Heilman, Carp, Chavez and Gutierrez could prove immediate help for the Mariners.

I like this trade for the M’s as they stock pile some young talent and also get Heilman who can be a decent starter for the team. The key to this trade for getting Gutierrez from the Indians as he is a speedy center fielder and a hell of a player.

What do you think of the deal Mariners fans?

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Ryan Rowland-Smith was charged with eight hits and two runs over seven innings. He pitched well enough to win the game but the offense just wasn’t putting any runs on the scoreboard to back him up. Rowland-Smith is now 4-3 on the season. Roy Corcoran and J.J. Putz both pitched one inning of relief after Rowland-Smith was taken out.

The only run for the Mariners came in the third inning when Raul Ibanez grounded out to first and Luis Valbuena scored. At that time the score was 1-0, but it was the only run the Mariners would score as they offense struggled at the plate to knock in any runs.

The Mariners and Angels will face off once again on Tuesday night as they M’s try to even up the series and finish the 2008 season strong.

Mariners Blog

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

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.

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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

Wednesday August 6, 2008 – After a whole season of uncertainty when it came to the prospect of Brandon Morrow throwing as a starter, yesterday it finally came to fruition as the Mariners optioned him to Tacoma to start tonight’s game.  Morrow is expected to throw somewhere in the range of 35 pitches to begin stretching his arm out.  The Mariners did the same Ryan Rowland-Smith recently and after a few weeks Rowland-Smith has been throwing in the six inning range.  The Mariners hope to use Morrow with the big club by the end of the season if all goes well.

To take the place of Morrow, the M’s called up Tacoma closer Jared Wells.  Wells has pitched well picking up nine saves for the Rainiers.  The move allows J.J. Putz to resume his duties as the full-time closer.

The intersting scenario for Seattle will be when Rowland-Smith and Morrow are ready to start, who will come out of the rotation? Not just for this season, but for 2009. 

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Mariners’ Manager Jim Riggleman has been secretive on his intentions of using hard throwing relief pitcher Brandon Morrow as a starting pitcher this season. Part of the reason of Riggleman’s uncertainty has been the health and performance of closer J.J. Putz. Putz struggled early in the season with injuries forcing Morrow to get an opportunity to close. Morrow more than held his own in Putz’s place, making the decision to use him as a starter this season more difficult. The performance by J.J. today hopefully will make Riggleman’s decision easier.

Putz picked up the win Sunday afternoon, allowing only one hit and recording the final out of the seventh before breezing through the 8th.  “J.J.’s looking better and better every outing. It takes a few to get back into the swing of things,” Morrow said.

“I understand where all those guys are at in terms of what this team is looking for the last two months. You hear talks that they want Brandon to start,” Putz said. “Today was big in getting back to making that decision easier.”

Thunderstruck is back!

Mariners Blog

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

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

Ok, I’ve been searching the Internet trade rumors.  Many of the people reporting the rumored deals have (cough cough) “sources” that say there is interest in players.  Here is a list of the players rumored and where they are rumored to have interest to go.

• J.J Putz- Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals
• Jarrod Washburn- New York Yankees, New York Mets, Colorado Rockies
• Arthur Rhodes- New York Mets, Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies
• Adrian Beltre – Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins
• Raul Ibanez- Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs

I’m sure there are more.  Teams not even on this list will probably acquire any of these players.  But its still fun to speculate on what Seattle can get in return.  The non-waiver trade deadline is tomorrow.

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