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

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

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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Jeff Clement Homers Twice

Mariners 3, Tigers 2

If any Mariners player has been in a slump it has been Jeff Clement.  Batting .170 going into the night, Clement has been searching for that breakout game at the plate.  That type of game that fans and players can finally say he has arrived.  Tonight Clement arrived hitting two clutch homeruns to almost single handedly beat the Tigers.  During a post game interview J.J. Putz gave the Rookie catcher a shaving cream pie to the face.  Nothing says you have gained the respect of your teammates more than that. 

Tonight the M’s needed a hot Clement bat because Armando Galarraga brought his A game the park.  Galarraga pitched 6 strong innings and left the game with a 2-1 lead thanks to homeruns by Carlos Guillen and Miguel Cabrera.  Galarraga only run allowed was a 5th inning solo shot by Clement to cut the lead in half.

Fernando Rodney took the mound in the 8th still holding on to the 2-1 lead.  After recording an out, Rodney walked Richie Sexson who was then pinch ran for at first by Miguel Cairo.  Cairo swiped second to move into scoring position for Clement.  Clement with a 1-1 count, demolished an off speed pitch over the wall for his 4th homerun of the season to put the M’s up 3-2.

In the 9th, hand it to Brandon Morrow and leave happy right?  Exactly.  Morrow blanked the Tigers for a second straight game retiring Matt Joyce, Edgar Renteria, and Ivan Rodriguez in order.  It was the 7th save in as many chances for Morrow as he lowered his ERA to 0.65.

Credit is due to the defense and pitching staff again for containing one of the more  potent offensive teams in baseball.  Starter R.A. Dickey was solid again going 6 innings, and did a good job working our of trouble with some location problems. Dickey’s signature knuckleball wasn’t dancing in his favor as he walked five batters.  But left after the 6th with only two runs against.  Miguel Batista pitched two solid innings of relief and ended up picking up the victory helping DIckey off the hook for the loss.  Batista has had some time off because of his lingering back issues, but looked to be feeling a little better only allowing two hits against the meat of the order. 

On defense, Jeremy Reed was all over the place in center field.  Reed went crashing into the wall early on a Cabrera deep fly ball, and robbed a Renteria liner later.  Raul Ibanez made a nice sliding catch in the 3rd, and had what turned out to be the biggest defensive play of the game as he threw out Dane Sardinha at the plate in the 5th.

The M’s will go for the series win sunday afternoon.  It would mark their fourth straight series win.  Ryan Rowland-Smith (2-1) will get the ball for the second time this week.  He will be opposed by Nate Robertson (6-7).  The game will start at 1:10 PT.  Lets close em out!

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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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Jays 2, Mariners 0

It was one of the nights.  Simply put.  A night that opponents of the greatest pitchers in the game know all too well.  A night when your ace is on.  Even in the pregame warmup Jays Manager Cito Gaston thought one run scored for his team would be enough.  Well…Cito, you were right.

Roy Halliday (w 9-6) pitched a complete game four hitter, his sixth of the season.  He struck out six, and walked zero.  Out of his 115 pitches, 84 were for strikes.  With that type of control of the pitch count he blew through the lineup only allowing two singles by Richie Sexson, and singles by Willie Bloomquist, and Jeremy Reed.  Thats it.

R.A. Dickey (L 2-4) pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, but getting no run support finally caught up with him.  David Eckstein ripped a double in the fifth, and eventually scored on a Marco Scutaro single to finally get the Jays on the board against Dickey.  A Rob Barajas tapper in the sixth with the bases loaded, scored Vernon Wells to make it 2-0.  That was all the run support that Halliday needed.

The loss snapped the teams three-game win streak, and was the Jays third in a row.  The Mariners returned to regular league play going with Jeff Clement in DH spot.  Clement continued to struggle as he struck out three times on the night.  The good thing for Clement is that the team is going to let him ride out his slump this time.  I think before the end of the year he will turn it around. 

In some other team news, the team placed Felix Hernandez on the 15 day DL.  I’m sure Felix wants to go, but with a last place team, and him being a key component to their future, i doubt the M’s want to take any chances with his ankle. 

The team also announced Ryan Rowland-Smith would get the start Tuesday night.  It will be his first start since pitching for Double A San Antonio in 2006.  I’m sure the team will monitor his pitch count and I expect him to maybe go 3 to 4 innings.  Opposing the Mariners at Safeco for game two, will be righty Jesse Litsch (8-4).  Gametime is at 7:10 PT.

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With Felix Hernandez not taking the mound on Tuesday night against Toronto, and with Miguel Batista ailing, Manager Jim Riggleman said that the team may go with the relief staff tuesday against the Jays.  “We’re pretty sure it is going to be a combination of guys out of our bullpen,” Riggleman said. “We know it’s not going to be Felix. Depends on what happens out there today and tomorrow.”   Riggleman mentioned Ryan Rowland-Smith, Sean Green, Mark Lowe or Roy Corcoran, or potentially having a combination of all pitch a few innings.  It seems as though alot depends on how long R.A. Dickey can go tonight.  Stay tuned

Mariners Blog

Mariners 9, Padres 2

Manager Jim Riggleman can finally smile today.  His team put together a full series for the first time this season, winning games with different phases shining through.  Today, unlike the first two games, the Mariners brought the bats..  They raked out 18 hits while scoring 8 runs in the final three innings for a 9-2 series ending sweep over the Padres at Petco.

Erik Bedard (5-4) went five and two thirds innings, allowing only one run on three hits, and striking out 3.  Ichiro Suzuki scored the first run of the game in the 3rd inning on an RBI single by Raul Ibanez to open the scoring.   Ichiro finished the day with a 5 for 5 performance at the plate which ties him for second all time in five hit games with 7 behind Dave Winfield’s 9.  Later in the 6th inning,  Adrian Beltre stayed hot hitting a towering blast into the second level balcony for his 15th home run of the season, a two run shot off starter Jake Peavy (L 5-5) two make it 3-0.

The Padres got one back on an Edgar Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, but in the top of the seventh the Mariners put the Padres away.

The Padres replaced Peavy with reliever Bryan Corey to start the seventh inning.  As fast as i wrote that sentence Corey was replaced.  He allowed four straight hits as Ichiro led it off with a single, followed by a Jose Lopez single.  Ibanez singled scoring Ichiro, and then Jose Vidro singled scoring Lopez.  Out Bryan Corey, In Carlos Guevara.  Same result as Betre singled scoring Ibanez, and Jeremy Reed singled to center field scoring Vidro and Beltre. And just like that 6 straight hits, all singles, and the it was 8-2.  Jeff Clement hit his second homer of the season in the 9th to round out the scoring.  Clement finished the game 2-for-4.

The win marked the teams 6th win in the 9 game interleague roadtrip.  I’m sure it was good for the team mentally to go on the road after all the recent turmoil surrounding the team.  Many of the players are probably wishing they could stay on the road.  However, they must return home to start a series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.  It will be the start of a seven game homestand as they play a three game set with Toronto ending Wednesday, and start a four game series with the Detroit Tigers Friday.  It will be interesting to see if the team can gain some confidence against AL teams after such a strong interleague performance.  Tomorrow night R.A. Dickey (2-3) and Roy Halliday (8-6) are the probables for the 7:10 PT start.

Mariners Blog

 Mariners 11, Mets 0

11-0!  Where did this come from?  R.A. Dickey got his first win in two years as he had the Mets batters off balanced all night.  Dickey had his knuckler fluttering, and was mixing in a mid 80′s fastball and a knuckle curve to keep the Mets bats guessing.  He pitched 7 shutout innings, striking out 5.  Dickey had outstanding control of his pitches as the Mets failed to ever get a solid piece of his pitches.   This is hopefully a confidence building start for Dickey who has really struggled of late.  Great Job.

The Mets season of frustration continued to boil over as Manager Jerry Manuel, and Outfielder Carlos Beltran got ejected in a crazy scene in the bottom of the 4th.  Homeplate umpire Brian Runge appeared to initiate an argument with Beltran when the two began arguing during the at bat.  Manuel raced out of the dugout infuriated over Beltran being provoked.  Then Runge appeared to bump Manuel, leading to Manuel getting tossed and then Beltran shortly after. 

The M’s jumped on Starter Oliver Perez early scoring runs in four of his five innings pitched to go up 6-0 after the top of the 5th.  Raul Ibanez and Kenji Johjima homered of Perez.  Ibanez finished the night 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s to continue swinging a hot stick.  Johjima finished with 3 hits, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI’s.  Richie Sexson also hit well picking up 3 RBI’s.  The 11-0 final score was the Mariners biggest margin of victory this season.

This recent hot streak, (this is hot streak for the Mariners)makes me think of a famous quote from  Major League 2.

Indians Manager Lou Brown:

“Now, we won a ball game yesterday. If we win one today, that’s two in a row.  We win one tomorrow, that’s called a winning streak. It has happened before.”

The Mariners will go with Miguel Batista (3-9) in the finale against John Maine (7-5) at 7:10 Wednesday night.

Get the brooms out!

In a game that ironically became the last for manager John McLaren, R.A. Dickey, who McLaren has backed, got roughed up in his second straight start.  R.A. gave up 5 runs, on six hits, 4 walks, and a HR.  It was ultimately decisions like the one to pitch Dickey that ironically summed up his managing style for the Mariners, which too often was sticking with players for too long.  This, along with  lacking the foresight to make key personnel changes,  in the end sealed the fate of the McLaren, Bavasi era.

Mike Jacobs (2 for 5, 3 RBI’s), and Dan Uggla belted big flys for the Marlins.  Hanley Ramirez went 2 for 3 with 3 runs on 3 walks.  21 year old rookie Ryan Tucker (2-1) picked up the win going 6 innings striking out 4, and allowing only 2 runs.

A positive for the Mariners was that they out hit the Fish 13-11.  The negative, as has been for most of the season was the 25 runners left on base, many in key spots.  Recent call up Jeff Clement started at catcher, and picked up where he left off on his last call up striking out twice, but did draw two walks.  Adrian Beltre was 2-5 scoring twice while he picked up his 11th double of the season.  Jose Vidro went 3 for 5 at the dish, and Jeremy Reed continued to swing a nice bat going 2 for 3.

McLaren was fired before the team left for Atlanta.  He will be replaced by Jim Riggleman who was currently on the staff as the teams bench coach.  Lee Elia, who recently took over as hitting coach is now the bench coach.  The remainder of the staff stays in place for the time being.  McLaren’s final record as Mariners skipper was 66-88.  Its going to be very interesting to see what Riggleman does with the lineup after McLaren was so indecisive about putting it together day in and day out.

The M’s head to Atlanta for a game on Friday against the Braves.  That game will start a nine game interleague road trip.  Lets see if getting away on this road trip from the mess that has begun to unravel in Seattle among the Mariners brass can be good for the team going forward.

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