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!

The Seattle Mariners started the weekend with a bang with a 10-2 win at Turner Field in interim manager Jim Riggleman’s debut.  Erik Bedard turned in a nice performance until being pulled because of back spasms after three scoreless innings. Bedard isn’t expected to miss much time.

Seattle’s offense matched a season high with 15 hits. Jose Lopez continued his nice first half at the plate with 3 hits, 2 were doubles, and 4 RBI’s. Adrian Beltre added 2 hits and 3 RBI’s

The Bullpen pitched in with a nice peformance relieving Bedard, as Ryan Rowland-Smith picked up the win.

Just as we all got excited about the impressive win, we all got brought back down to earth with the Braves taking game 2 and 3 of the series. The Braves won those two games 5-4, and 8-3 respectively as the offense went back to it dissapearing act.

In game 2, the M’s took the lead to the bottom of the ninth as Miguel Batista blew the save opportunity filling in for the sore Brandon Morrow. Greg Norton hit a key double and eventually scored as Brian McCann singled in the former Mariner for the winning run. The Mariners mustered only 5 hits in the loss.

Game 3 was completely dominated by Mark Teixeira. Tex blasted 3 home runs, 2 off starter Carlos Silva who failed to pick up a victory in his 12th straight start.

Raul Ibanez picked up two hits off Braves starter Tim Hudson and seemed to be the only player with an answer to his stuff. Jeff Clement‘s finally got the monkey off his back with a leadoff double in the seventh, and hit his first dinger of the year to center field in the 9th. Willie Bloomquist knocked in the final run with an RBI single late.

The Mariners head to New York for a series with the Mets starting monday. Game 1′s matchup will see Johan Santana against Felix Hernandez. Should be a fantastic matchup.

Mariners Blog

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.

Mariners Blog

The Seattle Mariners got into a big hole early in the game and then went on to lose to the Detroit Tigers by the score of 9-2 on Thursday afternoon.  It definately was not the way the Mariners wasnted to end the series as they were swept in the three game series and now have to goto New York and take on the Yankees in a weekend series.

Miguel Batista only lasted three inning as he gave up seven hits and five runs.  Batista is now sporting a 6.47 era on the season.  R.A. Dickey pitched two innings of relief after Batista exited and he gave up two runs.  Following Batista, Sean Green came in for an inning and also gave up two runs.  Finally Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz were able to pitch the final two innings without giving up a run.

Raul Ibanez had the only rbi for the Mariners as he had a rbi single in the third inning that scored Yuniesky Betancourt.  Ibanez also grounded into a double play in the fifth inning that scored the second run for the Mariners.  No rbi was given on the play since he grounded into the DP however.

The Mariners will now go into New York City hurting after being swept by the Tigers.  Can they turn things around in the Bronx? I’m going to say no as they will only win game out of three against the Yankees.

Mariners Blog

The Seattle Mariners scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to take the game into extra innings but then went onto lose on a walk off home run in the tenth inning to the Texas Rangers by the score of 13-12.  Ramon Vazquez took Brandon Morrow deep to win the game for the Rangers.  Morrow took the loss and is now 0-1 on the season.

Starting pitcher Erik Bedard was roughed up in only two innings of action.  Bedard gave up seven hits and six runs as he was hit hard all night long.  Cha Seung Baek pitched the next two innings without letting in a run but then Ryan Rowland-Smith gave up two runs and Mark Lowe gave up four more runs.

The Mariners did hit three home runs in the game.  Kenji Johjima had the big three run blast in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game.  Raul Ibanez had a two run home run in the first inning and Wladimir Balentien had a two run shot as well in the eighth inning.

Johima led the the Mariners with four rbi while Ibanez wasn’t too far behind with three rbi.  Balentein had two rbi and Yuniesky Betancourt finished up the game with one rbi.

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The Seattle Mariners jumped all over Texas Rangers starter Kevin Millwood on Monday night as the Mariners put up seven quick runs and went onto beat the Rangers 7-3.  You have to like seeing the Mariners put up seven runs in the first three innings of the game.  When you score runs like that at the beginning of the game you really put the other team in a hole and make them get into their bullpen early in the game.

Richie Sexson and Wladimir Balentien both hit home runs in the game for the Mariners.  Sexson had  solo shot and Balentien had a three run shot.  Both home runs came in the third inning when the Mariners scored four runs.

Balentien finished the game with three RBI while Raul Ibanez had two RBI.  Jose Lopez and Sexson both had one RBI in the game.

Mariners starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn finally picked up a win to improve his record to 2-4 on the season.  Washburn threw six innings of four hit ball.  He did give up three runs but pitched a lot better then he has been lately.  Washburn had to leave the game in the top of the seventh inning when he felt some tightness in his right calf.

Sean Green and J.J. Putz pitched the final three innings to finish off the Rangers.  They did not allow a run and pitched pretty good.

Mariners Blog

The Seattle Mariners got out to a 5-0 lead after three innings but could not hold onto that lead as they lost to the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 on Thursday night.  Anytime you are up 5-0 that early in the game, you need to not let up and continue to put pressure on the other team.  The Mariners did not do that and that is why they lost.

Jarrod Washburn pitched five innings and gave up six hits to and two runs.  Wasburn didn’t pitch too badly, it was the bullpen that really blew the game for the Mariners.  Roy Corcoran, Mark Lowe, and Sean Green all gave up one run.  Arthur Rhodes actually gave up three runs without even recording an out.  Green ended up taking the loss and is now 1-1 on the season.

At the plate for the Mariners, Ichiro and Adrian Beltre both hit home runs.  Beltre hit a solo shot in the second inning while Ichiro and a two run shot in the seventh inning.  Ichiro and Jose Vidro led the team with two RBI each.  Beltre, Jose Lopez, and Raul Ibanez all finished the game with one RBI.

Mariners Blog

The Seattle Mariners broke a 2-2 tie in the eigth inning on a Jose Vidro single that scored two runs as they defeated the Baltimore Orioles 4-2 on Tuesday night.  The Mariners only had five hits on the night, but that was enough to beat the Orioles who stranded 15 runners on base.

Arthur Rhodes picked up the win as he pitched in relief of Felix Hernandez.  Hernandez tossed seven innings and allowed six hits but only one run.  He got out of plenty of jams in the game as he struckout seven batters.  J.J. Putz picked up the save which was his second of the season.

Besides Vidro’s two RBI’s, Raul Ibanez also had one RBI on a goundout to second base in the first inning.

Mariners Blog

Carlos Silva is now 3-0 on the season as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics by the score of 8-1 on Thursday night.  Silva was dominate as he pitched seven innings and only gave up four hits and one earned run.

Ryan Rowland-Smith and Brandon Morrow pitched the final two innings of the game for the Mariners and did not allow a hit.

Jose Lopez and Jose Vidro both had two RBI for the Mariners.  Willie Bloomquist, Yuniesky Betancourt, Kenji Johjima, and Raul Ibanez all had one RBI each.

With the win, the Mariners record is now 9-8 on the season.

Mariners Blog