Game 1 Friday July 25, 2008

Jays 5, Mariners 4

Joe Inglett’s two-run single in the 10th inning with the bases loaded gave the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-4 victory Friday night.  The winning play came as a result of the ball glancing off of the golden glove of Ichiro Suzuki for the winning runs.

Kenji Johjima started off the scoring in the top of the 2nd with an RBI double off Jays starter John Parrish, scoring Miguel Cairo.  Promptly in the bottom half, Matt Stairs evened the score with a solo home-run to right field off Miguel Batista to tie the score 1-1.

In the 3rd the Mariners continued to hit Parrish hard for three hits and two runs.  An Adrian Beltre RBI double, and an RBI Jose Lopezsingle suddenly put the M’s up 3-1.  Inglett came in the bottom half with a sacrifice grounder to second base to score Adam Lind to cut the lead to 3-2.

The bats settled down from that point as it took till the 8th inning till the games next run was scored.  Lyle Overbay led off the bottom of the 8th with a double off of J.J. Putz followed by a Rob Barajas single.  The Stairs hurt the M’s again with a RBI single to tie the ballgame at three.  It was the third straight hit allowed for Putz.  Luckily Putz forced as double play, and struck out Lind to get out of the jam. 

Closer B.J. Ryan, and Brandon Morrow worked the 9th and got through with no damage done.  Are we going to see another typical Mariner extra inning marathon?  Willie Bloomquist wanted to single handedly end it fast drawing a two-out walk and then stealing second base to put himself into scoring position.  Jeremy Reed came through with a big RBI single to score Willie to give the Mariners the one run lead to try to close it out.

Enter Mark Lowe.  Lowe, who some within the M’s organization think may be the closer of the future had a shot for the save.  Gregg Zaun led off with a single.  John Mcdonald then reached on a critical Lowe throwing error to put runners at first and second with nobody out.  Scott Rolen couldn’t get the runners over as he reached on a fielder choice, but forced Zaun to get forced at third base.  Lowe then forced Lind to fly out, and suddenly he was one out away from ending it.  Then it unraveled as former Mariner Brad WIlkerson forced a crucial two-out walk to load the bases for Inglett to end it.

What a tough loss for the M’s.  It was their sixth straight loss.  Rumors continue to swirl around trade rumors and you must wonder if it is becoming a distraction.

Saturday’s contest will feature R.A. Dickey(2-6) for Seattle against David Purcey (1-1) for Toronto.

Mariners Blog

 Wednesday July 23, 2008

Red Sox 6, Mariners 3 

Red Sox 2nd Baseman Dustin Pedroia scores in the 3rd.

In the top of the 12th inning in a hard fought ballgame, Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell hit a two-run single to finish off the M’s 6-3 taking advantage of two critical outfield errors that ultimately cost the M’s the ballgame.  The sweep for the BoSox was their first sweep in Seattle in fifteen years.

The Mariner lineup had some rare second half firepower as Raul Ibanez hit his 14th bomb of the year in the 4th, and Jose Vidro added a two-run shot in the 6th off of Boston starter Clay Buchholz to tie the game at 3-3.  It was Vidro’s 6th home-run of the year. 

The score remained tied at 3-0 until the 12th as both teams got some great relief pitching. 

Felix Hernandez came out after six innings, with six hits, six strikeouts, three runs, and a season high five walks. Buchholz countered allowing seven hits and three runs in 5 1/3 innings, with two walks and seven strikeouts. 

J.J. Putz and Brandon Morrow combined to pitch four scoreless innings of relief totalling 5 strikeouts, and only one hit. American League Games pitched leader Sean Green (2-3) picked up the loss in the 12th.  Jonathan Papelbon was forced into duty in the 11th for the third straight day and ended up picking up the win.  Craig Hansen recorded his second save of the season after finishing off Seattle in the bottom of the 12th.

It was an up and down game in the field for gold glove outfielder Ichiro Suzuki.  In a scoreless ballgame in the third, Ichiro sprinted with his back turned to the ball, running straight back towards the wall and leaped above the wall to take what would have been a three-run homer away from J.D. Drew.  A few pitches later, Boston’s Kevin Youkilis hit an RBI single to right field that Ichiro fielded then bobbled and hiccuped, scoring Dustin Pedroia and Coco Crisp.  It was the second error of the season fro Ichiro.  Ichiro was also picked off at first base earlier in the game.

Mariners left leader and team leader Raul Ibanez summed up the Mariners tough stretch of play after seeing his team lose it 5th straight game. “It’s tough,” Ibanez said. “But you keep battling and keep fighting. Scratch and claw all the way to the finish line, no matter what happens. Whether 22 games up or 22 games down, you go out there with same tenacity every single day, no matter what’s going on around you.”

The Mariners will have a much needed day off on Thursday before heading to Toronto for a weekend road trip against the Jays.

Is there going to be any changes to the team before Friday?

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

Monday July 21, 2008

Red Sox 4, Mariners 0

Hometown boy Jon Lester was declared cancer free in 2007 in Seattle after receiving treatments for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  Tonight Lester put on a show for the hometown fans.

Lester (8-3) struck out six and walked zero batters in 7 1/3 innings of work to lead the Red Sox to a 4-0 shut out at Safeco in Seattle.  It took a hard chopper off his shin to get him out of the ballgame.  The Tacoma native has traditionally not pitched well in Seattle. “It’s nice to come back home and pitch halfway decent,” Lester said.  Lester had left the bases loaded when he left the mound, but Jonathan Papelbon got Raul Ibanez to ground into a double-play to get out of the jam.  Papelbon finished of the M’s in the ninth for his 29th save of the season.

Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn kept it close through four innings shutting out the potent Red Sox lineup.  In the fifth inning though, the Red Sox finally got on the board.  Former Mariner prospect from the past Jason Varitek hit a two-run shot over the left field wall scoring Coco Crisp to make it 2-0.  “Wash” allowed seven hits in 5 2/3 innings allowing only two runs.  For the M’s lefty it was the seventh out of eight starts with two runs or less allowed.  He only has picked up two wins over those starts.  Washburn has rebounded over the last month and should draw some interest before the July 31st deadline.

Jed Lowrie added a two-run single in the eighth, and Manny Ramirez slammed three singles for Boston to lead the attack.  Ramirez has hit safely in 10 straight games.  Tampa won last night, so Boston remains 1½ games behind in the AL East.

The Mariners bats remained silent stranding six base runners.  Ichiro Suzuki went without a hit for the second consecutive game and remains within seven hits of 3,000 professionally.  Adrian Beltre and Yuniesky Betancourt each had two hits for the Mariners.

In Game two of the series tomorrow night, R.A. Dickey (2-4) will take the bump against Daisuke Matsuzaka (10-1) at 7:10 PT.

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.

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

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

Wednesday July 9th, 2008

Mariners 6, Athletics 4

 On the strength of three-run double by Jose Lopez in a five-run fifth inning, the Seattle Mariners ended a three-game losing streak picking up a 6-4 win in Oakland Wednesday night.  Adrian Beltre chipped in with three hits and drove in 2 runs.  Raul Ibanez also drove in a RBI for the winners.

The Mariners bullpen continued being a busy group as Miguel Batista had to leave early with a groin strain in the 3rd inning.   Ryan Rowland-Smith struggled a bit taking over as the A’s got to him for three runs on five hits in 1 and 1/3rd innings.  Enter Roy Corcoran in the 4th inning.  Corcoran inherited two baserunners from Rowland-Smith and was in lock down mode getting eight of nine A’s batters out in 2 2/3rds.  The effort for Corcoran earned him the traditional pie in the face from J.J. Putz after the game, as he picked up his first big league win.  The combination of Arthur Rhodes, Sean Green, and Brandon Morrow, finished the final three frames without allowing only one hit.  The final inning for Morrow earned him his 8th straight converted save, and lowered his ERA to a ridiculous 0.63.

In a losing effort for the A’s, Joe Blanton allowed six runs on nine hits in six innings of work to record the loss.  Jack Cust hit his 16th homerun of the season off a Batista in the 2nd inning.  Donnie Murphy added three runs batted in for Oakland.

Tomorrow’s contest will be a day game starting at 3:35 PT.  It will feature R.A. Dickey for the M’s, against Left Greg Smith for the A’s.  Ichiro Suzuki is expected to miss the contest with a tight hamstring.

Mariners Blog

Monday July 7th, 2008

Congrats to Ichiro Suzuki on being selected to appear in his 8th straight all-star game.  Ichiro took home MVP honors in last seasons contest, and will look to be the first repeat All-Star MVP in league history.  The game will be played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

For years, fans and players have wanted to see Ichiro in the home run derby.  “I can only do it if I’m asked,” said Ichiro. “I’m not going to raise my hand and say, ‘I’m going to do it,’ but I would definitely think about it if they ask.”  Well i can say first hand that he should.

I go back to my first time watching Ichiro play.  It was at Roger’s Centre in Toronto.  I showed up during batting practice and was making my way down the steps toward my 1st baseline seat.  I heard the crowd in a mild frenzy, especially for batting practice time.  I figured maybe Richie Sexson was up blasting big flys to the upper deck.  So I rushed down the aisle and to my surprise saw Ichiro at the plate hitting one blast after another over the right field wall.  I couldn’t believe it.  Any Mariner fan that has watched him in BP will agree.. he should do it!

Mariners Blog