.  No runs were surrendered from the 5th inning till the 15th.  Both teams combined for a total of 14 hits.

It was an extremely ugly scorecard for both teams.  The Mariners had no player record more than one hit.  The Tigers only player to record more than one hit was Ivan Rodriguez who was 4-for-7.

A positive to take from the game was obviously the pitching staff who has done a tremendous job the last few weeks.  Rowland-Smith went 5 innings surrendering only one run.  Mark Lowe (1 inning), Roy Corcoran (2 innings), Miguel Batista (1 inning), Sean Green (1 inning) and Cesar Jimenez (4 innings) all combined to hold the Tigers out of the score column.  In fact, only Green allowed a hit until Burke came in for the 15th. 

Tiger pitcher Nate Robertson pitched 9 innings fabulous innings for the Detroit.  Aquilino Lopez picked up the win to see his record improve to 3-1.  Burke picked up what is most likely his first and last lost as a major league pitcher.

The M’s head to Oakland to start a four game series against the A’s tomorrow night.  Jarrod Washburn (4-7) will face lefty Dana Eveland (6-5).  

Mariners Blog

Mariners 4, Jays 2

With a two run lead to start the top of the 9th, the song bombtrack by Rage Against The Machine blares over the speakers at Safeco as it does every time Brandon Morrow takes the mound.  But tonight was the first time as a Mariners fan when i truly felt..this game was over. Done.  I think its safe to stay tonight a new star has been born officially.  Its has now been too long for this to be a fluke.  Morrow was lights out again as he continued one of the most dominating months of relief pitching I have seen from a Mariners pitcher in recent memory.  Hitting 97, and 98 on the gun and mixing in some occasional off-speed pitches, it just appears the batters have no chance.  Tonight, he didn’t strike out the side, but kept the batters guessing, and forced three fly ball outs to pick up his 5th save in as many chances.  Really…how can you put the ball in anyone elses hands right now.  J.J. Putz is supposedly closer to a return, but one must wonder if he fears he has lost his job and is rushing back.  In fact many Mariners fans (myself included) were hoping to see Morrow start in the near future.  I am now starting to re-think that a little bit, how could i not. 

In a game without much offensive spark, Jarrod Washburn had another quality outing going six innings, striking out four.  His only blemish was a two run shot by rookie slugger Adam Lind in the top of the 5th.

Miguel Cairo filled in nicely at second for Jose Lopez hitting two doubles, along with three RBI’s.  Ichiro Suzuki reached base four times, with three singles and walk while scoring twice. 

The M’s bullpen continued its stellar play as Cesar Jimenez had his second straight quality bullpen appearence since his call up, retiring the Jays in order in the seventh.  Sean Green took over in the 8th and overcame an error by Adrian Beltre to retire the next two Jays batters.  Arthur Rhodes came in to face the switch hitting Greg Zaun and forced him to fly out to Jeremy Reed in Center field to leave Marco Scutaro at second to end the threat in the 8th to set the table for Morrow who closed out the 9th.

The win marked the third straight series won for the Mariners under new manager Jim Riggleman.  It is becoming fun to watch the team play again.  Riggleman has been shaking up batting and fielding practices in an attempt to get a spark.  It seems so far that all his moves are paying off.  But, a true test for the M’s will be this 4 game set with the red hot Tigers.  If the team can hang with them, i think we will have a better guage of their recent success and whether or not it has been a fluke or not.

Dustin McGowan picked up the loss as his record fell to 6-7.  Washburn won his second straight start to improve to 4-7.  Tomorrow’s probables are Carlos Silva (4-9) for the Mariners and Justin Verlander for the Tigers starting the 4 game series at 7:10 PT.

Mariners Blog