Darrin Beene is entering his seventh year at The News Tribune, having covered the Tacoma Rainiers in 2005 and Major League Baseball for two years before that. Beene, a former assistant sports editor at The News Tribune, also worked for the Los Angeles Daily News and Los Angeles Times. He lives in the South Sound with his wife and two children.
This blog is about baseball in general but specifically the Seattle Mariners and the Mariners’ Triple-A team, the Tacoma Rainiers. It will contain news, analysis, answers to your questions and audio reports.
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The Mariners responded to Tuesday's drubbing by coming back and beating Baltimore, 7-4. Stars on this night were Richie Sexson, who had two hits and three RBI; Sean Green, who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of winner Jarrod Washburn and J.J. Putz, who struck out the side in the ninth to earn his seventh save. Here's some audio from the clubhouse:
One topic during Mariners manager Mike Hargrove's pregame chat with reporters was the status of pitcher Joel Pineiro. Pineiro gave up five runs on Tuesday – four in that dreaded first inning – and had his third consecutive poor outing since winning AL pitcher of the week honors.
Hargrove said he talked with Pineiro after the game and by the sound of it, it was more of a pat on the back than a kick in the rump. He said he told Pineiro that he still considers Pineiro to be a good pitcher albeit one who's going through a tough time.
A positive from Pineiro's outing – if anything positive can come out of a 10-hit, 5-run, 5-inning performance – was his ability to make adjustments after the first inning. Hargrove said Pineiro quickly went to his slider and changeup once he saw that his command on his fastball was not there.
If you're watching any Mariners' game, take special note of the first inning. The Mariners have been outscored 32-14 this season in the first. More bad firsts: The first inning is opponent's most productive inning while it's the Mariners least productive inning.
Mariners manager Mike Hargrove was asked about the team's first inning struggles before Wednesday's games. He acknowledged the problem but did not really have an answer for it. "Stats are stats," Hargrove said, "and it's just a number of the game."
That may be, but the numbers say when the Mariners score first, they've got a good chance to win. Seattle's record is 10-5 when scoring first, 11-21 when they don't.
On Wednesday, Jarrod Washburn pitched a 1-2-3 first for Seattle against Baltimore and Richie Sexson singled in Jose Lopez in the bottom of the inning to make it 1-0.
