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.

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In Monday’s series opener against the A’s, Richie Sexson started the M’s off with a three-run homerun to give the boys an early 3-0 lead.  Unfortunately they never crossed home plate for the rest of the night. 

Oakland 1st Basemen Wes Blankston picked up his first Major league knock, and Mark Ellis, and Ryan Sweeney knocked in runs to help get the 4-3 victory.  A’s starter Dana Eveland struggled a bit going over his 5 1/3 innings allowing 9 hits.  The M’s had runners in scoring position all night, but never capitalized on it after the 1st inning. The A’s converted three double plays to end threats, as well as tossing out Willie Bloomquist at the plate after a Raul Ibanez single.  Closer Huston Street picked up a shaky 17th save for the Athletics.

Adrian Beltre was 4-for-5 on the night for the Mariners.  Starter Jarrod Washburn continued his much improved pitching of late.  He helped out a tired and banged up staff by going all the way after the 15 inning game on Sunday.  He allowed 4 runs on 7 hits.

Tuesday nights pitching matchup will be Carlos Silva (4-10) vs. Justin Duchsrherer (9-5).  The game will be a 7:10 PT start.

Mangager Jim Riggleman also announced they will not pitch Felix Hernandez on friday like originally planned.  They have decided to move him back to the next series and pitch him against Kansas City, the teams last series before the All-Star break.  The move would allow him a few extra days to rest after his first start back.  As well, the team is expecting to get J.J. Putz some rehab work in for Triple-A Tacoma before his return to the bullpen.  Putz is expected back after the All-Star break.

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Mariners 4, Tigers 1

With Carlos Silva getting knocked around last night, the Mariners gave the ball to Erik Bedard.  When they traded for the Lefty, this is what they envisioned, a guy that could get them a win the day after a loss so that losing streaks never start.

Against a tough lineup that makes any pitcher throw alot of pitches, Bedard(6-4) struck out 6, and did a stellar job pitching out of trouble.  Besides a lead-off homerun by Miguel Cabrera in the 2nd, nobody crossed the plate on Bedard for the Tigers.  He came out of the game after the 5th inning at 99 pitches.  It was his 6th straight start without throwing 100 pitches.  Like Silva did the night before, Bedard quickly danced around the media and left with no comment.  Its starting to appear to be more and more obvious that he wants out of Seattle.  Well Erik, if you are traded, i hope the team you go to appreciates giving up the farm for a 100 pitch ace.

The Bullpen was lights out for Seattle as Sean Green 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief (season high).  He came out in the 8th with 2 outs to give way to Flame throwing Brandon Morrow.  Bombtrack stayed dominant picking up his 6th save striking out 2 in 1 1/3 innings.  Morrow an all-star? Tough call.  But think about these recent numbers since taking over for J.J. Putz.  If it holds, his ERA will be a franchise low at the All-Star break currently at 0.68.  He has allowed one hit and one walk in nine appearances since stepping in for the injured Putz with 14 strikeouts in 9.2 innings. No runs.

Raul Ibanez continued to swing a hot stick notching his 10th Homerun of the season off starter Kenny Rogers (L 6-6) in the 4th.  Catcher Jamie Burke got a rare start as he has caught for Bedard like he has for much of the season.  Burke showed no rust at the plate scoring two runs on two hits.  Jose Lopez hit a key two out two RBI double as well.

Game 3 of the 4 game set will be at 7:10 PT tonight featuring R.A. Dickey (2-4) against Armando Gallaraga (7-2).  With 8 wins in 11 games, can we officially call the Mariners hot? 

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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.

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Mariners fans can breathe a sigh of relief as X-Rays for the 22 year old ace came back negative.  Mets Shortstop Jose Reyes slid into his ankle as he was covering the plate on a wild pitch in the dirt.  The injury is being called a “mild sprain”.  

Felix Hernandez himself has stated he will not miss a start, but the team may have to hold him back a few extra days.  But all in all this is good news for a team that can’t afford any bad news at this point.

In other injury news, manager Jim Riggleman said he doesn’t expect closer J.J. Putz back until late July with still lingering elbow problems.  This is good and bad in my opinion for Seattle.  Good that we get to see Brandon Morrow close games for the next month.  Bad because it may reduce J.J.’s value on the trade market with the July 31st deadline approaching right around his scheduled return.

In the top of the second inning with the bases loaded Mariner’s Ace Felix Hernandez came to the plate against one of the leagues best, Johan Santana.  It took one pitch for Hernandez to deposit the Santana fastball out of the park opposite field to right for the first grand slam by an American League pitcher since 1971. The Felix slam put the Mariners up 4-0, and was the first homerun of his career.  Hernandez also was pitching a nice game.  That was until he was forced out of the game in the 5th due to an ankle injury after Jose Reyes slid into home to make it 5-1.  Hernandez left only needing one more out to officially qualify for a win in the game.

In a game that lacked offense, the Mariners only got one other run in the ballgame on a 5th inning single by Jose Lopez scoring Willie Bloomquist.

The Mets only recorded 4 hits as the Seattle bullpen got out of some jams relieving Hernandez.  Roy Corcaran (1.1 innings), and Ryan Rowland-Smith (2 innings) helped keep the score 5-1 going into the bottom of the 9th.

With Miguel Batista starting the later in the week, and Brandon Morrow due back Tuesday, along with J.J. Putz still on the DL, the Mariners went into the 9th with Sean Green.  Green struggled giving up a run on two hits and a walk.  Then enter…Arthur Rhodes.  With one out and two baserunners on, Rhodes shut the door.  The 38 year old vetran one year removed from Tommy John surgery, struck out Carlos Delgado, and Damion Easley to end the game.

Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-1) picked up the victory. Johan Santana (7-6)got the loss.  These two teams meet again tomorrow night at 7:10 at Shea Stadium.  Seattle is expected to go with struggling knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (1-1) as the Mets counter with Oliver Perez (4-5) . David Wright is expected to get the day off for the Mets. 

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The Florida Marlins came into tonights contest looking to hand the Mariners their ninth straight home loss and fifth straight loss overall.  Tonight King Felix had other ideas. 

Going into tonights game, Felix Hernandez had been getting the 3rd least run support in the American League. But tonight the Mariners bats came to life early as they put up two runs in the bottom of the first.  Ichiro Suzuki led the game off with a single, then with Ichiro stealing second with the pitch,  Jose Lopez ripped a double to score Ichiro to make it 1-0.  After a Jose Vidro strikeout, Adrian Beltre belted a single to move Lopez to third, then Lopez scored on a RBI single by Raul Ibanez to make it 2-0.

In the Top of the 2nd inning Dan Uggla got Florida on the board with a solo shot to left field to cut the lead to 2-1.  It was shortly after that when Felix Hernandez took  over.

Starting with one out in the 3rd, Heranadez fanned 6 straight batters, falling one strikeout short of tying Mark Langston’s club mark of 7 straight.

The Mariners hit lefty Scott Olsen hard all night and got to him again in the 4th.  Ichiro scored Kenji Johjima on a sacrifice fly, and Lopez hit his second double of the game to score Willie Bloomquist to make it 4-1.  Seattle made it 5-1 in the 5th as Ibanez scored on a throwing error by relief pitcher Logan Kensing.

Florida finally got to Herandez in the 6th as Jeremy Hermida singled home a run, and Jorge Cantu hit a sacrifice fly to score Alfredo Amezaga to make it 5-3.  In the 7th, Matt Treanor scored Luis Gonzalez to make it a 5-4 ballgame.

Felix Hernandez started the 8th inning and got Hanley Ramirez to ground out and then walked Hermida before getting pulled.  Righty Sean Green took over to face Jorge Cantu and got a big strikeout to get the second out.  Green was replaced immediately by Arthur Rhodes who struck out pinch hitter Cody Ross to finish the 8th.

Brandon Morrow came on in the 9th throwing some straight up gas, striking out Uggla with a 99 mph fastball, getting Gonzalez to ground out to Lopez for the second out, and finally mowing down Wes Helms to get his second career save in as many chances.  Morrow has looked fantastic of late and fans must wonder if his dominating performances of late, along with drafting of strong armed closer Joshua Fields,  spell the end for J.J. Putz.

Hernandez picked up the win to improve his record to 6-5 recording 9 strikeouts.  Olsen got the loss to go 4-4.  The M’s look to close out the series tomorrow night at 7:10pm (PDT) against the Marlins before heading off to Atlanta to face the Braves on Friday. They are going with Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (1-2) against righty Ryan Tucker (1-1).

It took a ninth inning rally but the Seattle Mariners were able to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by the score of 2-1 on Wednesday afternoon.  Raul Ibanez hit a rbi single to right field that scored Ichiro Suzuki for the go ahead and winning run in the game.  Ichiro stole second and third in the ninth inning.  Good win for the Mariners who really needed to pick up a victory.

Yuniesky Betancourt got the Mariners scoring started in the seventh inning when they were down 1-0.  Betancourt roped a rbi triple to deep right center field and Richie Sexson scored the first run for the Mariners.  There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the Mariners, but it was enough to come away with the victory.

I was very impressed with the Mariners pitching against the Blue Jays.  Felix Hernandez tossed eight strong innings while only allowing four hits and one run while striking out eight Blue Jays.  Hernandez was able to improve his record to 5-5 on the season with the victory.

J.J. Putz came in at the beginning of the ninth inning but was pulled out of the game after walking the first batter.  Brandon Morrow was then brough in and he was able to get the Mariners out of the game and pick up the save.  Morrow got the save which was his first of the season as the Mariners ended their road trip with a 3-3 record.

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Miguel Cairo laid down a beautiful squeeze bunt in the top of the 10th inning and the Seattle Mariners went on to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays by the score of 3-2 in 10 innings.  Willie Bloomquist scored on the squeeze play from third base to score the winning run.

Besided the squeeze play in the 10th inning, the other two Mariners runs came in the first inning.  Jose Vidro connected on a two run home run for the Mariners first two runs.  From the second through the ninth innings however, the M’s had a terrible time getting any rallies going as they couldn’t push across any runs.

Mariners starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn tossed the first six innings of the game while he gave up five hits and one run.  Washburn pitched a pretty good game but did walk three batters.  Mark Lowe gave up one run without recording an out.  Arthur Rhodes and Miguel Batista were finaly able to get the Mariners out of the seventh inning.  R.A. Dickey then tossed the next two innings without having any damage done.  Dickey actually ended up picking up the win and is now 1-1 on the season.

Onto the 10th inning that seen a dropped ball by Wladimir Balentien, and then the Blue Jays twice having the bases loaded but not scoring one run.  J.J. Putz was able to get a double play with zero outs in the inning and then got a fly ball off the bat of David Eckstein to end the game stranding all three runners on base.

A win is a win and the Mariners will take it anyway they can get one at this point in the season.  Even if it is ugly lol.

Mariners Blog

What a great job by the Seattle Mariners pitching staff as they held the Boston Red Sox offense to only two hits on Wednesday night.  The Mariners went onto beat the Red Sox by the score of 1-0 thanks to the great pitching and a solo home run in the third inning.

Erik Bedard threw the first seven innings for the Mariners and allowed both hits.  Bedard lowered his ERA to 4.08 in the game as he picked up his fourth win of the season.  Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz pitched the final two innings of the game with Putz notching his sixth save of the season.

The one run for the Mariners that came in the third inning came off the bat of Yuniesky Betancourt who hit a solo home run off of Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield.  The Mariners didn’t have too many chances in the game to score as they struckout eight times, so they were lucky to score that one run and come away with the victory in the game.

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