I wanted to get this up quickly and I'll add more to it later. But manager John McLaren said that Jeff Clement will start Thursday night's game against Cleveland at catcher. McLaren is going to sit struggling starter Kenji Johjima for the next two games to try and get him to relax a little.

Johjima was clearly not pleased, saying that sitting has never helped him get out of a slump and that it would only make him put more pressure on himself to do better.

I'll post more on this later. I have to write my game story.

Ok, sorry we're coming in a little late but I'm working on getting some pictures up here and they're taking forever to download.

But we'll start with the updates now and get them going, since I have three stories to write for tomorrow's paper...

GAME THOUGHTS:

9:40 -- Not sure why Mac didn't let Clement pinch hit for Pepe, who looked awful as expected. But Clement replaced Joh and is catching now, he should bat next inning.

9:18 --- WLADDY!!!! That was opposite field. I never saw Wilkerson pull a ball that far. That home run just snapped Cliff Lee's streak of scoreless innings at 27.

9:03 --- Well, I've been sitting here trying to sum up what Cha Seung is doing out on the mound. And the best thing I can write: "It's utterly gross to watch."

R.A. Dickey is probably watching this in the clubhouse at Cheney just shaking his head sadly.

8:31 --- Good hustle by Wlad to get his first hit of the season. The Mariners had a good chance to get some runs, but come up short.

7:46 --- Snydro, I talked to all parties involved. Here's a few quotes.

Clement: You just have to stay within yourself and do what has made you successful. Obviously, we both got off to pretty good starts at the Triple A level and when you come here, try not to do any more than that. You just stay within yourself on a daily basis. It’s a game of failure and take the good with the bad. You try to maointain that balance."

Balentien: I've been waiting for the opportunity now I just have to earn it. I never thought I was going to get called up so early in the year. I'm just going to go out and play hard and do the best I can and hopefully win some more ball games."

Norton: Of course, I'd like to be in the big leagues somewhere. I don't aspire to go to Triple A. If no one does claim me, that's another bridge we have to cross. If there's any interest in me or interest in going back to Tacoma, we'll discuss it.

McLaren:Norton's kind of a victim of circumstance. He mirrors Vidro so much, and we feel like we needed the protection with Burke as the extra catcher when we DH Clement. We need pinch-runner every night, with so many guys who need pinch-running for. We're not going to pinch hit for that many guys, so we felt like this was the way we needed to go.

7:35 --- And Grady Sizemore with a lead-off home run off of Washburn. I wasn't living here back then, but how bad was it when Sizemore decided to play baseball instead of going to the Huskies. UW fans could have the same thing happens when some team tries to sign Jake Locker after his season with the Bellingham Belles.

7:26 --- John McGrath wrote the other day that Jose Vidro had one of the worst swings he'd ever seen in his baseball watching career. After watching Vidro try and hit a pitch above his head, McGrath will have to make the swing from last week the second worst swing in his lifetime.

It's official outfielder Wladimir Balentien and Jeff Clement have been called up from Triple A Tacoma and will be in uniform tonight. To make room for those two players, outfielder Brad Wilkerson and bench player Greg Norton have been designated for assignment, according to the Mariners media relations.

Wilkerson was not in the clubhouse today, while Norton was just told by general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren.

I'm still not certain why they designated Norton instead of Miguel Cairo, which is pretty much the consensus for the media here. Norton was hitting .438 as you will read below and he seemed to be an offensive threat. Maybe Cairo has some compromising photos of somebody in the Mariners front office to keep him on this team. And as for Vidro, they still seem to hold out belief that he will hit again, particularly after last night.

Here's the official release from the Mariners....
MARINERS RECALL C JEFF CLEMENT & OF WLADIMIR BALENTIEN FROM AAA TACOMA

OF Brad Wilkerson & INF Greg Norton Designated for Assignment
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the Mariners have recalled outfielder Wladimir Balentien and catcher Jeff Clement from AAA Tacoma. To make room on the Major League, 25-man roster, Seattle has designated infielder Greg Norton and outfielder Brad Wilkerson for assignment.

Balentien (#50) and Clement (#9) will be in uniform and available for tonight’s 7:05 pm (ET) game at the Cleveland Indians.

Seattle now has 10 days to trade, release, option or assign Norton and Wilkerson outright to the minors.

Balentien, 23, was hitting .254 (16x63) with 5 doubles, 6 homers and 20 RBI in 17 games with AAA Tacoma this season. On Monday night, he hit three home runs, including an inside-the-park homer, versus New Orleans. It was his second game back in the lineup after missing eight games with a bruised left knee. Balentien made his ML debut last season with the Mariners, joining the club on Sept 4. In 3 games, he hit .667 (2x3) with a double and a HR. His first ML homer came on Sept. 26 (G#1) off of Cleveland’s Fausto Carmona.

Balentien was the PCL Rookie of the Year in 2007 after hitting .291 with 24 doubles, 4 triples, 24 home runs and 84 RBI in 124 games with Tacoma.

Clement, 24, was hitting .397 (31x78) with 8 doubles, 5 homers and 20 RBI in 23 games with AAA Tacoma this season. He walked 22 times, while striking out just 12 times. Clement made his ML debut last season with the Mariners, joining the club on Sept 4. In 9 games, he hit .375 (6x16) with a double and 2 HR. His first ML homer was a game-tying pinch-hit blast in the 9th, Sept. 26 (G #2) vs. Cleveland. His second homer was Sept. 28, a two-run walk-off shot vs. Texas.

Clement hit .275 with 35 doubles, 3 triples, 20 homers and 80 RBI in 125 games with Tacoma last season.

Norton, 35, was signed by Seattle as a minor league free agent on Feb. 13, 2008. He hit .438 (7x16) in 6 games with Seattle this year. Norton began this season with Tacoma where he was hitting .409 (9x22) with 2 doubles and 3 RBI in 7 games with the Rainiers. He’s a career .253 hitter with 114 doubles, 82 HR and 300 RBI in 12 seasons (901 Major League games) with the White Sox (1996-2000), Colorado (2001-2003), Detroit (2004), Tampa Bay (2006-2007) & Seattle (2008).

Wilkerson, 30, was signed by Seattle as a free agent on Jan. 31, 2008. He hit .232 (13x56) in 19 games with Seattle this year. He’s a career .249 hitter with 185 doubles, 118 HR and 376 RBI in 8 seasons (887 Major League games) with Montreal/Washington (2001-05), Texas (2006-2007) & Seattle (2008).

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. It appears that last night's coincidental sitting out of Jeff Clement and Wlad Balentien in the Rainiers was more than just that.

Yes, that's right the Seattle Mariners are making a move with the roster because Brad Wilkerson's locker has been cleaned out of the visitors clubhouse. The name plate is gone and no remnants of him are around. That means at least one player could be coming, but rumor around the stadium is that it's two players, both Clement and Wlad. We have received no official word yet. But Wilkerson is gone and most likely designated for assingment.

Here's how you could work it, Wlad could come in and start tonight in right because Cleveland is starting lefty Cliff Lee.

Clement could go tomorrow against the right-hander the Indians are sending out.

Still if they add two guys, that means another spot must be opened up. That could either come by designating another player for assignment, or placing player on the disabled list.

I hate having too many posts in a row because it makes it tough for people to comment, but I though I'd break it up somewhat. But we'll get the game posts going now. And I'll even toss in some links along the way to read between innings.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
10:03 -- From Snydro: I wonder if Sophia Bush knows that you've had your mug on the cover of such a prestigious sports section?

Sure, she called me just the other day to tell me she was pleased. Actually Snydro, the conditions of the restraining order don't allow contact of any sort and a 100-foot barrier between her and .... I told her to quit stalking me.

9:52 -- "PUT ME IN COACH I'M READY TO PLAY TODAY!!!!" My God, My God, that's, that's Miguel Cairo's music! And he's in to pinch run for Sexson, whou doubled off the wall. Cairo actually ran faster out to second than Sexson did on his double.

9:43 -- ADRIAN BELTRE!!!! 3-run homer on an 0-1 pitch off of closer Rafale Betancourt --- about a foot over the wall. The Mariners have a lead.

9:34 -- As for the Balentien and Clement not starting, maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing, but it allows you guys to dream. Another thing you to have consider --- they don't have to be called up at the same time. I realistically think that Clement will be called up first. Because he's ready right now, but they may wait on Balentien until his knee is completely healthy at this point.

9:24 -- Silva in trouble, not sure why Mac didn't go with the lefty-lefty matchup and bring in Rhodes to face Delluci, maybe Rhodes wasn't warm enough. But Athur's in now and it's tied after a soft grounder to first.

9:07 -- Sorry for the lapse, I'm still going, "hmmmm" about those two sitting. Usually, guys like that don't sit unless they've been told to by the big club. Of course, Wlad just came off injury and Clement is a catcher and so he gets days off, but its funny that on a day when McLaren says they'll be up "sooner than later" those two sits out of the game.

Hmmmmmmm.

8:40 --- Here's the Rainiers lineup for tonight
Hulett
Chen
Reed
Kinkade
LaHair
Jimerson
Johnson R.
Johnson B.
Navarro
White

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

8:35 --- Brad Wilkerson with his third hit, on that note, neither Jeff Clement or Wlad Balentien are supposedly in tonight's lineup for the Rainiers ... hmmmmmmmm.

8:30 -- It appears that John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar are improving in their rehab.

8:22 --- Jose Vidro with another double RBI, he's responding to Mac's little ulitmatum. Richie, er, not so much.

8:12 --- Brad Wilkerson with a leaping catch. He's doing it all. Who gave him a Red Bull before the game.

8:03 --- Mark it down at 8:03 EST Brad Wilkerson got two hits in a row in one game. No, I'm not making this up. And for the second straight time this game, after Wilkerson gets a hit, Joh gets him out with a double play.

7:55 --- Jose Vidro with an RBI double. That's not a typo. And his average is now above his weight of 200 (listed weight I might add there).

7:51 -- If you haven't noticed, I'm going by local time. No, I can't predict the future.

* Here's the LA Times game story from last night's game in which Oakland drubbed the Angels.

7:38 --- Alight, we pick it up in the second inning after Brad Wilkerson just pulled a ball relatively hard through the right side for a hit. And it pushes him up over .200, to .204 but not over his weight 205.

In the first inning, Richie came up clutch in his old stadium, with a ground ball to first with bases loaded. You see he gets cheers on the road for not getting hits. That's why he plays better.

Silva gave up two doubles but got out of it with just a run, but sometimes with this Mariners offense, it's like pregnancy, once is all it takes.

Here's a link to our front page today, it's a pretty cool design with all of the slumping hitters.

Alright, before we get to the game thoughts, I thought I'd post a few notes and such since I didn't have time to before the game started.

* John McLaren was even a little more candid about the situation with Wladimir Balentien and Jeff Clement, saying "they'll be here sooner, than later."

Here's some more of his comments:

When asked if the decision comes down to service time, i.e. the "Super 2" rule or waiting til May 7th for both players to fall under the service time to start their free agent clock a year sooner.

"None. I never heard the words to be honest with you."

When and if the duo is called up, will they play every day or will they do what Adam Jones did last season?

"I think it's a little different circumstances. They’ll play if we brought them up. Last year, we had three guys (Guillen, Ichiro and Ibanez) that were everyday players all of them having good years. We brought Adam up and out of necessity and just mixed him in whenever we could. It’s a little different now, we have guys that are struggling, if we bring them up we’re going to play them."

On how long he can wait on some of the slumping guys?

"We’re monitoring it, we’ve talked about it. I’m trying to be fair to give people the benefit of the doubt, with that said we’ve got several guys around the .200 mark and they need to pick it up in a hurry. I’m not going to put a time frame on it."

If the players that are struggling realize that they need to pick it up or be benched?

"They’re professionals and I think they realize it . I brought it up in the meeting the other day, I said 'We've been very fair with you people. We want you to keep working hard. We haven’t lost confidence in you, but there will be a point when we think of other options. I think one month is a very fair yardstick to use and we’ve done that. We’re right at that now and they need to pick it up.

My first visit to Cleveland has been all I hoped it would be and more. Actually that's a lie. But it hasn't been bad. I got up and walked basically the better part of two miles trying to find a coffee shop not named Starbucks to no real avail, until I ducked into a downtown mall and found Caribou Coffee where FSN's Brad Adam and Mariners' media relations guru Tim Hevly were also getting some coffee.

Before I forget, a belated and big thanks to Doug Pacey for handling Sunday for me. I'm sure the Kansas grad prefers Stadium girls softball and Class 2A track, but he came up clutch for me like Mario Chalmers in the title game.

One thing I will tell you is that it's f-f-freezing here. According to Google weather it's 42 degrees but it feels colder than that. That is not good for the Mariners, who struggle to produce runs in warm weather.

* Here's my story from today's paper about the Mariners slumping offense and McLaren's dwindling patience.

* Here's Darrin Beene's "Up Next" preview of the series.

On a side note, as you know I normally don't link to other local papers often, but the P-I's John Hickey met with McLaren after Sunday's fiasco in his office and got a expletive-laced tirade.

AND NOW OUR NEW DAILY FEATURE: CLEMENT AND WLAD WATCH 2008!
Wow that sounds like something for the presidential election.

Anyway, here's last night's game story from my boy Grant Clark, in it you will find that WLAD BALENTIEN SLUGGED THREE HOME RUNS IN ONE GAME!

Not to be outdone, Jeff Clement went 3-for-4 to up his average to .397 this season.

Here's their official lines from last night and here's the box score.

Jeff Clement 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI, a base on balls and two runs scored.
Wlad Balentien 3-for-6 with three home runs, three runs scored, five RBI

And I will mention that Jeremy Reed was 4-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and RBI and two base on balls. Charlton Jimerson and Bryan LaHair also both hit home runs.

Also here's the Rainiers up to date statistics for the season.

Musically speaking, I prefer Pearl Jam to pop. But my iPod ranges anywhere from Oasis to old school hip-hop and because I was born in Montana, I like me some country music. So what does this all mean you ask? Remember as the angry lady said, “this is Mariners Insider, not Divish Insider.” It’s because it seems I often find myself in the press box before games, or driving back to Tacoma after games with the song “Heart of the Matter” by Don Henley stuck in my head.

Specifically, this lyric over and over:

“The more I know, the less I understand
All the things I thought I knew I'm learning again.”

Actually, it’s just the first part more than the second. Because what I’m finding out with this Mariners’ team is that “the more I know” about it, “the less I understand.” Specifically, “the more I know, the less I understand” about the decisions being made with the team, both in-game and roster-wise.

When will somebody admit that Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro are unable to help this team in any way? Why did the Mariners spend $850,000 on Miguel Cairo and what exactly is his role with the team?, And how many games will they give away and fall behind in the AL West before somebody makes a decision to makes some changes.

“This was not a good homestand,” manager John McLaren said after yesterday’s meltdown.

Yeah, you think?

I’m trying to find a phrase to sum up the recent six-game homestand in which the Mariners finished 2-4. Umm, let’s see …

A hopeless mess? Nah, not harsh enough.

A catastrophe of epic proportions? That might be a bit much.

A complete disaster? Sounds about right.

No, I’m going to go a little different direction.

I’m thinking it’s “A complete wake-up call for everybody and anybody that draws a paycheck from the Seattle Mariners organization.”

Imagine anybody watching those last six games and still have the audacity to believe that the current team the Mariners have constructed could make it to the playoffs. I’d have a better chance of convincing Sophia Bush to move to Tacoma than convincing most die-hard Mariners fans that this team, right now, is good enough to make the playoffs.

It’s a flawed line-up, a flawed roster and a flawed philosophy that to no real surprise leads to flawed baseball.

There’s my rant. I have ideas of how to fix it, but that’s a far longer post.

Let’s grade out the homestand quickly…

Hitting D-

Let’s see, Jose Vidro is hitting .195, Richie Sexson is hitting .207, Brad Wilkerson is hitting .189 and Kenji Johjima is hitting .197. That’s four guys, who usually bat 5-6-7-8 in the Mariners a daily order that are literally not hitting their weight. Need proof, according to the Mariners media guide Vidro weighs 200 pounds, Sexson is 240, Wilkerson is 205 and Johjima weighs 205. Maybe that’s a new theorem for Baseball Prospectus – Average/Weight ratio with Vidro a -5, Sexson -33, Wilkerson -16 and Joh is -8.

The only reason that the Mariners don’t get an F is the production of Jose Lopez, who is hitting .314 with 17 RBI. Raul Ibanez has also been steady with a .300 average with 20 RBI.

As for the rest, Ichiro is only hitting .257, but he’s starting to pick things up a little more and Yuni Betancourt is hitting a respectable .298, but his pitch selection in clutch situations leaves plenty to be desired and Adrian Beltre seems to try and cure the whole team’s offensive struggles in one at-bat.

Starting pitching A-

Seattle’s big three Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva all had quality outings for the Mariners, and even Jarrod Washburn wasn’t horrible. Miguel Batista gets a pass for getting hurt early in his start. Look, the starting pitching is the last concern for this team. It’s been the most consistent aspect of the team all season, even with Bedard’s injuries.

Bullpen C

This grade could have been worse had it not been for Cha Seung Baek’s quality outing from the bullpen in long relief of an injured Batista. Baek showed that he can contribute once every two weeks when he’s used. As for his bullpen mates, J.J. Putz showed hints of his old self, which is a positive. But Mark Lowe, Arthur Rhodes, Sean Green and Brandon Morrow all had a few shaky moments. If Rhodes gets a few calls, from a Triple A umpire, working a big league game, he gets out of his one jam. Lowe seems to have moments where he looks dominant and times where he can’t find the zone. Morrow’s velocity is there, but at this point can you trust his command? Green leads the AL in appearances. This much use could be detrimental late in the season.

Defense B
There were a few burps and errors in the homestand, defensively, but nothing as egregious as the Mariners hitting issues. But one thing I’ve noticed is that the opponents are not afraid to run on Wilkerson’s arm.

Game decisions C

I liked the idea of McLaren benching Vidro for a few days and inserting Norton, who produced and helped the Mariners get a win. I was one of the people wondering about why Cha Seung was on the team and he looked better than I expected. I question leaving Felix out there a little bit on Sunday, but moreover I question bringing Morrow in instead, of getting Green ready, a guy who can get you double play, and isn’t going to walk many guys. I also liked Mac sticking up for his pitchers and getting tossed. It proved a point.

Overall D
You just don’t lose back-to-back series at home. That can’t happen, especially against teams like the Orioles and the A’s. Look, I know both teams are leading their division, but come on, was anyone really impressed with them? I wasn’t. But then again, I was even less impressed with the Mariners.

I will say that my recliner is a little more comfortable than the press box.

3:14 -- Snydro, Felix was at 115 pitches and scuffling a little. he'd walked a couple guys and gave up a cheap broken bat hit.

3:07 -- When the Mariners lose this game, they will look at the first three innings where they got only one run but had runners on every inning as the reason for it.

2:35 --- Another butchered ball by Jack Cust in left field and more improbably they give Wilkerson a hit on it, no word if the official scorekeeper's last name is Wilkerson as well.

2:25 --- Something to note, McLaren said that JJ Putz is available today despite throwing so many innings last night, but since the Mariners have an off-day tomorrow he'll have time to recover.

And yes, Snydro22, Felix is dealing. I always hate missing his starts.

1:31 --- Nine straight strikes to strike out the side. Felix is dealing. Blowers made a good point, and its something we talked about in the press box in Oakland. Felix and Silva never allow the A's to work their game of drawing walks and prolonging at-bats and ballooning pitch counts by just flooding the strike zone. They throw strikes and aren't afraid of contact. If you notice, the A's have come out swinging in this game simply off of what Felix did to them in Oakland.

1:24 --- Greg Norton hits again, and Jose Vidro slips a little deeper onto the bench.

Richie continues to struggle at home. It's almost all mental. The guy tries too hard at home to prove fans wrong. When he's on the road, he's just far more relaxed.

1:19 --- An interesting double for Lopez. But it shouldn't be surprising since Jack Cust is in left field. Basically Cust out there is like putting Jose Vidro out in left field. Cust is a really DH, but because they have Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney, they are trying to hide Cust in left.

We're coming to you live from Casa De Divish - a disaster of epic proportions. Doug Pacey is giving me a day off as I prepare for my sojourn to Cleveland and New York next week.

So like some of you, I'll be watching the game on FSN today. But I'll still be posting some thoughts from home. Doug is going to e-mail a few notes from the game and I'll post them since he doesn't have access to this blog for some reason. That will change in the future.

If you look at today's line-up, Greg Norton is back in there at DH in place of Jose Vidro. This is something to keep an eye. It appears that McLaren is finally starting to lose some patience with non-producing players, which is something I'll be writing about for Tuesday. Anyway, Norton is in, Vidro is out. It makes the middle of line-up somewhat more dangerous.

Doug also noted that both Batista and Silva are on schedule to make their next starts.

Here's today's lineups....
OaklandMark Ellis, 2B
Daric Barton, 1B
Emil Brown, RF
Frank Thomas, DH
Jack Cust, LF
Bobby Crosby, SS
Ryan Sweeney, CF
Rob Bowen, C
Jack Hannahan, 3B
-----------------
Joe Blanton, P

Seattle
Ichiro Suzuki, CF
Jose Lopez, 2B
Raul Ibanez, LF
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Greg Norton, DH
Richie Sexson, 1B
Brad Wilkerson, RF
Kenji Johjima, C
Yuniesky Betancourt, SS
----------------------
Felix Hernandez, P

Well, we're coming live from Safeco, albeit a little delayed. We were plagued by some slow internet connections in the press box. They've rebooted the system and hopefully it's moving along a little faster.

Things to get to before game updates, Greg Norton replaced Jose Vidro in the lineup at DH. I think this could be happening more and more as the season goes on. Jamie Burke is in for Kenji Johjima. Joh was going to sit either today or tomorrow. But since he got hit in the forearm last night with a pitch, Mac is giving the day off.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
9:01 -- Umm, what's going on here. JJ seems, well, not very JJ-like. Regardless of teh outcomes, he's unavailable for tomrorrow now. And he somehow survives.

8:43 -- It's time for that music again....

8:35 -- The switch-hitting DH comes up with a clutch double. No not Jose Vidro, Greg Norton. Norton has two doubles in the game. I got excited seeing Norton's name in the lineup earlier today. I really don't know why they didn't bring in a righthander to turn Norton around to the left side. He's got more pop from the right. But oh well, it helped the Ms.

8:13 -- Big strikeout for Arthur Rhodes. I know Dave8557 is going to be against taking Bedard out, but if a guy is laboring, he's laboring and you have to make the switch. I personally think the Mariners might be using Green just a little too much. And that's why his command has been a problem because he's already wearing down some.

7:45 -- As part of the Mariners program, I've got a young student from Olympia here at the game hanging out for an inning. And I'm going to have him write the update for the next inning....

HI i'm matt and i am from olympia! i get to be here for an inning and so far it's great!!! I like how the mariners are doing.. Theyre winning too! Greg Norton just singled home Adrian Beltre put the Mariners up by 3-0.

7:29 --- Took a little break to write my notebook for the paper. The Mariners grabbed a 2-0 lead on an RBI single from Ichiro in the third and possible the cheapest and weakest RBI single from Brad Wilkerson in the fourth. The ball barely went 90 feet, but when you're struggling like Wilkerson you'll take anything you can get.

Also to note, normal first base coach Eddie Rodriguez is coaching third, while bench coach Jim Riggleman is coaching first. Sam Perlozzo, who normally coaches third has a torn meniscus in his left knee and is sitting on the bench. No word officially on how Perlozzo did it, but it looks like things will stay this way for the time being.

6:38 --- Not much going, but Bedard looks pretty solid. I haven't seen a fastball over 91 miles per hours, which is still about three to four miles per hour less than last year. Maybe its the effects of the hip?

I got to the field early, and got to see two groups of people on tours roll through, watch Rich Harden throw his simulated game - he didn't get hurt throwing - but you never know about showering or getting onto the team bus. Right now, Richie Sexson, Brad Wilkerson and Willie Bloomquist are taking extra batting practice. I don't see Jose Vidro. Maybe he doesn't think he needs it. I think there might be a few people that disagree.

I didn't do it on my postgame blog, but last night as I sipped on a few cocktails and watched the replay on FSN (no, I'm not a glutton for punishment, I sat down and couldn't find the remote and refused to get up), but Cha Seung Baek should be commended for a solid outing. It was a tough situation and he kept the Mariners in the game when it could have gotten out of hand. If he pitched like that every time he stepped on the mound, he wouldn't be in the bullpen, he'd be in somebody's starting rotation, possibly even the Mariners.

UPDATE: The roster move was made and Roy Corcoran was optioned to Triple A Tacoma. Corcoran appeared in eight games, allowing just two runs and eight hits.

Links Below ....
* Here's my story from last night's game which centers around the Mariners inability to get a sac fly when they needed it.

* The game notebook is about the signing of Kenji Johjima to a contract extension.

* The Rainiers got a win last night, even though Ryan Feierabend missed his scheduled start with a sore arm. Jeff Clement had an RBI double. I think we'll do a Jeff Clement watch here every day till he gets called up.

* Here's Susan Slusser's game story from the SF Chronicle.

* Her game notebook mentions that Eric Chavez has joined the team, but it doesn't like he'll be returning any time soon.

Elswhere in baseball....
* Maybe the Angels' Ervin Santana is for real this season.

* Angels DH/outfielder Garrett Anderson admits he is in a slump. And believes that they should move him out of the clean-up spot if it continues.

* The Texas Rangers executives met yesterday to find a way to improve the team. Here's the story from the Dallas Morning News.

* Here's the story from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram.

Here's my solution to the Rangers problem. They need to invent a time machine and go back in time to the moment where Tom Hicks decides he's going to sign Alex Rodriguez for 252 million, and slap Hicks silly till he realizes what a bad idea it is. Sound simple doesn't it.

From stevejulio: Is McLaren even able to stay awake until the 9th inning?? It seems to me that on Wednesday vs. the Orioles and Friday against the A's we were down 1 in the bottom of the 9th with Ichiro getting on to lead off the inning. He says Ichiro can steal 80 bases so why dont we steal and then have Lopez bunt him to third?? Then we can hit our trademark sac fly to tie it. Am I the only one thinking this??

No Stevejulio. Almost all of us were wondering what was going on. With the way Lopez was swinging you could have even did a hit-and-run. We actually asked McLaren about that. The whole situation was based on A's closer Huston Street's delivery to home. If Street was going to use the slide-step, which is used to keep a runner close, then Lopez was supposed to bunt. If Street did a slower delivery, Lopez was supposed to not bunt and perhaps see if Ichiro could swipe a bag.

I understand this logic a little, but why not wait until Lopez got a strike, which allows Ichiro to work Street a little bit from first.

But instead Lopez saw slide step immediately and tried to bunt an awful pitch. Having Lopez have to read that situation and make a decision doesn't seem like the best idea, especially for a player that isn't considered to be the best at thinking on his feet and focusing.

Ichiro said after the game he thought that bunt was the right call. But then again, he seems to steal bases when he wants, not when the Mariners want. And that's a problem.

Realistically, once Lopez botched the bunt, Ichiro probably should have tried to steal second while Raul was up to give the Mariners best hitter a chance to tie the game.

As for the eighth and Yuni's double play, it clearly galled McLaren. This team seems to rely on the sac fly so much - AL league leading 13 - they couldn't get one when they need it most. Yuni is still a young player and prone to getting caught up in the moment. But if he ever expects to make the leap into one of the game's better shortstop, he needs to learn to focus and figure out the strikezone.

It's the little things that are killing the Mariners, and McLaren admitted it.

“Until we do some small things, it’s going to be hard for us to put long winning streaks together, because we let other teams off the hook,” McLaren said.

It's not quite this ....

But maybe that's what the Mariners need to hear from their manager. Because the nice guy isn't working. And the team has lost three straight.

Another crisp night at Safeco Field, and I'm trying to get some blog thoughts on the Johjima signing, along with my game notebook and other stuff. But I will still be offering up my thoughts for whatever they're worth.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
9:58 -- Joh signs a 24 million dollar contract earlier in the day and gets pinch hit for later that night. Runners first and second, one out and Wilkerson up, any thoughts of what might happen??? I'm guessing 4-6-3, or 6-4-3, I just can't decide the order.

Ok, if I'm Bob Geren I'm not too happy with Dan Brown. THere's no science Wilkerson comes in hitting .174 with four RBI and hasn't played in a week. -- you can't walk him, oh well, good for the Mariners..... or not, Yuni in a 6-4-3 DP, I was an inning off.

9:38 --- Lopez with his fourth hit of the night. Who would have predicted he'd be their leading hitter coming out of spring?

9:15 -- So who agreed with Mac pinch hitting Wilkerson for Bloomquist against a guy throwing 98. Let's see Wilkerson hasn't played in a week and he's asked to come off the bench cold to hit a guy throwing BBs.

Who thought he was going to get a hit? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

9:09 -- Jose Vidro with a sac fly. Look, I'm all for situational hitting but sometimes a sac fly with bases loaded isn't the greatest thing in the world, espeically when you're down multiple runs.

8:50 -- pretty nondescript affair for the Mariners. Cha Seung once he was directed to the mound has actually been all right. But it appears, the Mariners who came in hitting over .300 against the lefties, are going to make Dana Eveland, who was born in Olympia, look like a Cy Young contender.
m
Oh and another bit of nice news, apparently Ryan Feierabend was scratched from his start in Tacoma with a sore arm.

8:02 -- I guess it's not Batista's back. He has a mild groin strain and will be re-examined tomorrow.

7:49 -- Hmm, it appears that Jose Vidro and Frank Thomas have slightly different hitting styles and results. But the Mariners do a good job of getting at least one run in the first inning.

And now it appears Batista is hurt. You could see him mouth the words "My back hurts." on the television screen. We now have Cha Seung Baek entering the game to pitch. Um, Cha Seung the field is over that way.

7:33 -- Wow, so Batista shakes off his Steve Blass disease to get out of the inning with only two runs scored. He did throw 43 pitches. No word as if Cha Seung actually had cobwebs on his arm, but he did have to be shown where the mound in the bullpen was because it had been so long.

7:25 -- Well, you know how Cha Seung Baek hasn't pitched in like two weeks, that could be changing in a little bit, since Batista can't throw a strike. He just walked in a run and he's at 27 pitches and only one out.

HERE'S THE LINEUPS:

Oakland
K. Suzuki C
Barton 1B
Ellis 2B
Thomas DH
Cust LF
Brown RF
Crosby SS
R. Sweeney CF
Murphy 3B
-------
Eveland P

Seattle
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez RF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Bloomquist RF
Betancourt SS
-----------------
Batista P

For Kenji, according to the AP, it means eight million a year over the next three years.

On the surface it also appears that Jeff Clement is not going to be the everyday catcher of the future. And I guess on some level that's correct.

Does it mean that Clement is not part of the Mariners immediate plans? Not hardly. During the press conference, general manager Bill Bavasi maintained Clement's importance to the Mariners.

"This doesn’t change Jeff’s track to the big leagues much, because Jeff’s track to the big leagues is more with his bat than with his glove," Bavasi said.

And on some level, he's correct. It's not as if the media or Mariners fans are crying out for Clement to be on the team because of his superior or receiving skills. Because those are still a work in progress as today's column by John McGrath talks about. But good enough for the Mariners catching coordinator Roger Hansen to believe he's ready.

No the real reason everyone wants to see Clement in a Mariners uniform is because of that disgustingly perfect and frighteningly compact left-handed swing that seems made for Safeco Field. I've advocated Clement to be in Seattle more as a DH. As a catcher, he's still pretty green and could you imagine him catching against the Angels? With Johjima under contract for the next three years, Clement can still be a viable contributor to the Mariners with his bat alone, or could it be at another position?

Clement has been resistant to such talk and actually uses it as a motivator for his catchign work. But Bavasi didn't rule it out.

"I would guess at some point along the way, because of Jeff’s bat and if Kenji plays the way he can, Jeff is going to get exposed to another position at some point also," Bavasi said. "But we are not giving up on him as a catcher. A lefthanded catcher that can hit with power is hard to find."

After the press conference, I asked Bavasi if he had any particular position he might want to try Clement at, perhaps first base, and he offered this.

"Don’t overplay that," he said. "This guy’s a catcher, he’s going to catch and catch well, but if Kenji is still tearing it up and Jeff’s bat is forcing him into the big league, we’re going to have call some sort of audible and somebody is going to have to look at another position and it might Jeff, it might be Kenji, or it might be both."

But if you were thinking short term, the only viable position for Clement would be DH right now. And Bavasi hinted that.

"Luckily for us, we have the DH and we can play with that a little," he said.

Now using a catcher/DH platoon isn't completely unheard of. The Twins did this at times with Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond. But there is one caveat - you'd need one extra guy whould could catch in a pinch. Because if something were to happen to your starting catcher and you would either have to move your DH to catcher and then lose the DH and have the pitcher bat, or you go to your emergency catcher.

"You gotta carry a utitilty guy that has enough to go behind the plate if needed," Bavasi said. "We’ve already talked about it. You have to have it."

Could the Mariners bring up Clement and still carry Jamie Burke? That seems a bit much, but none of their other utility players have ever strapped on the catchers' gear other than Mike Morse, who said he could do it, but he's hurt.

So what does it all mean? Well, it means Johjima is the catcher for now, Clement is the Rainers catcher for now, but probably the Mariners DH in about a week or two.

The Mariners announced today they have agreed to terms with catcher Kenji Johjima on a three-year contract extension.

Johjima, who was eligible for free agency at the end of this season, is now signed through 2011. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

"As an organization, we view quality Major League catching as a scarce commodity," general manager Bill Bavasi said in a statement released by the team. "This extension allows us to feel very comfortable with our catching depth for the foreseeable future."

Johjima, 31, ranked third in hits (139), fourth in average (.287), doubles (29) and RBI (61) and fifth in home runs (14) in 2007 among American League catchers. He threw out 39.5 percent of runners attempting to steal, the second best rate in the AL in 2007.

He's off to slow start this year, hitting .200 with no home runs and five RBI entering Friday's game.

Johjima has caught 2,444.1 innings over the past three seasons, third-most in the majors behind Jason Kendall (2579.1) and Russell Martin (2,446).

"Joh is a durable, intelligent catcher," Mariners manager John McLaren said, "and he's still improving his game. It is a very tough adjustment to switch leagues from Japan, and he has done an outstanding job adapting his game to the U.S."

In 299 Major League games with Seattle, Johjima is a career .283 hitter. On April 15 vs. Kansas City, he recorded his 1,500th career hit combined between 11 seasons in Japan and three seasons with the Mariners.

I'm actually working on another post while I'm doing this one. So forgive me if the updates aren't as exact. But I'm going to do my best to keep up.

Game thoughts start here:
10:16 -- Had a little bit of something going, but Ichiro grounds into a double play. And it's over.

10:01 -- Oh my God, I hear the music, "Put me in coach, I'm ready to plaaayy, todaaaay!!" It's Miguel Cairo. He's pinch running for Joh. But he barely gets to stretch his legs as Bloomquist grounds out on the first pitch.

9:52 -- Brian Roberts with a solo shot off of Sean Green. That's not easy to do, considering that Green had only given up four home runs in 111 innings pitched. Roberts is a really good player, I really don't see him being on the Orioles after the trade deadline.

9:43 -- I don't know why Trembley brought in a lefty to face Ichiro. If there's one player that doesn't apply to its him. He hits .324 against righties, and .353 against lefties. And hits .327 against releivers, with most of his RBI coming off them.

9:38 -- Now Snydro, it isn't quite that bad, especially because Ichiro just went yard.

9:29 -- Ah, what might have been. Adam Jones makes the Mariners pay witha double to left-center that was almost a grand slame. Coming into the game, Jones was 0-for-5 in his career with the bases loaded.

9:16 -- Here's an interesting note, Casey Moser was the umpire for the Rainiers opening series this season.

9:08 -- Arthur Lee Rhodes is in a bit of a bind here. I can't remember the last time a Mariners pitcher got Roberts and Mora out back-to-back. Silva did it once yesterday.

And now Arthur's in even more trouble, having basically loaded the bases with the latest walk to Markakis.

And Mac with a little detour to discuss his feelings with home plate umpire Casey Moser, and Mr. Rhodes has a few words as well.

And Mac has been tossed by Moser. He gets a standing ovation from the sparse crowd.

I will say that several of Rhodes pitches were close and the pitch tracker on MLB has them as looking basically like strikes.

8:50 -- From BigSeahawkLoser: Barring a miracle, I don't think Washburn's going past 5 tonight.

And we have a winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!! Washburn's line --- 5 IP, 2 runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts. He threw 97 pitches, with 53 strikes.

8:41 -- This game is dragging along quite slowly. And let's just say it's a wee bit cold here at Safeco Field. I'm going to guess that's the big reason for the lack of people at the game. Announced attendance was 16,727, but it's more like 12,000. I don't think attendace will be a problem tomorrow night with it being Ichiro bobblehead night. Is it ever going to be spring in the Puget Sound? My guess is sometime around July.

8:21 -- Maybe that's not a good indication for your DH, is when you are that surprised that he drove in a runs.

Washburn gets out of a little bit of a jam there. It should be a crime punishable by law to give up a hit to Brandon Fahey.

8:10 --- It's typical, the other post I'm working on is why Jose Vidro shouldn't be the Mariners DH any longer, and wouldn't you know he gets a huge double in that inning. But that doesn't mean I'll be changing my opinion for one second. Good inning for the M's. Not much hitting, but aggressive base running, McLaren said earlier in the day about the need to just get baserunners by any means necessary.

I don’t care how we get on base. Base on balls, base hits, you name it. It puts pressure on the other team. We put the game in motion. We just haven’t had many opportunities. I really don’t think there’s one reason…we’re in one of those cycles where we’re not hitting - McLaren before the game.

7:53--- Washburn gets out of a serious jam, making some tough pitches in some tough situations. You know, I don't want to fault Joh for the throwing error. Jones was being overaggressive and an on-target throw probably gets him. But you also have the No. 9 hitter up, sometimes the easy outs are your best friends. Still, Washburn showed some moxie that inning.

7:34 --- Adrian Beltre with a funk blast (I'll admit that I don't know where the Mariners got that from). I realize it was 3-2, but Adam Loewen just can't center a ball at the knees and not expected it get hit hard. At least it shut up the 60 or so friends and family that are sitting below the press box for a while. Loewen hails north of Seattle in Surrey, BC.

From the baseball rulebook ---
8.05 If there is a runner, or runners, it is a balk when-

I think he made a motion naturally associated with his delivery.

7:23 -- That was a balk on Adam Loewen. The replays show the knee on his front leg crossing his body. More and more lefties balk on their moves to first - Andy Petitte is the worst - but no ump has the stones to call it.

And the Orioles give the Ms a break, by running themselves out of the inning. Washburn gets out of a jam with the strike'em out, throw'em out DP.

The last time O's starter Adam Loewen faced the MAriners, he made it 4 2/3 innings allwoing four runs and four hits, while walking three and striking out four. As a team, the Mariners are hitting .297 against lefties, which is a bonus.

Here's the lineups

Orioles
Roberts 2B
Mora 3B
Markakis RF
Millar 1B
Huff DH
Payton LF
Hernandez, R. C
Jones CF
Fahey SS
------
Loewen P

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Johima C
Bloomquist RF
Betancourt SS
----------
Washburn P

I'm up here early at Safeco trying to get some early bloggin in. A programming note of sorts - Doug Pacey is up here with me kinding of seeing how this is done - he'll be covering the game on Sunday for me as I prepare to head to scenic Cleveland. He'll be able to blog anything of any importance or breaking news. I'll probably be watching the game on TV like the rest of you, so I may offer some game thoughts as well.

Let's get to some linkage, since I've been slacking in that department a little.

* Frome the News Tribune, your newspaper for the South Sound.
* Here's my game story centering largely on Carlos Silva's injury.

* Here's the game notebook that deals with Mike Morse's shoulder injury.

* Here's a story from our tech writer Bill Hutchens about some advances at Safeco for people who can access the wireless network at the game.

From the Baltimore Sun.....
* Here's Jeff Zrebiac's game story on Daniel Cabrera and his growing control.

* Nick Markakis said he wasn't fazed by his high number of strikeouts before yesterday's game, and he even had two in the game, but he also hit the game-winning home run.

* Ken Griffey Jr. hit homer 597 today.

Let's check around the AL West....

* UPDATE 4:56 - the Angels won again, knocking off the Red Sox with a comeback win.

* The Los Angeles Angels roughed up former Bellarmine Prep grad Jon Lester and ended the Red Sox six game winning streak.

* Vlad Guerrero made an adjustment in his stance and it's starting to pay off.

Let's head over the Oakland A's, who signed Frank Thomas as their every day DH, much to the chagrin of some Mariners fans, who would rather jam a hot poker in their eye than see another Jose Vidro at-bat. The A's also signed Giants cast off Rajai Davis as well.

And you know what? Both players contributed in their win earlier today.

And we'll check on the slumping Texas Rangers. And they somehow find a new and disappointing way to lose.

* President Nolan Ryan isn't going to overeact at this point.

Ok, really quick before I start writing my game story.

It was nothing serious with Silva. He felt a slight pinching in the area on the outside of his right thigh. There was no major discomfort, but it was bothersome enough that it made Silva a little afraid to push off the mound. And when he doesn't do that, his pitches stay up.

He said that was the problem he had in the sixth inning a reason why he started getting hard.

"It was more mental," he said. "I was afraid to push off."

He told Mel Stottlemyre about after the sixth and they were watching him closely and they finally decided it was best to pull him after he was favoring it a little in the seventh.

"I said let me finish this inning and he said there’s no reason," Silva said I "don’t want you to get hurt, I think that was smart thing."

Someone asked Silva if he was going to make his next start, and he got his pitcher's mound glare and said emphatically, "I will make my next start."

That guy could play for my team any time.

A crisp early evening here at Safeco Field. They have the roof open because the sun is out. Is it ever going to get to be spring here in the Puget Sound?

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:40 --- That's game the mariners should have won. They had six hits, and only about two of them were hit well.

9:37 --- You know how there are moments in a game, when you could say, man this player would be perfect sub for this moment, well, Raul, gets a lead-off single and they don't have a pinch runner to use, because Cairo can't play the outfield and Bloomquist is already in the game. But if you had Jimerson or Reed on the roster instead of Cairo you could put them in and possibly steal a base to get into scoring poistion. Raul seriously has a two-foot lead off of first.

And that was a classic at-bat for Vidro. Paging Jeff Clement, Paging Jeff Clement you have a telephone call.

9:33 --- the man with the straightest bill in all of baseball - former Mariner George Sherrill - comes into shut the door on his old team.

9:24 -- Wow Snydro firing off a rant in the comment section. I do agree with some of that sentiment. The Mariners seem to be lacking an identity as a team. Raul is a leader but in his quiet way. Guillen brought a certain level of charisma and possible insanity to the clubhouse that had a positive effect. Maybe he was crazy, but it was a good crazy. JJ, Silva and Felix are all pitchers so that leaves them unable to be a complete leaders of the team.

There is a certain edge lacking on this team. They have too many nice guys. They need a few, well, it rhymes with "glass bowls." Not necessarily to the media or fans, but about winning and losing. Guys that simply will not allow certain things to transpire. They need some "glass bowls" when it comes to losing, and not standing for it. They need guys that will get in the face of others when they mess up and make people accountable.

9:06 -- did you know that Daniel Cabrera has a 41-49 lifetime record because right now the Mariners are making him look like Cy Young winner.

8:58 -- Nice job by Sean Green. He's wasn't exactly warm when he got the call to come in. Silva was only at 84 pitches, and had made it to the seventh in every one of his previous starts, so it wasn't as if Green was out getting ready when called upon.

8:45 --- OK this is not good, Silva left the game with an injury of some sort. The stadium television feed showed him pointing toward his right thigh. I'm not sure, when it happened exactly. Maybe when he jumped up and caught that comebacker, or something else. The official word is that he left with tightness in his right thigh. Silva went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. Because Silva left injured, SEan Green got as long as he wanted to warm up.

8:20 -- Would Wilkerson have caught that ball of Mora's bat? Probably not, but maybe since he's played out there before, he gets a better jump on it. But Bloomquist has better speed. This is the price you having a bench guy out there on a regular basis. We're now back to a whole new ballgame.

8:17 -- Unlike my shoddy defensive play in the press box, the Mariners come up with some big defensive plays in the fifth to keep the O's off the board. Raul did a nice job on getting the ball in and a decent relay by Yuni, but the best aspect of the play was Joh fielding the short hop, blocking the plate and making the tag all in a second. You know we watched the catchers work on this for hours upon hours in spring training with coordinator Roger Hansen all over them about doing it right every time. It goes to show that practicing something as mind numbing as that pays dividends in the season.

8:06 -- Alright I just about got hit in the melon with a foul ball off the bat of Kenji Johjima. I made an attempt to catch it but it had a lot of backspin and it bounced off my hands. Here's a picture of it.

Jose Vidro drives in a run with a fielder's choice. But honestly, you have your DH up with bases loaded and the possiblity of a grand slam didn't even enter my mind or anyone elses, there's something wrong with that situation.

7:49 -- Apparently the Orioles don't care much for home plate umpire Brian Runge's strikezone. Nick Markakis and Luke Scott have had plenty to say after being rung up on pitches they felt were low or inside. Now Orioles manager Dave Trembley is also speaking with Runge. To be fair, Runge's zone is a little big, and that will only favor Silva.

7:27 --- The Mariners are off to a good start tonight, that's just solid baseball to get the run. Ichiro leads off, steals second (not a great jump), Lopez moves him to third and Raul scores him with a sac fly.

7:16 --- Happy 29th birthday to today's starter Carlos Silva. His first inning was fairly smooth and his sinker looks to be moving pretty well tonight.

Here's tonight's lineups
ORIOLES
Roberts 2B
Mora 3B
Markakis RF
Millar 1B
Scott LF
Huff DH
Jones CF
R. Hernandez C
L. Hernandez SS
-----------
Cabrera P

MARINERS
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Bloomquist RF
Betancourt SS
----------
Silva P

Even with the surgery to Mike Morse,manager John McLaren said he will continue to use a platoon in right field. As of now, that duty will fall to Willie Bloomquist, who will start today in right because Brad Wilkerson has been bothered by a tight left hamstring. But will also start tomorrow and Friday as Seattle will face left-handed pitchers.

Wilkerson's status is considered day-to-day. And he said he hopes to play tomorrow, but that doesn't seem likely since Baltimore will start lefty Adam Loewen tomorrow.

McLaren didn't exactly say that Bloomquist would be the right-hander in the platoon with Wilkerson permanently, but the Mariners don't have any other options on the 25-man roster. Greg Norton has played right field about 40 times in his career, but he's a little shaky out there. If the Mariners were to go 11-man pitching staff or make a move with one of the other bench players (not likely) they could call up somebody.

Charlton Jimerson is no longer on the 40-man roster so there would have to be maneuvering to call him up. That leaves Jeremy Reed and Wlad Balentien as possible candidates. Balentien is still nursing the sore knee and couldn't come up. And Reed is out because he's left-handed. So it looks like Bloomquist will be playing more than usual - which makes some fans happy, and some fans cringe.

Here's a random question.... What's the difference between Wilkerson and Reed at this point? If you had to choose between Reed or Wilkerson, who would you take? Let's break them down...

or

Hitting: Reed is hitting .276 with the Rainiers. Last year he hit .300 with Tacoma, and in 775 major league at-bats, he's a .253 hitter. It's not great, but at this point it's better than what Wilkerson is doing. The free-agent signee is hitting .178. And I can only remember maybe one or two balls he's hit with any authority. Reed doesn't have much power, but he'll hit from gap to gap and he can bunt a little bit. Wilkerson is supposed to have more power than Reed, but we obviously haven't seen it this season.

Defense: This isn't even close, Reed is far better than Wilkerson defensively. He's got better range, a better arm (Wilkerson's two 22-hoppers to home against the Angels were hardly impressive), and Reed is an aggressive outfielder that can make the tough catch, and would simply get to more balls than Wilkerson could hope to.

Running: Again this isn't close either. Reed is a good baserunner. He doesn't possess overwhelming speed like Jimerson, but he isn't a tortoise on the basepaths. And he runs the bases with intelligence and fearlessness, you could use him in hit-and-runs, and he could even pick up an occasional steal.

Intangibles:By all accounts, and from what I've seen, Wilkerson is good guy that is a tireless worker. He's always taking extra BP and looking at video trying to get out of this slump. But maybe it is just not going to happen. As for Reed, it seems as though his attitude last year after he was sent down and while he was in Tacoma last season, soured opinions in the Mariners front office. Reed could be surly and standoffish last season. Admittedly, he didn't want to be there, but who does? It was a shock for him that I think took a year for him to get over. This season, he seems to be more willing to accept his fate and make the best of it.

Basically the Mariners signed a broke down version of an outfielder they already have. Who would you rather have?

As I wandered around the clubhouse on Tuesday, several writers wondered aloud where Mike Morse was at. He's never one not to be in the clubhouse getting some extra work, or in this case doing extensive rehab.

And now we have the answer - Morse had surgery on his injured left shoulder on Tuesday and is out for the next six months.

The Seattle Mariners issued the following medical update on outfielder Mike Morse today:

Morse, 26, left the game on Sunday, April 13 vs. the LA Angels after landing awkwardly on his left shoulder on a diving attempt to catch a fly ball in right field. An MRI revealed that he dislocated his left shoulder.

Morse underwent surgery yesterday (Tuesday, April 22) at the Seattle Surgery Center. The surgery was performed by Mariners Medical Director, Dr. Edward Khalfayan. Dr. Khalfayan performed a "shoulder reconstruction" to repair damage done by the shoulder dislocating, including a torn labrum. The surgery "went well" according to Dr. Khalfayan.

Morse is expected to require a six month rehabilitation schedule prior to his return to full activity. He should be able to start swinging a bat in approximately four months.

In 5 games this season, Morse was hitting .222 (2x9) with 1 double. He set a new Mariners record by hitting .492 this spring. In his career (107 ML games), Morse is a .300 hitter (90x300) with 18 doubles, 3 homers and 37 RBI.

I honestly don't know who Mike Morse wronged in his other life, because he simply can't get a break. Last year it was the broken bone in the hand that needed surgery, this year it's the shoulder. Bad things happening to a pretty good guy.

A tribute to former Mariner John Marzano. There was also a moment of silence before the game in Marzano's honor.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE
9:32 -- Anybody want to guess what song will be playing in the ninth..

9:27 --- Well, here's Vidro's moment. The walk to Ibanez was intentional, but basically so was the walk to Beltre. If you noticed Guthrie really neer threw a ball in the strike zone that would allow Beltre to get his arms extended. Do you honestly think any team would make a similar move if Frank Thomas was in the box or Clement, who has legitimate home run power was coming up. Probably not.

But Pepe Vidro comes up clutch with a huge single to right to give the Ms a lead.

9:10 --- From TMentz1: "Any hope Wilkerson will hit the DL and open up room for Balentien or Clement?"

Well, Wilkerson has yet to avoid a stint on the DL in the last three seasons, so it is possible. Though a sore hamstring doesn't sound that bad.

Balentien won't be called up for a few weeks. I talked with him yesterday, and the knee is pretty sore and swollen. HE hopes to play this weekend. But I know that the Mariners want to him proceed cautiously. If it was anything immediate, it would probably be Jimerson or Reed since they play outfield. I'm secretly hoping that Clement gets called up soon and Vidro is either benched or sent packing.

9:01 -- Felix has 110 pitches through seven. that's pretty respectable considering he had 58 in the first two innings. The home run to Huff was just a mistake he left out over the plate. Still, looking for some offense from Vidro, who's average will go below the Mendoza line with another empty at-bat.

8:40 --- First of all, I thought Kenji was safe at third, it was a bang-bang play, so not much you can do. Second of all, what the heck was Ramon Hernandez thinking. there's two outs, and that is such a low percentage play. I'm thinking manager Dave Trembley might have a little talk with him in the dugout.

8:31 -- Felix has really settled in and curtailed his pitch count a little. He's at 83 pitches trhough five.

8:11 --- Brad Wilkerson has left the game with a tight right hamstring. Willie Bloomquist has replaced him in right field. I know several fans aren't exactly saddened by the news that Wilkerson is coming out of the game.

7:59 --- From Dave 8557: Although Felix won't go 9 tonight, I hope they let him throw at least 120 pitches to equal or surpass his total from last start. That's how you slowly build stamina.

There's some logic to that thinking indeed.

Felix had a much better inning in terms of pitches. He went the breaking stuff quite heavily. I think he's having trouble locating his two-seam fastball. He only threw 11 pitches in that last inning and is up to 63 for the game.

7:49 --- Felx is at 52 pitches after two innings, at this rate he'll be lucky to go five innings.

7:42 --- A thing to note, Felix is suffering a bit of head cold and flu that Willie Bloomquist had last week, Putz, Beltre and a few others all have it as well. Felix is clearly laboring and he's kind of reverting into his old pouting ways of last year. It's strange because John McLaren spent part of the afternoon briefing talking about Felix's growing maturity and composure.

7:25 --- Not the best start for Felix, not just the run, but the number of pitches. He threw 28 pitches in the innning, so that's going to be an issue later on, and as he reads this, Dave 8557 cringes.

Here's today's lineups..

Orioles
Roberts 2B
Mora 3B
Markakis RF
Millar 1B
Scott LF
Huff DH
Jones CF
R. Hernandez C
L. Hernandez SS
---------
Guthrie P

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Wilkerson RF
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
---------------
F. Hernandez P

UMPIRES
Kerwin Danley HP
Brian Runge 1B
Casey Moser 2B
Greg Gibson 3B

Just wrapped up the pregame chat with Mariners manager John McLaren. the highlights:

It looks like Erik Bedard will soon be activated off the DL later this week. Bedard threw a bullpen session today and will throw one more on Thursday and start in Saturday's game. So the rotation will be Felix today, Silva on Wednesday, Washburn on Thursday, Batista on Friday and Bedard on Saturday.

As for R.A. Dickey, who was demoted when J.J. Putz came off the DL, McLaren said the reason he was sent down instead of Roy Corcoran is so they can use Corcoran in relief until Bedard is officially activated.

I really don't understand what they are doing with Dickey. I really thought he pitched well enough to stay up with the club. McLaren called him "versatile" which is true. You can spot start him, use him in middle innings, pitch him on back-to-back days, and even him in late innings if necessary. Not to mention he's a great clubhouse presence and a quality teammate.

If I made the decisions, I would have designated Cha Seung Baek for assignment and take the chance to see if he clears waivers. He cleared waivers last year, and I think he might again this year. Perhaps somebody that's pitching starved like the Washington Nationals might grab him.

But really, Baek hasn't proven much this season to make teams want him. He's pitched twice, once in relief and one start, neither of which were particuarly sharp. Now, he hasn't pitched in almost two weeks. Why keep him if he's not being used? What role is he filling at this point, other than space on the bullpen bench?

Baek has none of the versatility Dickey has. Basically, Baek can really only spot start, or go long relief, and not much else.

I'm not saying Baek couldn't be of value to the Mariners or to some other team. But right now he is doing little to help this team win games, whereas I think Dickey could.

McLaren said we haven't seen the last of Dickey. Hopefully he returns sooner than later.

The Mariners have activated right-handed pitcher J.J. Putz from the 15-day disabled list and optioned right-handed pitcher R.A. Dickey to Triple-A Tacoma this afternoon.

Putz missed 18 games spending time on the DL for the first time in his career. He was sidelined with mild costochondritis on his right side. Costochondritis is inflammation where cartilage attaches to a rib.

Putz appeared in Seattle’s first two game. After recording a save on opening day, he gave up a game-winning home run to blow his first save opportunity since Aug. 1, 2007.

Dickey, 33, appeared in two games since being recalled from Tacoma on April 14. He was 0-1, 6.43 in seven innings. The knuckleballer started the season at Tacoma where he was 1-1 with a 2.40 ERA (4 ER, 15.0 IP).

During Putz's time on the disabled list, the bullpen combined to go 0-2, 5.54 ERA in 39 innings and was 4-for-5 in save opportunities.

Ok so I wrote a post just like this last night in the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, but I was getting a little annoyed with the 40 or so junior high cheerleaders who were in the vicinity so I got up to move and managed to lose the post. It didn't make me too happy, but it made me far less happy to know that they were on my flight, and I didn't have my iPod.

By the time I arrived, there was no possibility of a "thoughts at 1 a.m." post. So you're getting basically "a thoughts at 1 p.m." instead.

Not a bad road trip all things considered. But had they blown that game yesterday it would have terrible.

UPDATE: Just got done having lunch at the West End, and we watched the replay of the game on FSN, including the last inning. And I can't believe they didn't wring up Garrett Anderson on that check swing. It was so obviousl.

Looking back on the trip, I have a few of my own questions that I'll try to answer myself...

How long can the Mariners wait around for Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson to start producing offensively?
I wouldn't say more than couple more weeks. Many people start off slow in April, it's not uncommon. But the Mariners simply cannot allow the Angels to extend their lead to four or five game because they are losing games because of lack of offense. But those are two major spots of lack of production lineup and how long can you go with that.

So does that mean Frank Thomas is the answer?Not really. John McGrath talks about it in his column today. But Thomas is a bit of a diva, who'll want to play every day without fail. Many people feel that the reason he was benched and then ultimately released is that Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi didn't want to be forced into paying any of Thomas' vast performance bonuses. And a large part of that may be true. But if Thomas was producing consistently, it would have forced the Blue Jays to keep him.

I do think Thomas is on the downside of his career. But then again even his decline he hit .277 with 26 home runs and 95 RBI last season, that's a little more run production than Vidro is apt to give. Still, the Skydome, or whatever the hell they are calling that place today, is a far more hitter friendly for a right-handed power hitter than Safeco. He's hit just five home runs and one double in 129 plate appearances at Safeco. That isn't a horrible number but it isn't great.

I'd rather give Jeff Clement a chance. He's hitting around .400. He knows how to work a count and he's seems a perfect hitter for Safeco.

The Mariners are 10-10 is that good or bad at this point?
I think its pretty good considering the Mariners closer has appeared in two games and their No. 1 starter has only made three starts, and the offense has been struggling at times. If JJ is healthy the whole time, the Mariners probably win at least two of those games they lost. And Bedard? Well, you tell me, sending out Cha Seung Baek or Bedard, who gives you a better chance of winning?

Alright let's get to the links.....

If you read just one story out of this group of links, I recommend this one by Kirby Arnold, the Mariners writer for the Everett Herald. It's not about the Mariners but its about baseball and all that can do for a person in their life. It's a touching story about fathers and sons and baseball.

* Here's my game story from yesterday that leads with Ryan Rowland-Smith's strikeout of Garrett Anderson to end the game.

* The game notebook deals with Wlad Balentien's injury. I'm actually using the off day to head out to Cheney STadium to talk to Wlad and take in some of the Rainiers game.

From the LA Times...
* Here's the game story from the Times.

* The game notebook talks about Torii Hunter's sore big toe that he injured in Seattle and kept him out of the game yesterday.

* From the other day, it appears John Lackey is ready to begin rehab starts and could be back in a week or two.

From the OC Register...
* Yesterday's starter for the Angels, Dustin Moseley, was not pleased with his performance.

Let's check on the Oakland A's...
* Here's a column from Gwen Knapp on Bobby Crosby and his battle with injuries every eyar.

* Columnist Scott Ostler weighs in on Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds as possibilities for the A's

* After looking good in the spring, Keith Foulke hasn't been able to contribute to the A's bullpen.

The Texas Rangers..
* The Rangers were swept by the Red Sox, as the bullpen blew a late lead

Another Balentien update, from the voice of the Rainiers Mike Curto, who talked with Rainiers manager Daren Brown for his radio show before the game. Balentien was on crutches at the field. And here's a quote from Brown...

"X-rays were negative. Right now we think its a bad bruise, but doctors are looking at him and re-evaluating him."

Trying to get the game thoughts a little earlier today....

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
3:37 --- And Ryan Rowland-Smith saves the day with a huge strkeout on Garrett Anderson.

3:34 -- McLaren is not happy with the check swing calls. The second I thought he went around.

3:30 -- Ball four and the bases are loaded, Vlad swung at ball four on the previous pitch, Morrow's two fastball that were called low were clocked at 97 miles per hour. We now have Rowland-Smith in to face Anderson.

3:27 -- And as I say that, McLaren goes with Morrow to face Vlad as the winning run. Rowland-Smith is up warming up in case, Vlad walks to face Garrett Anderson. And we have the rally monkey again, I might have to take back all the comments I said about the monkey.

3:23 --- I can't believe he's walked three guys in this inning, but I don't know that you can trust Morrow's command to come in this spot.

3:17 --- In a game frightfully lacking drama, Mark Lowe has added some by walking the first two hitters he's faced. I'm really surprised that Mike Scioscia hasn't used Torii Hunter to pinch hit. Like for Napoli, who just struck out. He still has another catcher on the bench in Mathis.

Close play on the Figgins chopper, and Scioscia is none too pleased. Replays show that it was a bang-bang play. Does tie go to the runner? Maybe not in this situation. A good play by Lowe though to not mess around with it and get rid of it as fast as possible.

3:07 --- Big strikeout for Rhodes. He did his job. Snydro, I don't know that monkeys eat rally fries. But the Angels ate up Potatoes the last time he pitched against them. Mr. O'Flaherty had a rough outing today with Tacoma so far, he's thrown one inning allowed two hits, two runs, with a walk to Colorado Springs. But you know what I really think that O'Flaherty will be a viable part of the Mariners bullpen soon. There's no question he has talent. It's just a matter of getting his command back and regaining his confidence.

3:00 -- Batista leaves after giving up a single to Garrett Anderson.He threw 110 pitches, 71 for strikes, he allowed eight hits and no runs in 8 2/3 inning. And while Arthur Rhodes warms up to face Casey Kotchman, we get more rally monkey junk. Shoot me and shoot the monkey.

2:54 --- Say it ain't so. It's the rally monkey, oh no, the Mariners are doomed. How can something so stupid be so popular? I'll never understand it.

2:48 -- Batista's pitch count at 101 through seven. No serious action in the Mariners' pen. He has nine strikeouts in the game, the most since April 6, 2006 when he also had nine.

2:30 -- Since you asked Snydro, Batista's count is at 89 pitches with 57 strikes through six.

2:17 --- this one is for you Dave8557.... This was taken from Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com.

If you were thinking that starting pitchers are getting yanked out of games sooner than you've ever seen in your lifetime, well, you are correct.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the percentage of starts which last six innings or less is at a record-setting level right now.
2008: 66 percent
2007: 62.8 percent
2006: 61.4 percent
2005: 56.4 percent
2004: 59.0 percent

In 1968 -- the year of the pitcher -- only 38.2 percent of starts lasted six innings or less.

2:00 - Mojo's Risin, Mojo's Risin. We got some offense going on here. Four straight hits, including Ichiro's triple to center with Willie Bloomquist running on the pitch. Richie with another walk, and we are getting a reliever to face Wilkerson.... and he grounds out weakly to second to drop his average to .163. Umm, yeah. That's not good.

But what can the Mariners do right now? Balentien is hurt, Morse is hurt, that leaves Jimerson and Reed in the minors, or Bloomquist off the bench. I guess they could try and go out and get a guy. Trot Nixon is playing in Triple A and has an opt-out clause at midsseason.

1:41 -- Batista works out of a self-made jam with a big strike out of Garrett Anderson, cue the Kenny G, Miggy is getting pumped.

1:32 -- Aybar with play straight out my summers spent playing fastpitch softball.

And Beltre cleans it up with a nice play. He's got such a strong throwing arm, I often wonder how hard he could throw from the mound just playing catch.

1:28 --- Interesting play on Beltre's ground ball to third. Obviously the contact play was on. Ichiro did a good job of staying hung up long enough for Lopez to get to third, but I really think Beltre should have advanced to second while Napoli continued to dance with Ichiro in foul territory.

Hmm, get No. 1 and 2 hitters on with no outs, and come away with nothing. Mariners' baseball -- the Mojo's Risin.

1:03 --- RICHAAAY!! I honestly don't know how he hit that ball out. Did you see how close his arms were to his body. I mean, not only to hit it, but to hit it out of the park. If he did extends his arms, that's a busted bat ground ball to third.

And oh, wait for it, Brad Wilkerson just doubled down the right field line. "I don't believe what I just saw." Good for Wilkerson maybe this will get him going offensively. Then again, maybe it won't.

Here's the M's lineup.
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
SExson 1B
Wilkerson RF
Johjima C
Bloomquist SS

Mac thought Yuni was getting a little tired and frustrated the last couple games so they'd give him a rest.

Angels
Figgins 3B
Matthews Jr. CF
Guerrero LF
Kotchman 1B
Rivera DH
Izturis 2B
Napoli C
Aybar SS
------
Moseley P

Alright, here's what I know about Wladimir Balentien and his knee injury. Last night, in the sixth inning he was trying to make a sliding catch for a ball in foul territory at Cheney Stadium. Along that area there's small chain linke fence that separates the field from the stands. At the base of the fence, there is about four to five inches of concrete that runs along it. Because of the snow up in Tacoma and some rain earliers, Balentien slid early but went about six to eight feet and slammed into the fence, banging his knee against it very hard. He had to be carried off the field. There was no twisting of the knee or anything like that just a hard collision.

I talked with Bill Bavasi today and he said that the injury is not as bad as first feared, but that the real determination will come from a second evaluation with the doctor sometime today. Bavasi said that if he found out more information on it, he would let us know.

Manager John McLaren told me that x-rays were negative on the knee and that's its just a deep bone bruise. Balentien is on the line-up card in Tacoma today for the day game as a reserve. But he was seen on crutches last night. Most likely with something like this he could be out a week or maybe two at the most.

But really, it kind of comes at a bad time. With Brad Wilkerson struggling and Mike Morse on the DL, Balentien might be somebody the Mariners have to take a look at soon, especially if they continue to be inconsistent offensively.

* As for the release of Frank Thomas, Bavasi couldn't and wouldn't really speak about him, saying he didn't know much about Thomas and how he was playing this season. But he did say that he's more focused on the 25 guys in the clubhouse than anybody out that's available. I'm torn about whether Thomas could help the Mariners. He really wasn't producing that much for the Blue Jays, and the Ms arleady have older guys that aren't producing. If you pick him up, he expects to play every day, and as the story said, he doesn't take well to being benched. At this point, I'd rather give Clement or Balentien a shot at this point.

* Eric O'Flaherty has been moved up to Triple A. He made one appearance for AA West Tenn, pitching two innings and allowing one hit, while striking out two.

I'm kind of liking this late night blogging thing. It allows a few hours for what I just saw earlier in the evening to marinate in my mind a little.

First things first, yes, I heard about the Wladimir Balentien injury tonight. And yes it doesn't sound good. From what I've gathered, he had to be carried off the field after trying to make a sliding catch and colliding with a piece of concrete at Cheney Field. One source says it serious, another says it didn't look anything twisted. It happened in the sixth inning of last night's game in Tacoma.

Let's get to the game tonight ...
As of right now, the Mariners are flawed offensively. There is something wrong when I'm that excited about Greg Norton in the starting lineup. And that's not a knock on Norton, but on what I feel are certain offensive issues that even the most novice fan can see. Norton is a good hitter, and I think he should see more time.

But right now Jose Vidro and Brad Wilkerson are not helping the cause. Vidro is hitting .220 with just three extra base hits, while Wilkerson is hitting .150 in 13 games. They are both good guys, that work hard and are great teammates. But at some point production has to win out. I realize we're still less than 20 games in, but they or the Mariners can't afford this lack of production.

Maybe the lack of offense is just glaring today, since the Angels are leading the AL, hitting .294 as a team. The Mariners are 7th at .260. Seattle's OPS is also just .733 with is just 10th best, the Angels have an .802 OPS which is second in the AL.

About the time I feel like this team could be good, they go out and prove me wrong. But that being said. We aren't even in May yet, so I might need to drop my doom and gloom thinking.

Think about this, where would the M's be without Carlos Silva?

The Angels are better than I thought. Torii Hunter might not be the power hitter everyone thought they needed, but he brings a swagger and some more speed to an already fast team.

WHere does it all leave me? Regretting a few of my postseason picks right now. And desperately hoping the team a I saw extended glimpses of in the spring and at times this season, can find itself.

Sorry for the late start, but I was trying to get my game notebook done a little sooner and took a few moments before the game to hang out with my good friend Rick, who was at the game with his family.

I kept meaning to post updates, but the game was going by pretty quickly, thanks largely to the fact that, 1. Jarrod Washburn works very quickly, and more importantly, No. 2, Ervin Santana is just rolling through the Mariners line-up,

Everyone knows Santana is talented. They always compared him to a young Pedro Martinez in terms of stuff. But he's woefully inconsistent, from reports - a bit flaky, and at times downright frustrating. It's like everybody knows this kid should be good, but himself. But tonight, he's got everything working. The Mariners only hit off of him is a double by Greg Norton.

Washburn hasn't pitched horribly. He's pitched, well, like Washburn. He's going to get hit and give up hits, but you need to make plays behind him. The Mariners have done that for the most part, but haven't been able to make that big play to stop runs from scoring.

Torii Hunter's fourth double in five at-bats against the Mariners in second inning, eventually led to a run on a sac fly. But the most damage has come from light hitters like Erick Aybar, who has two hits, including a soft two-run single to right in the fourth. But as weak as Aybar's little blooper was, the one Chone Figgins looped out to right to score Aybar was even softer. Washbun hasn't been hit really hard, but the balls are falling in. It doesn't matter if he doesn't give up those runs at this point because the Mariners are doing nothing off of Santana.

UPDATES BELOW

7:57 --- Well this game is cliking right along still. Beltre at least helps the Ms avoid a shutout with a solo home run. Richie apparently angered the baseball gods in some way because that was extra bases if Vlad doesn't make that catch.

43,959 at the game tonight, an announced sell-out. it's not completely full, but there are a lot of people here. The Angels fans show up to the park. And tonight was a little cool for their standards with temps in the high 60s. And yes I know its snowing in the Puget Sound right now.

Since I don't have much else to say, here's a link to the Rainiers gamer from yesterday. In it you'll find that Jeff Clement hit a home run
and according to these stats... he's hitting .412.

Former Mariners catcher John Marzano passed away early this morning after falling down his stairs after a possible heart attack at age 45. Many Mariners fans will remember the picture above, when he did what so many people wanted to do -- delivering a beatdown on Paul O'Neill.

Marzano played three years for the Mariners, hitting .251 (82-for-326).

"I was really stunned," a tearful and emotional John McLaren said. "It was like punch to the stomach."

Marzano, who played for the Red Sox, Rangers and Mariners, was in his second season as an on-air personality at MLB.com.

"John was a beloved member of our team, a personable, terrific friend to all with whom he worked," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media. “He was an engaging, informed interviewer. His energy, knowledge of the game and comedic touch produced admirable results. We miss him dearly already."

MLB.com will immediately establish an internship program in memory of Marzano, who in addition to being drafted 14th overall in 1984 earned a spot on Team USA for the Olympics.

"Words cannot describe how sorry we are to have lost John's inspiring presence, but rest assured, his spirit and legacy will always influence us," said Dinn Mann, MLB.com's EVP of Content. "Our prayers go out to his family, his friends and his fans. John simply gave his all every time he went about doing his job and living his life, always grateful, always striving."

A native of South Philadelphia and born on Valentine's Day in 1963, Marzano, a member of the Temple University Hall of Fame, showed tremendous work ethic and determination as a ballplayer and broadcaster.

Marzano played 10 seasons as a catcher in the Majors. The Red Sox weren't the first team to draft him. The Twins picked him in the third round in 1981 out of high school, but Marzano elected to go to college. Marzano reached the big leagues within three years after starring at Temple, playing for Boston from 1987-1992. He was in the Cleveland and Philadelphia farm systems for two years, then, in 1995, appeared in two games for the Texas Rangers. In 1996, he earned a spot on Lou Piniella's Seattle roster and spent three years with the Mariners.

Torii Hunter's catch was the No. 1 play on Sportscenter's daily top 10. I'm not surprised, it was a huge catch at a key moment.

From my vantage point in the press box, I thought it was gone when it left the bat. But it kind of started petering out in the night air at Angels Stadium. Once I saw that Hunter had a pretty good bead on it, I knew it was going to be close.

* How many times have you seen Hunter make a catch like that. It's become almost routine. And because he makes it look so easy, people tend to forget how difficult and what an athletic feat it is. Manager John McLaren said the two best at it that he's seen are Griffey and Hunter, hard to argue with that.

“That’s been his game for a long time,” McLaren said. “The two best for doing that for me are (Ken) Griffey, Jr. and him. It’s athleticism, fearlessness. And he enjoys climbing that fence. He’s done it so many times.”

* How many people thought Richie hit it out? I did. I admit it. I was already to change my whole lead to write about Richie hitting three home runs in one game.

“I thought I got enough of it, and I think it would have been gone,” Sexson said. “But that’s why his glove is made of gold.”

*Despite giving up the two bombs to Sexson, Joe Saunder again pretty much had his way with the Mariners. Even after a rough seventh where everybody hit him hard and Sexson went deep, Saunders walked back out there in the eighth and got the Mariners in order.

“Saunders is tough, right now he’s their best pitcher without a doubt,” McLaren said.

* YOur eyes weren't deceiving you, R.A. Dickeythrew a fastball to Hunter in that first inning that he doubled down the line. It was a 1-2 count and Dickey tried to fool Hunter with something different.

“In retrospect, getting beat on a non-knuckleball pitch in that situation is a no-no for me,” he said. “I flog myself pretty substantially, especially after throwing him a couple really good knuckleballs early that he waved at,” he said.

Dickey showed that he can be a viable option if needed in a spot start.

I also have to admit, that Angels Stadium was pretty rocking on Friday. They had postgame fireworks which always brings fans in. But the place was packed and they were into the game. That stadium was built in 1965 and it must have had more facelifts than Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jerry Jones, Kenny Rogers and Joan Rivers combined. But its a pretty good stadium and a decent place to watch a game.

I met one of my bosses, who was in town visiting his daughter, at Downtown Disney at the ESPN sportszone. They were at the game, part of the handful of Mariners fans there. He said the same thing about Dickey's pitch to Hunter.

I've never been here before, but this little area certainly has plenty to do for a vacationing family.

Tomorrow should be interesting with JJ and Bedard throwing. We'll see how it goes from there. It's 1:18 and I'm out.

Sorry about no posts earlier today. I had a few travel issues, mostly stemming from the fact that I'm a total idiot when it comes to organization and a complete novice when it comes to the logistics of this beat. I could bore you with the details but I won't. It's not even as bad as this.

But I did make the mistake of driving from LAX to Anaheim -- it will never happen again, and it worse traffic that the I-5 corridor in Seattle.

Let's get to a few things quickly... JJ Putz will throw a simulated game tomorrow, no official details other than that. If all goes well, Putz might not even make a rehab appearance and just get ready for next week's homestand. Erik Bedard -- Capt. Personality -- will throw tomorrow as well on the side. But McLaren was a little more hesitant. He will have to have at least two throwing sessions before he steps out there, so one more after tomorrow if things go well. But could Mr. Happy be back before the homestand ends? It's a possibility.

LET'S GET TO THE UPDATES AND THOUGHTS, I'll throw in some links and stuff as we go.

UPDATE 9:02 --- Arthur comes in and gets Anderson, and now it looks like they are going to let him pitch to Hunter. I guess why not, they havent' gotten him out all night. I think they'll pitch him pretty carrifully and if they walk him, he'll take his chances with Kotchman.

WOW, looked like Hunter was going for his fourth double of the night, but Beltre made another great play.

UPDATE 8:55 --- Apparently, Angels fans don't like it too much when Vlad gets hit in the melon. But you know what? If Vlad doesnt' duck down like that instead of just taking it, it hits him in the back, not the head. There was a few tense moments, and it got the Angels up on the top step of the dugout.

This series needs a little bad blood.

UPDATE 8:43 --- little lapse while I was writing, but looked up to see RIICHHHAAAAYYY!! go yard for the second time this game. Maybe Saunders isn't so unhittable. M's got a nice little break when Turbo's pop-up landed in the Bermuda Triangle in right.

UPDATE 8:08 --- Dickey has settled into a nice little rhythm, I'm going to chalk that first inning up to nerves. Either way the Mariners have done little off of Joe Saunders this game.

UPDATE 7:40 -- Richie with a DEEEP home run on a 3-2 count. Most of the season, he's either been walking or striking out with full counts.

UPDATE 7:18 --- Dickey got himself into trouble and Hunter made him pay with a double that cleared the bases. Maybe it's me, but it seemed to take Raul a little too much time to get over there to get to the ball. Dickey gets out with three, not an ideal start, but I don't think anybody had plans that he was going to throw a shutout tonight.

Wow, this has to be one of the smallest crowds I've seen all year, counting spring training and the Stadium High School game I went to the other day.

From tonight's game....

GAME UPDATE -- postgame: Dave8557, I don't know why we don't put the pitch counts with our box scores. We get them from the AP, so maybe they've pulled them, but it is something we as a sports section are omitting ourselves, then I will fight to get it changed. It's one of the most important numbers that I look at. I also wish they kept track of first-pitch strikes.

As for stats of the past, I just don't know that it's fair to hold pitchers to standards of the past, particuarly when they weren't brought up through the system in that manner. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

GAME UPDATE: Morrow looked decent. He even hit 98 one time and more importantly he didn't walk anybody.

GAME UPDATE: From Snydro22:How many pitches did Silva throw tonight? Silva threw 98 pitches tonight, 65 of them were strikes. It looks like we'll see Morrow's first game action for the Mariners next inning.

GAME UPDATE 9:12 --- Now before Dave8557 loses his mind about Silva coming out. Silva probably could have gone more, but some of the relievers need to get a little game work to be sharp --- case in point Rowland-Smith just walked a guy. They need some game work and since it is 8-1, this is a good time. Had it been 4-1, Silva stays in.

GAME UPDATE 9:02 --- Cue the music: "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play, today!" We have a Miguel Cairo sighting. That means now with an 850,000 contract and his five games played, he's at 170,000 a game.

GAME UPDATE 8:52: Say what you want about Carlos Silva, and his mammoth contract, but he's been the Mariners best offseason acquisition in a walk.

GAME UPDATE 8:47: Raul Ibanez has his fourth three-hit game of the season. A big thanks to prep guru Doug Pacey, again, for not starting him this week in our fantasy league. It just goes to show how beat up Raul was last year. I mean when he's healthy he's a viable hitter. His defense isn't fantastic. But you have to make some sacrifices.

Oh and the five runs in the third is the most in one inning this season.

GAME UPDATE 8:01: Thank you Lenny Dinardo, for providing that time-sapping, enthusiasm draining inning. I think it might have scared off a few hundred fans, which might be about half of this crowd.

GAME UPDATE 7:45 -- Turbo, er, Vidro comes up with a base hit to score two runs. I notice he was limping pretty good to first base. No idea what that's all about, but he doesn't need anything to make him slower.

GAME UPDATE 7:23: This is how aware I am, I just realized the A's were wearing Black uniforms.

Oh and Ken Griffey, Jr. hit homer No. 596 today....here's a link to a story.

GAME UPDATES 7:16: Travis Buck, a Tri-Cities kid, needs a haircut, but I will say this, I like his walk up song, "Play the Game," by Motorhead. At one time, it was also the entry music Triple H in WWE. Why do I know things like that I have no idea, but its sad and frightening.

A few lineup changes today. Richie Sexson's shoulder and groin are a little sore and Manager John McLaren wanted to rest him a little. So Greg Norton will get the start at first. As expected, Brad Wilkerson will not start because the A's are going with lefty Lenny DiNardo. Willie Bloomquist will get the start in right field.

One thing to watch for tonight with Silva pitching is for the A's to be a little more aggressive than normal. Usually, the A's following Billy Beane's organization-wide edict, will take pitch after pitch, trying to work counts and draw walks. That usually doesn't work against Silva, who pounds the strike zone early and often.

Silva comes in 3-2 with a 3.12 ERA against the A's in his career, but he's struggled at the eyesore known as the McAfee Coliseum with a 0-2 record, but with a 2.70 ERA.

Here's some more odds and ends... courtesy of Jeff Evans, Mariners Director of Baseball Information and Peninsula High grad (we won't hold that against him).

* Ichiro is a career .362 hitter (104-for-287) in 67 games at the McAfee Coliseum, of course it was also called Oakland Alameda at one time, and Network Associates Coliseum. It's the second highest average among active players. The highest belongs to Nomar Garciaparra at .367 (51-for-139). But can you really count Nomar, who was always a favorite of mine, to be an active player. I mean he's an active player that's usually on the disabled list.

I will never forgive Al Reyes for hitting Nomar on the wrist. It effectively ruined his career. He was never the same hitter. Speaking of Garciaparra's...

Hey remember when the Mariners drafted Michael Garciaparra with a sandwich first-round draft pick in 2001? Ahh that was some foresight. Great pick for the Mariners. He's actually playing for Double A Bowie Baysoxx (Orioles organization)

Did you know David Wright of the Mets went two picks later? How does that feel?
Here's some players that were also taken after GArciaparra.... Dan Haren, JJ Hardy, Ryan Howard and Luke Scott.

Here's their line-up
Suzuki CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Norton 1B
Johjima C
Bloomquist RF
Betancourt SS
-----
Silva P

The A's lineup
Buck RF
Ellis 2B
Barton 1B
Cust DH
Brown LF
Crosby SS
R. Sweeney CF
Suzuki C
Hannahan 3B
-----
DiNardo P

We're coming to you poolside from the Oakland Downtown Marriott. It's about 78 degrees out (sorry for mentioning that). But the real reason we're poolside is that my wireless Verizon card works a little better out here.

A solid effort by the King last night. Geoff Baker and I and a couple guys from the Oakland papers went out after the game and were discussing, well, sports and baseball: Felix, Bedard, Wilkerson's lack of hitting, Oakland's punchless lineup, how many times Jack Cust can strike out in a year, the Sonics' situation, the fate of newspapers – you know, just random banter.

But one thing I came away with was we all kind of agreed that to try to predict how good this Mariners team is right now is a total waste because of the injuries. They have two appearances from Putz, and two starts from Bedard, and they just got Rhodes and Morrow healthy. Once we see Seattle have its full pitching staff for about a three-week stretch, we can make a better determination of this team.

Offensively, I still have some doubts. They had 12 hits last night off Blanton - who is like Carlos Silva in that he is going to give up hits - but they needed to have score than four runs. No way that game should have been as close as it was.

But young Felix is steadily turning into just Felix. There's a point in a lot of guys' careers where you can say, "OK, this guy gets it." I think we're seeing that with Felix. The poise on the mound, which I wrote about in my game story....

Here's a few other notes from last night's game ....

Felix is now 7-2 with a 2.10 ERA in nine starts against the A's. And he is 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA in five starts against the A's at McAfee Coliseum. He has a five-game winning streak against the A's and he's beaten them more than any team in his career. His ERA this season has gone down to 1.47.

Kenji Johjima snapped an 0-for-19 streak on the road and now has a five-game hitting streak that pushed his average to .244.

Jose Vidro has a four-game hitting streak and upped his average to .224.

With an 0-for-4 performance last night, Brad Wilkerson's average dropped to .134. And I think we'll see either Bloomquist or Norton in the lineup tonight against lefty Lenny DiNardo. This is where Mike Morse's shoulder injury not only hurts the team, but robs him of a chance to play and make a push for more playing time.

Let's get to a few more links...Here's the game story from the SF Chronicle....

The Royals edged the Angels last night 3-2...

The A's plans for a move to a new stadium have been delayed...

We're live from the McAfee Coliseum which is sparsely populated, despite it being a beautiful night for baseball. Temps were in the low 70s today, which is far warmer than the Puget Sound area in recent weeks.

UPDATES

GAME UPDATE 9:13--- And Felix goes back out with 109 pitches. I'll admit I'm a little surprised, just because of the way McLaren has handled the staff thus far. And Dave8557 I don't perpetuate the need of a 12-man staff, but I know how McLaren manages so I think he needs to have the extra guy. Also, if Felix allows, even one baserunner, he's coming out.

GAME UPDATE: 8:56 --- Here's the Rainiers stats.... coming into tonight Jeff Clement is batting .419 with four doubles, three homers and 11 RBI.

GAME UPDATE 8:50 -- Felix is at 89 pitches, I think we all know what Dave 8557 thinks should happen in the next few innings. You have to kind of applaud Blanton for gutting it up and fighting through this. He's given up 12 hits in seven innings, and his team is only down 4-1 and he's out there still fighting.

And it appears that of the Mariners 12 hits, Brad Wilkerson will have none of them.

GAME UPDATE 8:36 -- The Mariners have 11 hits and just four runs, that's not a great ratio. The warm weather has not helped Wilkerson tonight. I don't know how comfortable McLaren is with Greg Norton playing in right field, which he has done 35 times in his career. But Oakland is going with lefty Lenny DiNardo tomorrow, so there is a possibility McLaren goes with Willie Bloomquist, since Norton is a much better hitter from the left-hand side than the right-hand side.

GAME UPDATE: Since I have nothing really to report from this game other than Yuni getting thrown out on a steal, I thought I'd relay a little clubhouse fun. Apparently, a four Mariners applied for elk hunting tags in my home state of Montana, where there is some of the best elk hunting in the world. Anyway, Norm Charlton, Willie Bloomquist and Mark Lowe all got tags, but Jarrod Washburn was the only one not to. And he wasn't too happy. In true Charlton fashion, Norm taped up a sign in Washburn's locker that read, "Montana Elk Hunting Permit For Sale" in big letters. You can imagine Washburn wasn't too happy on arriving and seeing the sign. And he knew immediately who did it. He ripped the sign off and glared at a smiling Charlton.

Now it may not seem like a big deal to some people, but for hunting fanatic it's big to Washburn.... here's an example of the elk you can get --- this is my buddy Andy Carlson (a former Auburn High Trojan)

GAME UPDATE: I have to admit that at the ripe old age of 32, some of Dave 8557's references are little before my time. But I still read them anyway.

GAME UPDATE: I have two things wrong with that last play. The first is Felix sticking his bare hand out there. I realize he's competitive, but a broken finger does the Mariners no good. And second, what was Yuni thinking. He had no play whatsoever, not even if John Goodman with a broken leg was running. Just mindless and stupid.

GAME UPDATE: From KurtisBallard: I think that first inning of work is telling of where felix is at in his career. in the past, those two cheap hits would have frustrated him and he would have begun pressing, going for that big strikeout, which inevitably would result in some runs for the opposing team. instead, he calmly laughed it off and got two outs with his next pitch.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

GAME UPDATE: Solid start for the Mariners, getting some early runs off of Blanton. He looked like he was just leaving pitches out over the plate. Of course, it's kind of hard to tell since we're like seven miles from the field in this press box. ..... yes, I'm complaining.

Here's today's line-ups
Suzuki CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Wilkerson RF
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
---------
Hernandez P

Oakland
Buck RF
Ellis 2B
Barton 1B
Sweeney DH
Cust LF
Crosby SS
R. Sweeney CF
Suzuki C
Hannahan 3B
---------
Blanton

J.J. Putz can feel his return getting closer and closer every day. He threw his second bullpen today and "felt good."

The session was 10 minutes and Putz threw 41 pitches, throwing fastballs and splitfingers. And now, it looks like he will graduate from bullpen to simulated game.

"It's not set in stone, but depending how I feel, hopefully we’ll do a simulated game Saturday in Anaheim," he said. "After that I have no idea."

Manager John McLaren just smiled when he was told about Putz letting the secret out about the simulated game.

As for his latest session...

"It felt really good," he said. "I was lot more sharp than I was the first time, obviously."

The simlated game doesn't seem like a major step up from a bullpen, but there is the added incentive of someone standing in the batter's box.

"It's just having the hitter," he said. "In a bullpen, you can have someone stand in, but when you know they are going to swinging, it increases the level a bit."

McLaren did say they won't activate Putz when he will be eligible on Thursday. Putz is hoping for sometime next week.

"I would think that I have Saturday's simulated game and we have an off day on Monday," he said thinking ahead.

Until then, he will continue to rehab and torment his teammates with practical jokes to fill his day.

"I’m really, really excited to get back," he said. "I’m bored out of mind."

The Mariners re-signed outfielder Charlton Jimerson to a minor league (AAA) contract.

Jimerson will join Triple-A Tacoma in time for Thursday's game in Fresno.

Jimerson, 28, was designated for assignment by the Mariners on April 11. He cleared waivers and Seattle outrighted his contract to Triple-A Tacoma. Jimerson declined the assignment and chose to become a free agent. The Mariners today re-signed him to a minor league contract.

Jimerson appeared in two games with Seattle this season, and was 0-for-1 with a run scored.

The Mariners recalled right-handed pitcher Brandon Morrow on Wednesday, taking Erik Bedard's place on the active roster.

Morrow will be in uniform and available for tonight's game at the Oakland Athletics.

Morrow, 23, began the season with the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx, Seattle's Double-A affiliate in the Southern League. He pitched in six games, and did not allow an earned run (0-0, 0.00), striking out eight in 7.1 innings. But the only negative aspect is that Morrow also walked six hitters.

Morrow said he's feels good and is available tonight, in any situation.

"Oh yeah, whatever they need me for," Morrow said.

He believes that the command issues that plagued him late in spring have been taken care of.

"It’s a lot different now," he said. "We worked on a lot of stuff down there and it’s all been real good. I’ve been throwing a lot more strikes and feeling lot better with all my stuff."

One of the things Morrow worked on was his secondary pitches - his slider and his change-up.

"I was throwing mys changup up a lot," he said. "My last outing I threw like 6 or 7 changepus and my slider I was throwing really well the whole time down there."

While it's easy to think only about Morrow's plus 95-mile per hour heat, a better change-up will be good for left-handed hitters who want to load up the fast ball, and the slider is a big against right-handers.

As for his stint in the minors - the first extended one of his career - Morrow was glad to be back in the big leagues.

"My first trip, we flew into Jacksonville and road the bus 13 hours to Jackson, Tennessee," he said. "I was ready to be back about six hours in."

Morrow spent the 2007 season, his rookie year, with Seattle. He was 3-4, 4.12 ERA in 60 appearances.

Mariners manager John McLaren said after Tuesday's game that R.A. Dickey will start on Friday against the Los Angeles Angels.

Dickey, a knuckleballer who was impressive this spring (2.25 ERA), takes the spot occupied by Erik Bedard, who was placed on the DL before Tuesday's game.

The Mariners will also make a roster move to add another pitcher for Wednesday. McLaren hinted the player is likely to be a pitcher, which makes sense. Going with 11 pitchers seems like a risky move right now, so the 12th pitcher is likely to be added.

From the Mariners PR staff:

MARINERS NOTES:

* Jose Vidro extended his hitting streak to four games with a double to right field in the second inning. He also scored his 700th career run.

* Kenji Johjima went 3-for-4. His double to left field in the fifth inning, was the 1500th hit of his career, he had 1,206 while in Japan, and now has 295 hits as a Mariner. He now has 1,501 career hits.

* Kenji Johjima finished the series 5-for-7 with two doubles, two runs, two RBI, and is now hitting .467 (14-for-30) at Safeco Field this season. On the road, he is 0-for-19.

* Every Mariner reached base safely at least once and also either scored or drove in a run. Five players (Ichiro, Vidro, Sexson, Johjima, Bloomquist) scored twice.

* Willie Bloomquist made his first start of the season. As the right fielder, he reached base safely in all four of his plate appearances with two hits, two walks, two runs scored and one RBI.

* Jose Lopez tied a Major League record with three sacrifice flies in one game; which had been done 11 times in Major League history. Edgar Martinez was the last player to do so back on Aug. 3, 2002 vs. Cleveland.

* The five sacrifice flies by the Mariners ties a major-league record.

* The 11 runs scored are a season-high for the Mariners. The four runs scored in the fifth inning were a single inning season high for Seattle.

* Ichiro Suzuki extended hitting streak against Kansas City to 26 games dating back to April 14, 2005 hitting .462 (49x106) 23 runs, 6 doubles, a triple, 3 home runs, and 21 RBI including 19 multi-hit games. It’s his longest hitting streak against any team in his career.

* Arthur Rhodes made his season debut today; it was his first Major League appearance since Sept. 9, 2006.

ROYALS NOTES:

* Tony Pena started the series in a 0-for-23 slump, but went 4-for-7 during his visit to Safeco Field.

* Billy Butler had his career high 13-game hitting streak snapped today by going 0-for-3 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI. He had been hitting .375 (18x48), which was the longest current streak in the Major Leagues.

FYI: I posted a story earlier about Erik Bedard feeling better but probably not being able to make his Friday start. Now, less than an hour before Tuesday's game, the Mariners are saying Bedard is heading to the 15-day disabled list.

It's a good move just because the team can post-date Bedard's placement on the DL to April 9, the day after his second start of the season. Add 15 days and you get April 24 when he's eligible to come back (the last game of a Safeco Field series vs. Baltimore), which should give him some time to allow the inflammation in his left hip to quiet down.

Plus, the team won't have to be short a pitcher in the meantime. The Mariners will likely add another arm – Brandon Morrow maybe? – for Wednesday's game in Oakkland.

Anyway, here's some of that first post I had...

Erik Bedard played catch Tuesday and said his ailing left hip feels better.

"We're going day-by-day so I can't say I'm going to throw a bullpen on Friday or Saturday or whenever," Bedard said. "We'll take it day-by-day and see how it goes.

"It's always encouraging when it starts feeling better."

Manager John McLaren said it's too early to "plug him into a spot" in the rotation. He said he needs Bedard to throw again and have a side session before starting a game. He said he needed to talk to pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre about Friday's starting pitcher although it's likely to be R.A. Dickey.

Bedard missed his schedule start on Sunday with inflammation in his left hip. It's the second time he's had the condition this season after his hip forced him to postpone his a start in Baltimore two days.

He said his hip feels better than it did in Baltimore. As far as the injury lingering, he said a big test is how it feels after he makes his next start, whenever that is.

"We'll see after my next start. If it hurts still, maybe it will drag on. I don't know," Bedard said.

And if it does hurt, then what?

"I think rest is the only thing that will help it," Bedard said.

Alright, I'm here live in the press box, and it's f-f-f-freezing here at Safeco. I can't think of a game that's been colder, even Baltimore. It's never a good thing when you can see your breath in the first inning.

I'm also way behind on my stuff for the paper. I volunteered to write a separate story on Erik Bedard for the paper. Just a small update. Usually that entails actually talking with Captain Personality, but that wasn't happening. He walked by me one time and I should have grabbed him, but didn't get the chance. And after that, he was kind of hiding out -- know how I know? Because he came walking out of the training room, saw me and a couple reporters standing in the hall waiting for him, and shook his head and walked back in and waited the extra 10 minutes until the clubhouse was closed to the media. Oh well, I set the expecations pretty low so I wasn't exactly disappointed, but I basically wasted an hour standing around waiting for him to come out. So that's where we are with that.

No real news. Manager John McLaren offered little news, other than Bedard told him, "he feels good." So the problem appears to just be in the hip area, not the jaw.

Mike Morse has a dislocated shoulder. He's not in the sling which is a good thing, but you can tell it's sore and bothering him. I talked with a little bit, he's trying to stay upbeat. You have to feel bad, at some point the guys is bound to catch a break. I've gotten some questions in the comments and in e-mail, I'll try to answer them as the game goes on.

GAME UPDATES BELOW

GAME UPDATE 9:19: Here's something to give you the gag reflex a little.... George Sherrill picked up his sixth save of the season and Adam Jones got three hits for the Orioles......

GAME UPDATE 8:28: OWWWW! I don't care that Jarrod Washburn doesn't throw that hard, if you get hit where Grudzielanek did, it hurts and hurts bad. Especially because it feels like the Arctic Circle outside now.

GAME UPDATE 8:16: Sorry I'm lagging behind, but had to get a few things done. I didn't see the speed of the pitch Washburn threw to Olivo, I wondered if it was one of those change-ups that didn't sink.

The Mariners made four roster moves Monday, selecting the contract of veteran left-handed pitcher Arthur Rhodes from AA West Tenn and recalling right-handed knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey from AAA Tacoma.

Outfielder Mike Morse has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a dislocated left shoulder. Left-handed pitcher Eric O'Flaherty has been optioned to AA West Tenn.

Rhodes and Dickey will be in uniform and available for tonight's game vs. the Kansas City Royals.

"With the injuries we've had our pitching is a little beat up," Mariners manager John McLaren said.

"Going to 12 pitchers will allow us some more protection while we battle through this stretch. Both Arthur and R.A. were very good this spring, and have thrown the ball well in the minors, and we think giving Eric some time to straighten himself out will benefit him, and us, this season."

Rhodes, 38, spent nearly two weeks in Peoria, Arizona at the Mariners extended spring training, before joining AA West Tenn this week. In one appearance with the Diamond Jaxx, he allowed 1 ER in 0.1 IP. Rhodes was 0-0, 1.93 in 5 spring training games this year.

He missed all of the 2007 season recovering from "Tommy John" surgery on his left elbow. The surgery was performed May 2, 2007 by Dr. Lewis Yocum.

Rhodes has a career mark of 75-60, 4.31 in 653 big league games (61 starts) with Baltimore (1991-99), Seattle (2000-03, 2007), Oakland (2004), Cleveland (2005) and Philadelphia (2006). He is 26-15, 3.07 in 276 career appearances with the Mariners.

Dickey, 33, has made two starts with AAA Tacoma, compiling a 1-1, 2.40 mark. In 15.0 innings pitched, he's allowed just 4 earned runs and struck out 11 while walking only 1. Opponents are hitting just .182 against him.

Dickey, the PCL Pitcher of the Year in 2007, has a career mark of 16-19, 5.72 in 77 games (33 starts) with the Texas Rangers (2001-06). He has appeared in just one Major League game (his only appearance in 2006) since converting fulltime to the knuckleball.

Morse, 26, left Sunday's game after landing awkwardly on his left shoulder on a diving attempt to catch a fly ball in right field. An MRI revealed that he dislocated the shoulder. In five games this season, Morse was hitting .222 (2x9) with 1 double. He set a Mariners record by hitting .492 this spring.

O'Flaherty, 23, appeared in seven of Seattle's first 13 games this season, but allowed runs in 6 of them. He is 0-1, 20.25 after allowing 15 earned runs in 6.2 innings.

Mariners left fielder Raul Ibañez has been named the American League co-player of the week with Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Brian Bannister. The award is the fourth of his career and third as a Mariner.

Ibañez, 35, hit .370 (10-for-27) with seven runs scored, three doubles, a triple, four home runs and 11 RBI helping lead the Mariners to a 4-3 record. He also drew five walks (four intentional) and reached base in 15 of his 32 plate appearances. His eight extra base hits (27 total bases) gave him an AL-best 1.000 slugging percentage over the last week.

Through 13 games this season, Ibañez is batting .327 with five home runs and 13 RBI. He leads the AL in slugging percentage (.755), extra base hits (10) and intentional walks (five), and ranks second in home runs (five) and is tied for secnd in RBI (13).

Ibañez also earned the award on Aug. 13, 2007 and Sept. 25, 2006 (co with Torii Hunter), and with the Royals on July 21, 2002.

Ibañez becomes the 58th all-time selection for Player of the Week in franchise history. Edgar Martinez is the club leader with seven selections as AL Player of the Week.

A big thanks to Darrin Beene for covering the game for me, so I could take the day off and try to restore a bit of order to life before going on the road Wednesday.

A programming note.... I will be covering the game tonight and obviously blogging from Safeco Field. Darrin is going to work the game Tuesday so I can get ready for the road trip.

As he mentioned in his game story here.... R.A. Dickey is being called up and most likely O'Flaherty will be sent to Triple A. It's not really a surprise. I thought Dickey would be called up after the first road trip. Dickey was supposed to start today, so he's on full rest and will be available immediately. I actually found out about this last night, but I made a promise not to turn on my computer for fear of a 10,000 word rant after watching the game on TV yesterday.

The Bedard hip issue is concerning. Along with the injury to Morse, and Beltre's nagging injury, it's kind of piling up.

I've got a meeting with our budget analyst to go over my expenses, so I'll offer some more thoughts later.

MARINERS NOTES:

The Mariners won thre of their first four series of the season, something they had not done since 2002 by the team that opened the season 17-4.

Raul Ibañez doubled in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak against the Angels to 12 games dating back to 7/31/07. During the streak Ibanez is batting .417 (20x48) with 12 runs, 4 doubles, a triple, 4 home runs, 12 RBI and seven multi-hit games. He finished the series hitting .538 (7x13) with five runs scored and nine RBI.

With his 10th extra base hit this season Ibanez leads the AL and ranks second in the Major Leagues (Berkman, Hou, 11).

The Mariners pitching staff allowed season highs by giving up 16 hits and 10 runs.

Today’s was the first start in which a Mariners starting pitching threw less than 5.0 innings this season.

Richie Sexson recorded his 11 th walk of he season, and now has walked in seven of his last eight games.

Greg Norton made his Mariners debut, pinch-hitting in the sixth inning for Mike Morse. Norton started his Mariner career on a high note, hitting a bases-loaded single and driving in the Mariners first run of the game. He also added a second hit from the left side of the plate, giving him a hit as both a left- and right-handed hitter.

=> Read more!

The way Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz is healing from strained cartilage in his rib cage, a rehabilitation assignment in the minors may not be necessary.

Putz said everything felt great after throwing for six minutes from a mound on Sunday at Safeco Field and said everything felt great.

If Putz doesn’t have any soreness, a simulated game could be scheduled soon. Trainers, manager John McLaren and J.J. Putz will meet today and plot the next step.

Putz, who is eligible to come off the disabled list on Thursday, said he’s raring to go and would pitch in the minors if that’s what the team recommends. He’s not sure that will be needed, however.

“With only seven days off from not pitching to throwing again I don’t think you are really going to lose too much,” said Putz, who came through a rigorous long-throwing session on Saturday with no problems.

“I’m still able to do shoulder exercises to keep everything strong. We’ll see.”

Putz said he threw at about 80-85 percent effort and used all of his pitches. Because Putz is used mostly one inning at a time, McLaren could envision Putz skipping a stint in the minors.

“I don’t think it’s necessary if he feels OK,” McLaren said. “We’ll just take it stage-by-stage, day-by-day.”

In Putz’s absence, Miguel Batista, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Mark Lowe have recorded saves. That gives the Mariners four saves – Putz had one on opening day – by four different pitchers.

Besides the Mariners scratching their scheduled starter today, they've also put Adrian Beltre on the bench because of a "slight leg problem," according to manager John McLaren.

So – and many of you have been waiting for this moment – Miguel Cairo starts at third base. If you're wondering where Willie Bloomquist is, he's at the park, unlike the past few days when he was battling flu-like symptoms. The guess is he's a still a little weak to be playing nine innings, but he might be available should the Mariners need him.

Also note the Angels have given Torii Hunter the day off. Hunter DH'ed on Saturday instead of playing CF because of a toe injury.

Anyway, the lineups:

ANGELS
Figgins, 3B
Matthews Jr., CF
Vladimir, RF
Anderson, LF
Kendrick, 2B
Kotchman, 1B
Rivera, DH
Mathis, C
Aybar, SS

Suanders, P

MARINERS
Ichiro, CF
Lopez, 2B
Ibanez, LF
Sexson, 1B
Vidro, DH
Morse, RF
Cairo, 3B
Burke, C
Betancourt, SS

Baek, P

Just got to the park a short while ago and learned that Mariners starter Erik Bedard will not pitch the series finale against the Angels because he's bothered by inflammation of his left hip, the same injury that knocked him out of a start in Baltimore earlier this season.

In his place the Mariners will start Cha Seung Baek, who has pitched just once this season. Baek gave up three runs in one inning against the Orioles on April 4 --- that's nine days ago if you're counting.

Bedard wasn't around that I saw so we're left with what manager John McLaren had to say about the injury. McLaren said he doesn't consider this a serious issue but one the team does not want to become one. He said he learned Bedard was struggling with the hip injury on Friday and that they thought the medication would help him like it did previously.

However, Bedard told him he still felt something this morning so the decision was to postpone the start. McLaren said he hoped Bedard felt good enough to throw a bullpen on Monday.

Also, McLaren said Bedard has been bothered by this condition previously. He said it happened eight years ago and that the inflammation came-and-went but was not ever present.

Bedard has made two starts so far, going 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA in 11 innings. He's struggled with walks, giving up eight in that span.

Let's get it going, Carlos Silva's on the mound and working fast

GAME UPDATE 9:43: Good win for the M's, they' won the first series against the Angels, which only happened once last season. Fpr Dave 8557, Silva was supposed to go back in for the ninth. That was the plan and he wanted to. But when Raul hit the home run to go up five, Stottlemyre felt like there was no need to run him out at that point, up five.

GAME UPDATE 8:26: RAUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLL is scorching!!!! An opposite field homer? Wow.

GAME UPDATE 8:08: That's Gary Matthews Jr. third straight 4-6-4 double play he's hit into in this game. Vla

GAME UPDATE 7:58: Wow, it's funny how things work out, the Angels DH Torii Hunter tonight and it hurt them defensively for obvious reasons. But there were a couple balls that Garrett Anderson couldn't get to in left field that Gary Matthews Jr. would have got and there were a couple plays in , center that Matthews Jr. didn't make that Hunter might have. Including letting the ball get by him on Ichiro's single. Good aggressive third-base coaching by Sam Perlozzo on that play.

Here's why Hunter is DHing tonight, apparently he hurt his toe collding into the wall.

GAME UPDATE 7:36: Turbo with another RBI single, that's two for the game. To put it nicely, Garrett Anderson doesn't have a throwing arm quite like Ichiro.

And that lead's to RICHIE and a funk blast to center. Sexson seems to be seeing the ball better this season. If you notice when he isn't, he has the habit of looking back at the ump to see if he's going to call it a ball or strike. In the last week, he never looks back because he knows what the pitch is.

GAME UPDATE 7:10: Silva gives up a two-run homer to Casey Kotchman, that pitch was pretty low, I'm amazed Kotchman was able to hit it out.

GAME UPDATE 6:59: Richie Sexson had one of the best and most honest quotes last week when Geoff Baker from the Times asked him if he it bothers him when somebody intentionally walks a batter to get to him.

"It's good strategy," he said. "Come on, Geoff, I hit .205 last year. I'd do the same thing if I was managing."

Pretty humble stuff for Richie.

He's up again with bases loaded after the Angels walked Vidro to get to him. And that won't get a run in, but he didn't get booed.

GAME UPDATE: 6:34: Why do teams continue to run on Ichiro? It makes no sense. I mean the guy has a cannon for an arm. And yet people continually test it. Hey its your waste of an opportunity. That was an absolute seed the threw.

I couldn't find the throw against Oakland.

GAME UPDATE: Most baseball players don't have entourages... but this is a great article about them in the Wall Street Journal. YOu should give it a read.

GAME UPDATE 6:19: RAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLL is absoutletely on fire, en fuego, whatever you want to call it. An RBI triple from Raul? I know I've joked about looking for large meteors crashing into the earth after strange things, but Raul getting a triple. That thing in the sky isn't a meteor, it's a comet headed right for Safeco Field. Let's see, Raul in his last five at-bats has a double, two homers, a triple and four RBI and my co-manager in my media roto league, Doug Pacey, left him on our bench this week. Way to go Pacey, if you weren't so busy "waving the wheat" and screaming Rock, Chalk Jayhawk, we'd had him in there.

An RBI single for Turbo, er, Vidro and another single from Richie. Exactly what did the Angels trade for Jon Garland? A bucked of baseballs and a used pine tar rag? Oh wait, they traded him for all-star shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Nice work.

GAME UPDATE: 1-2-3 from the big man. It says Carlos weighs 240 pounds in the media guide. Yeah, he might have weiged 240, at one point in his life. Early in his life. Big Carlos admitted he was closer to 260 to 265.

I know I mentioned this before, but he ate four "quadruple" burgers from In-and-Out Burger one day in spring training. I don't care who you are, that's impressive.

It's a beautiful afternoon at Safeco Field. The sun is out, it' about 65 degrees, it simply couldn't be better for baseball. It's about half hour before game time and the stadium isn't too full, but that could be from the massive traffic issues from the appearance of the Dalai Lama - long hitter the Lama - at Qwest Field.

That movie still holds up over all these years.

Let's get to the links, no not those links, these links...
* A big thanks for Darrin Beene for covering the game last night, here's his story.

* And here's the notebook I wrote on the Norton and Jimerson moves.

Here's how the opposing team's papers covered the game ....

* From the LA Times, here's Mike DiGiovanna's game story. It appears John Lackey is getting better every day and could be back in the line-up in mid-May.

* From the Orange County Register..... here's Bill Plunkett's game story.

Here's the Angels' fan blog... called Halo Heaven if you want to see what Angels fans think of the Mariners.

Elsewhere....
* Yes, the Oakland A's are in first place.... they worked over CC Sabathia yesterday.
* Eddie Guardado has been placed on the disabled list with a sore shoulder.

* Too many mistakes for the Rangers in their loss to the Blue Jays

* If you have Evan Longoria on your bench Fantasy baseball, you might want to start him, because he's starting today.

Here's the lineups ....
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Virdo DH
Sexson 1B
Wilkerson RF
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
-------
Silva P

Angels
Figgins 3B
Matthews Jr. CF
Guerrero RF
Anderson LF
Hunter DH
Kotchman 1B
Kendrick 2B
Napoli C
Aybar SS
---------
Garland P

Umpires:
Jim Reynold - HP
Tim timmons 1B
Gary Cederstrom 2B
Fieldin Culbreth 3B

Well it's game time here at the Safe and the anticipation is palpable. TEmp is 57 degrees at game time which is good because Felix says he loves to pitch in cold weather. I'm up here with my boy Darrin Beene, who's covering the game. I came up to work on a feature on Charlton Jimerson wearing the No. 42 on the Jackie Robinson celebration, but now that isn't happening.

So let's get it going...... GAME UPDATES IN PROGRESS.

UPDATE 10:11 --- Mark Lowe with a pretty good ninth inning. He was throwing hard and his slider looked very snappy. He hit 96 a few times. Final Score: Mariners 8, Angels 5. A very good win for the Mariners. I'm off to the clubhouse, I'll do some postgame stuff when I get back.

UPDATE 9:59 -- Yuni with a big hit, I'm really surprised that Torii Hunter didn't make that catch. It's like he was afraid to collide with the wall. That's not something that's been a problem before. Wow, Ichiro strikes out with a runner on third. That doesn't happen much.

UPDATE 9:48 --- umm, Richie Sexson just legged out an infield hit. I'm now looking skyward for a meteor. And why aren't we pinch-running with him at second? And as I say that, Miguel Cairo comes out. Willie Bloomquist is at home with the flu. you know who would have been perfect in this situation, Charlton Jimerson, oh wait, that's right he's at home watching it on TV.

With Kenji up, I guess I should mention that he shaved his head bald today, perhaps for some luck. It's an interesting look for Joh. And bald man strikes, with a double, good to see. It was a perfect situation for him to get a hit with the infield drawn in.

UPDATE 9:37 --- Alright who had 9:38 in the pools of when Richie Sexson was going to get booed. But this wasn't for striking out it was for kind of an "ole" attempt on a slow ground ball. It was an in between hop and nobody will ever confuse big Richie with Jon Olerud. Thankfully, the Mariners have Beltre at third.

UPDATE 9:25 --- here's one of those moments Mac ranted about this spring. You have a runner on third and one out, which was a sac to get the runner to third. Let's see if raul comes up clutch......

RAUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLL!!!! Great hit, not such a great base running play a few seconds later, but hey he's 3-for-3 with a two homers and a ground rule double.

UPDATE 9:11 - The Mariners have five runs on four hits at this point. In the long run, that simply won't suffice. A very respectable effort by Felix, he gets a standing ovation from the crowd. He finished with 115 pitches - 67 strikes and 48 balls. The last run was tough, he fell behind Vlad 2-0 and he's just too good of a hitter.

UPDATE 9:03 -- Unreal play by Erick Aybar, I'm thinking that will make ESPN's Top 10

UPDATE 8:54--- Sorry for the lapse I was writing the notebook. Tough play for Felix on that dive for short pop, you gotta love the effort. As for this inning, last year, Richie would have swung at that up and out pitch.

BRAD WILKERSON with a big hit, scoring two runs. Who is this team I'm watching? They are getting guys on base, getting hits now, making plays in the field.

Now be honest, how many of you thought Wilkerson would get a hit in that situation?

UPATE 8:12 ---- RAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUL!!! His second bomb. It's the ninth time he's hit multiple home runs in a game, the last coming on Aug. 20, 2007 at Minnesota. It would have been a two-run homer had Chone Figgins not made such a nice play on Jose Lopez's hard line drive.

But Figgins' play were was nothign compared to the double play Beltre turned the inning before to get Felix out of a jam. This is why you have to swallow a few Beltre's errors because he makes plays like that.

UPDATE 7:39 --- Richie strikes out for the 14th time this season. He's on a pace to strike out 226 times this season. If that doens't make you nauseous.

UPDATE 7:26 --- RAUUUUUUUULLLL!!!! Raul is now 11-for-20 with three home runs off of Weaver in his career.

I finally figured out what Vlad's hair reminds me of ...

OR

UPDATE 7:14 --- CHone Figgins was picked off on that play, replays show it, but it was a bang-bang play for first base ump Jim Reynolds.

Vlad Guerrero's hair is frightneing. It's like one of those dogs you see on the Westminster Dog show

Good ending to the inning for Felix with a little help from Johjima.

Here are tonight's lineups. Note the Mariners have moved Jose Vidro to the fifth spot for the first time this season. Vidro has hit seventh in nine games and sixth just once.

Anyway, the lineups:

MARINERS
Ichiro, CF
Lopez, 2B
Ibanez, LF
Beltre, 3B
Vidro, DH
Sexson, 1B
Wilkerson, RF
Johjima, C
Betancourt, SS

Hernandez, P

ANGELS
Figgins, 3B
Matthews Jr., CF
Guerrero, RF
Anderson, DH
Hunter, CF
Kotchman, 1B
Izturis, 2B
Mathis, C
Aybar, SS

Weaver, P

Greg Norton's minor league contract has been purchased from Tacoma and he'll replace Charlton Jimerson on the 25-man roster.

Jimerson has been been designated for assignment. The Mariners now have 10 days to to trade, release or assign Jimerson outright to the minors, where he will be put on the waiver wire and can be claimed by another team.

Norton was obviously ectstatic, but admitted it was also bittersweet because the Rainiers were playing in Colorado Springs the next four days and he would have been able to stay with his family in Denver and commute.

Jimerson was understandbly upset about it, but he also knows how the game works. He has no idea what he's going to do now. He's actually never been in this situation before. Obviously, he wants to hook up with another major league team, and not go back to the minors. And there might be opportunities. As I said earlier, the Devil Rays have been beset by injuries. As ESPN's Jayson Stark writes in this story, more than a 100 players have been placed on the DL already. So Jimerson may get a shot. I think he's better suited for the National League, where he can be used in double switches and his speed and defense can be better utilized.

As for what I thought of the move --- I don't like it. I like adding Norton, but I don't like getting rid of Jimerson.

Why?

I like adding Norton for all the obvious reasons. He's a switch-hitter, who has some power, is comfortable pinch hitter and probably at this point more of an offensive threat than Jose Vidro and possibly Sexson. I like his approach at the plate, how he handles himself. He isn't great in the field if he had to play first base, but neither are Vidro or Sexson for that matter.

I don't like losing Jimerson for several reasons. I honestly think he could have been a valuable contributor, but since the guys that he was supposed to be pinch running for - Brad Wilkerson, Kenji Johjima, Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro - never get on base for Jimerson to come in. He would have also been a nice late inning defensive replacement for Raul or Morse and he's not a bad bunter. There are spots you could point to in a game and say, "we could use Jimerson for this."

I feel bad for Jimerson. It was such a great accomplishment for him to make the team out of spring. Last year at this time, he was out of baseball and cold calling minor league coordinators begging for a tryout.

He was so excited about getting a chance to wear Jackie Robinson's number 42 during Tuesday's celebration -- not that anybody would have probably seen it after pregame warmups.

But I can't say the same thing for Miguel Cairo. For all intents and purposes, he seems like a good guy, a true professional and he works hard every day --- for pretty much nothing.

Look Cairo could be useful to some team out there, but he isn't useful for the Mariners. THey already have a red-haired version of him in Willie Bloomquist. Do you really need two light-hitting, decent-running, utility guys. I honestly believe they brought Cairo in as insurance and a minor push to Jose Lopez. Lopey's playing well so far, so why keep Cairo at this point? Maybe it's because the Mariners signed Cairo to a contract for jsut $850,000 and they don't want to eat the money. I know this much Cairo hadn't played in so long, they almost had to point him where the plate was in Tampa. How many situations do you point to and say, "this would be perfect to use Cairo in." I can't.

Well, let me end my rant here.... and say "Welcome, Greg Norton. I think you can help this team. Hopefully, they actually give you a chance to do so. And to Charlton Jimerson, I say goodbye and good luck. I hope you hook up with a big league team."

Thanks to my ubiquitous clandestine informant (that was a quote from "Lean on Me") of mine who pointed out something quite interesting in last night's Tacoma Rainiers game. In the sixth inning of a 0-0 game with a runner on second, DH Greg Norton, who was hitting .409, was lifted for a pinch hitter by manager Daren Brown.

It didn't appear that Norton was hurt or anything like that.

If you been around Triple A baseball long enough, a move like that often means one thing - the player is involved in some sort of transaction.

So what's going on then..... there are three possibilities.

1. Brown just pulled Norton in favor of LaHair for some sort of match-up issue. Which seems unlikely since Norton is a switch-hitter and is the teams leading hitter. Unless Norton was hurt, but there was no evidence to think that.

2. Norton is being called up to the Mariners. It isn't that unlikely considering the Mariners' offense is borderline anemic right now. The guy can hit. That's what he does. He's a good pinch hitter. He can hit from either side and he has some power. Right now, I would rather have him DH than Jose Vidro.

If he is being called up, who's being sent down or shipped out. Well, it seemed like Jimerson was the last player to make the team. But the guy has some value as a base runner and defensive replacement, esepecially for Morse late in games.

Personally, I think they should ship out Cairo, which most of the Mariner fans have been calling for all season. The guy got his first at-bat yesterday and I think he was brought in as insurance for Jose Lopez and thus far, Lopey, has been pretty solid. Cairo is a great guy, but he and Willie Bloomquist are one in the same and you dont' really two of those guys.

All this being said, does it really matter who they have on the bench, if they don't get to play?

3. Norton is part of a trade. There was talk a few major league teams were interested in him coming out of spring trainin. His old team - the Devil Rays - have been beset by injuries, most recently Cliff Floyd. The San Francisco Giants are also looking for a first baseman and hitter.

So maybe something will be happening with Norton, then again maybe it won't.... but it's fun to speculate.

UPDATE: Norton is joining the Mariners tonight, replacing Charlton Jimerson.

Well, I’m sitting here cruising above a nasty storm that’s rocking the Midwest. My Northwest flight is in a holding pattern right now waiting for clearance to land in a blizzard in Minneapolis. Not my idea of heaven. I really wish I wouldn’t have watched Alive, The Buddy Holly Story, La Bamba, the first episode of Lost and Castaway in my life. These are things you deal with on this job – bad food, bad flights and bad sleep.

Unfortunately, you hope to avoid bad baseball. And for the most part, I couldn’t do that the last however many days I’ve been on this trip with Mariners.

I figured we could lament about a road trip that McLaren labeled as “bad” and I would call disappointing, frustrating and a waste of an opportunity to win some winnable games.

Even Jose Vidro admitted, he never thought the team would go 2-5 on this trip, including being swept by Baltimore. But he certainly didn’t help matters the cause much, but to be fair, few others did either.

Let’s grade out the four aspects of the team on this trip – starting pitching, bullpen, offense, defense.

STARTING PITCHING – B+
Felix Hernandez’s eight-inning gem in Baltimore – he’s thrown 15 scoreless innings on the season – and Jarrod Washburn’s effort on Thursday against the Rays push the grade up. But Washburn’s start against Baltimore also lowers it a little. But he’s not the one who’s supposed to carry this rotation. That mantra would go to Capt. Personality. Erik Bedard hasn’t been bad and he does have a win. But we’re still waiting for the quintessential Bedard performance, where he just dominates. And I don’t think we’ve seen it yet. Batista hasn’t been great. I think the sore back in spring slowed his progress, but he’s a battler. And Silva has been better than I expected. He’s competitive and his games are never dull.

But you know the problem with the starting pitching? The total lack of run support. …. Which leads us to the …

OFFENSE – F
Sound like a harsh grade. Like my Catholic grade school principal Sister Angela used to say about sins – “You earn them and you’ll burn for them.” --- Ahh, catholic education at its finest. But the Mariners have earned this grade, and they’ve been burned by their lack of offense for five losses. They are hitting just .230 as a team and have only scored more than four runs twice this season and never more than three runs in an inning.

Wilkerson (.125), Johjima (.071), Vidro (.139) are struggling and they make Sexson (.206) with 13 strikeouts seem like a hitting machine.

I knew offensively they were going to struggle to score runs at times, but nothing like this.

UPDATE: I landed in Seattle at 2:15 a.m. and made it back to T-Town at 2:40, but I couldn't finish this on the plane because the battery died, but I want to finish this up so I’m going on.

DEFENSE – C
That might be a little generous, considering the Mariners lead the league in errors with 10 and have the worst fielding percentage at .973. But of those errors, one was a balk by Sean Green, and Adrian Beltre has made a couple of uncharacteristic misplays at third – which might be a product of a sore left thumb. One of the errors – by Yuni Betancourt -- also proved costly in a loss to Baltimore, basically allowing the O's to blow the game open.

BULLPEN – INC
That’s because they had to spend a few days trying to figure things out with Putz on the disabled list. I still don’t know when they are going to go to a seven-man pen. Brandon Morrow and Arthur Rhodes are still a week away. R.A. Dickey has looked good, but when we’ve talked to McLaren, he doesn’t seem to be a priority. Ryan Rowland-Smith gets a solid 'A' performance in Tampa. Roy Corcoran has been better than expected. Mark Lowe is up and down a little, but he should be OK. Sean Green is fine and he’ll get plenty of ground balls. I have no opinion on Cha Seung Baek, other than he isn’t Dickey, which I think is a problem.

The biggest concern is Eric O’Flaherty. I’m not certain what’s wrong with “Potatoes” neither is McLaren. It looks like he’s just catching too much of the play. He doesn’t have the command on his pitches and he’s imminently hittable, regardless of what side of the plate they are hitting from. It’s crazy how Putz’s injury could throw the bullpen out of whack.

TEAM – C-
The two games against Tampa gave me some hope, especially when Felix, Bedard or Silva pitch. But the offense needs to start coming around. I wonder how long McLaren and Bavasi can wait on players like Vidro or Wilkerson to start hitting before they make a move, especially with Norton and Clement hitting well, and Balentien driving in runs in Triple-A. The bullpen issues could get better quickly when Putz returns.

So where does that leave the M's? Well, they head into a big series with the Angels, their supposed rivals in the AL West. But realistically, a rivalry only works if it is back and forth between the two teams in terms of wins. It’s been pretty lopsided in the Angels favor, including last year’s 13-6 record against Seattle.

I’m not saying they need to win every game or even two. It’s still early, but they need to at least win one and put up a fight in the others to prove to the Angels and themselves that they can play with them.

Now, it's time for you to post some predictions for this weekend... I'm getting some sleep.

We're coming to you live from the Trop, where there are about 3,000 people in attendance, unfortunately at least 1,000 came armed with cowbells.

There is nobody here at this game, I am certain the Rainiers will draw a better crowd. You can hear whole conversations from fans from up in the press box. Rays baseball it's fantastic!!!

Also their whole production during the game is, well, very minor league. It's basically the same as the Rainiers with girls dancing on the dugouts, a guy that's running around the stadium with microphone to do things in between innings. I guess if it gets the fans excited, but you wouldn't see this at Safeco Field.

I will say this I'm a little disappointed to be missing Professional Wrestling night here this weekend. They have past and current stars of the WWE coming in. If the Nature Boy Rick Flair made an appearance... "WOOOOOOOOO!!!!", or perhaps the Macho Man Randy Savage (a former Florida State baseball player that spent time in the Reds' organization) made appearances, that would make it worthwhile.

Apparently Major league baseball has new drug unit and that's who busted Braves top prospect Jordan Schafer.....I think these guys are leading the unit...

UPDATES....
3:07 -- well it's over. that's about the best thing I could say about this game.

3:01 -- Rays fans booed their manager Joe Maddon for not letting Jackson go out to try and get the shutout. Jackson went 8 innings allowed two hits and no runs, while walking four and striking out six. He was at 99 pitches. I'm with Dave 8557 on this one, let the kid finish the job.

2:50 --- Well, that wans't the best inning, five runs, Corcoran gave up a bases loaded walk and a soft single to right. I think they need to ban the "Kiss cams" from games.

AND WE HAVE A MIGUEL CAIRO SIGHTING.....It's like in the WWE, he came out of nowhere with his theme music blaring, "Put me in coach, I'm ready to play, today!!!" armed with a bat. "My God, it's Miguel Cairo. Annnnndddd he flies out to center.

If that wasn't enough, "It's Cairo's tag-team partner Willie Bloomquist!" Willie is now pinch hitting for Lopez. And Willie pops up to first.

2:40 --- Potatoes O'Flaherty gives up a hit, so those runs will be charged to Miggy B. But in some good news, Potatoes got his first lefty out, getting Eric Hinske to ground out to the mound. Upton's hit off of O'Flaherty wasn't hit solidly. I thought Richie might have a chance at it, then after seeing his diving attempt, I cursed myself for ever thinking that.

2:35 --- Two straight hits closes the book on Batista. He didn't pitch poorly, giving up just two runs on eight hits. But with the Mariners offense not awake, he stands to take the loss.

2:27 --- Mike Difelice gets an RBI on a gork single to right. And since I have nothing better to post at this point. I'll post this ...

2:16 -- I'm really trying to come up with something quippy, funny, insightful or even interesting to say. But after 10 minutes of thinking I've given up. That was a nice catch by Morse earlier. Pretty routine for most career outfielders, but big for him especially with runners on .

2:04 -- the Mariners seemed destined to give this game away, stranding all these base runners. That being said, Edwin Jackson has made some pitches when he's needed to.

1:43 --- probably not the best swing I've seen from Richie with runners on like that. Nice catch by Crawford to rob Turbo, or Vidro, or whatever from a hit. The Mariners DH is no hitting under .150 with five hits in 34 at-bats. And as I write that Eric Hinske just launched a homer into right-center. 1-0 Rays lead.

1:23--- This game is very boring. Jackson is rolling. He has five Ks in three innings.

1:05 --- Edwin Jackson is actually a pretty good pitcher. He was once one of the top Dodgers' prospects. And he's looking like it now. In fact, the last Rays win came when Jackson started against the Yankees and beat Andy Petitte and the Yankees on April 5th.

Good Morning, it's 11:30 a.m. so back in Tacoma it's 8:30 and most people are taking that final drink fro a monster latte or mocha from Seattle's Best or somplace else (this is a no Starbucks zone). I killed the Dunkin Donuts coffee in Baltimore... no donuts ... just coffee that could wake the dead.

Mac was in a pretty good mood in the morning meeting. He's hoping for a sweep. Of course, it will still be an overall losing road trip, but some "momentum" would be nice headed into the weekened home series with the Angels.

He also addressed the fact that Cairo hasn't played and Bloomquist sparingly.
"Right now, Lopez and Betancourt are two of better hitters, so its tough to sit them," he said.

Speaking of the Angels here's the early pitching match-ups.
Friday - Felix Hernandez vs. Jered Weaver
Saturday - Carlos Silva vs. Jon Garland
Sunday - Erik Bedard vs. Joe Saunders

Pretty good match-ups and plenty of tickets still available for those games.

Anyway, let's get to the links first....
Here's my game story from yesterday's win............ And here's the game notebook that talks about J.J. throwing for the first yesterday. A quick update on JJ, he threw again today from about 75 feet for about 8 minutes and he picked up the velocity a little. Manager John McLaren was very pleased. Putz will go back to Seattle and meet with team doctors on Friday and then they'll see where he goes from there.

The Rainiers picked up a win last night. R.A. Dickey had a no-hitter through seven innings and Wlad Balentien hit a grand slam in the win.

Here's how the local papers covered the game yesterday....
Here's the game story from the St. Petersburg Times and Rays writer Marc Topkin.

And here's the gamer from the Tampa Tribune.

People we know links...
Rafael Soriano went on the DL with a sore elbow.... Jose Guillen's status and suspension hasn't been decided on yet.

Around the AL....

It appears that the Angels are showing more power at the plate this season. Not hard to do if you compare it to last season.

Here's the Rich Harden injury update...

Columnist Randy Galloway takes a look at Rangers GM Jon Daniels...

Former Bellarmine Prep star Jon Lester blew an early lead and the Tigers got their first win of the season.

LINEUPS....
Mike Morse gets the start today in right. McLaren wanted to rest Wilkerson and I think its important for Morse to get in some game action before he starts on Sunday when lefty Jose Saunders starts for the Angels. Kenji Johjima is back in the lineup, and I honestly think he will get two hits today. Just a feeling I've got.

SEATTLE
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Vidro DH
Morse RF
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
-----
Batista P

TAMPA
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Hinske 3B
Gomes DH
Haynes RF
DiFelice C
Bartlett SS
----
Jackson P

The links post got a little long, so we'll separate them up a bit.

Here's the lineups....
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Sexson 1B
Wilkerson RF
Vidro DH
Burke C
Betancourt SS
------
Washburn P

A slight change considering that Joh usually would be taking tomorrow off, but McLaren bumped it up a day...

"We just kind of want to let Kenji take a step back a little bit and catch his breath. He’s been pressing quite a bit. I thought about it and talked about it and knew that he was going catch one or the other, and I just thought this scenario might be good for everybody. We’ll just let him catch his breath and relax a little bit."

Not a bad idea, that Kenji has the same number of hits as Wilkerson at this point.

Rays lineup
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Gomes DH
Aybar 3B
Riggans C
Ruggiano RF
Bartlett SS
------
Sonnanstine P

GAME UPDATES ......

UPDATE 9:38 --- Well, this game was going by so fast, I looked down and realized I hadn't got some of work for the paper done....anyway Rowland-Smith goes back-to-back and looks solid in one inning of work allowing a hit, and striking out Pena. He's coming for Potatoes... The seven runs are the most the MAriners have scored this season, and they've yet to have a four-run inning.

UPDATE 9:12 --- from Snydro: First Wilkerson gets a hit, now Ibanez guns down a runner at the plate? My Oh My.. If O'Flaherty records an out my head will explode..

Now Jamie Burke just hits a three-run homer.... Now my head is going to explode.

That's the second of Burke's career. He hit his first on the last day of the season.

UPDATE 9:00 --- Nice throw by Raul, I really didn't think he had a chance to get Aybar at home. Burke did a great job of blocking the plate. Somewhere Mariners catching coordinator Roger Hansen is smiling at that play.

UPDATE 8:35 --- That had the chance to be a big inning, but poor decision by Yuni to swing at the first pitch. The last two times he's been up there were runners on and he swung at the first pitch and grounded to third. These are the things that drive managers and hitting coaches nuts. little things like that are a big reasons the MAriners find themselves in so many one-run games.

UPDATE 8:24 --- Raul looks a little stiff legged tryinig to get to that soft fly to left that eventually winds up being a double for Bartlett. I can hear the keyboards's of the folks at USS Mariner going right now, writing up comments to get him out of there and move him to first. I was going try and come up with argument against it, but after five minutes, I couldn't.

UPDATE 8:08 --- Jonny Gomes' walk-up music is Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" I've also heard Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crue, and Sweet Child of Mine by G-N-R. I feel like you should know these things.

Yesterday Adrian Beltre was charged with an error, and they changed it to Lopez, but Beltre felt guilty and committed another one instead. He has three on the season.

UPDATE 7:58 -- I write that Richie looks more comfortable in the box and all of the sudden he looks like hes swinging from the wrong side of the plate, that's what you deal with Richmond Lockwood Sexson...

Jose Vidro gets a double or not, they rule it an error. Whatever, that outfielder didn't look too great on that.....

UPDATE 7:41 -- Nice piece of hitting behind the runner by Yuni, but he's pretty much got a human road block in front of him with Burke. We often argue who would win a race between Burke, Vidro, Ibanez and Carlos Silva... I'm going to go with Silva.

Decent inning, but the Mariners still have yet to score more than three runs in an inning, and not getting the third run with a runner at third and your 3-4 hitters up isn't great

UPDATE 7:27 --- yesterday's crowd at the Trop was announced at 36,000, and was probably 33,000. I don't know what they are giong to announce but I think I could probably count them all by hand if I took the time.

But you'd be suprised how annoying 10,000 fans can be if 60 percent have cowbells. Yes, that's their trademark here in Tampa is ringing cowbells when they are excited. It's slightly more irritating than getting a stuck on a radio station with nothing but Mariah Carey 24 hours. At first it isn't too annoying, but an hour later and your ready to jump off the Narrows Bridge. This one occasion when we don't need "More Cowbell."

Let's get to a few things before the links.

I forgot to mention in my notebook or blog that Brandon Morrow threw two innings for Double A West Tenn the other day. Manager John McLaren was pretty pleased with the report. Also Arthur Rhodes is headed to West Tenn to throw there and get ready.

JJ Putz played catch for the first time since his rib injury. It was for eight minutes from 60 feet, nothing too strenuous, but he said he felt good. He'll play catch again tomorrow. But as far as him being back when his 15 days are up, McLaren was unsure and said they'll wait and see.

Putz's injury has taken away from his duties as shaving cream pie delivery man. Ryan Rowland-Smith's perfomance would have been pie-worthy, but Putz admitted he forgot. "I got a few other things on my mind these days," he said.

Rowland-Smith admitted he was on alert last night, thinking he might receieve one.

Let's get to the links. ....
You know every day I tell myself to get up and post them earlier, and yet here it late and I haven't done it. Tomorrow will be the day.... it helps that the game starts at 12:40 a.m.

Anyway here's my game story from the win...... and here's the game notebook which talks about Jose Lopez's heads up baserunning, Richie Sexson being more comfortable and a few other things.

The Rainiers got another nice showing from Ryan Feierabend, here's my boy Grant Clark's story. Here' the Rainiers stats, both Jeff Clement and Greg Norton are hitting over .400. R.A. Dickey is getting the start tonight.

From the St. Petersburg Times...
Here's their game story from Marc Topkin... ........ columnist John Romano has this column on the Rays.

From Baltimore.... Adam Jones is getting some help and advice from former Mariners do-everything player Mark McLemore.

From KC ..... Jose Guillen's suspension is on delay at this point.

Around the AL West.....
Travis Buck made his first start for the A's ...... Rich Harden had his start pushed back a little further. Shocking.

Apparently according to columnist Tim Cowlishaw, the Rangers can't score runs. That's not good when you can't pitch either.

Around Baseball
Baseball and softball are making another bid to become Olympic sports again. A line from that story .... Guillen has just four hits in 29 at-bats through seven games I think that's better than 2-for-21.

D-Backs pitcher Doug Davis is having surgery for thyroid cancer today, and he pitched last night.

Apparently the Giants can only win when Tim Lincecum pitches....

Sorry for the late links. Being the idiot I am, I left the power cord for my laptop at Camden Yards. The nice people from the Orioles are sending it back to Tacoma, but I had to do some serious scrambling to get a replacement. Ahh, scenic St. Pete – old people, trailers and and strip malls.

Anyway, here's my game story, which largely deals with Eric O'Flaherty's (I still call him Potatoes) collapse in the eighth inning and his status in the bullpen.

The game notebook deals with Brad Wilkerson's hitting, or rather his complete lack of it. He is man enough to admit he isn't hitting, which I respect.

From the Baltimore Sun....
Here's the game story from Dan Connolly.... Roch Kubatko has the game notebook...

Columnist Peter Schmuck has a column about the Orioles being upset with the local press for saying they could still be the worst team in baseball despite their hot start.

Well, it appears that one of the most fragile pitcher on the planet - Rich Harden - will be missing a start.

Gary Matthews Jr. hit a grand slam in the Angels win over the Rangers. This notebook talks about what's wrong with K-Rod -- his ankles.

Who is the hottest team in baseball?????????? The Baltimore Orioles.... as they move to 6-1.

UPDATES BELOW

UPDATE 10:27 -- It's RR Smith in instead of Potatoes to face lefty Eric Hinske and he does his job getting two outs without a run...

UPDATE 10:08 --- I will say this the Rays' fans haven't stopped booing since the close call at third. First of all, Jose Lopez threw an absolute seed in there and Beltre did a good job of blocking the plate, but I think Upton's foot still got a piece of the base before Beltre tagged him. But hey, the Mariners could use a few breaks.

As for Roy Corcoran, say what you want about his stuff, his appearance, whatever, the guy gets outs and probably has a better ERA than any other reliever right now.

=> Read more!

Well, it looks like John McLaren isn't done changing lineups around yet. He rolled out a different one today....

1. Ichiro CF (.276-1-2)
2. Lopez 2B (.269-2-7)
3. Beltre 3B (.292-1-3)
4. Ibanez LF (.308-2-4)
5. Sexson 1B (.217-1-3)
6. Wilkerson RF (.059-0-0)
7. Vidro DH (.115-2-3)
8. Johjima C (.095-0-1)
9. Betancourt (.333-0-1)
----
Erik Bedard P

I don't know what to think. Ibañez has been hitting well, so why move him from the third spot? But maybe he has a chance to drive in more runs batting cleanup. Look at the averages of the six, seven and eight hitters – it's pathetic. Not exactly a murderer's row of hitters... and Vidro and Johjima aren't exactly speed demons.

I don't see how there is any great shift to get those bottom guys going. My biggest fear is McLaren moving Vidro back to No. 2 to try to get him going. Lopez is actually hitting there, paying attention in games. He needs to stay there.

I know we're all getting pretty negative here, me included, but like McLaren I'm going to say it's not time to panic. I know that the last four days were awful and the Orioles hadn't swept a team in like three years, but a lot of things went right for them to do so. It wasn't like Huff was exactly tearing the cover off the ball when he hit that homer. It is early in the season. Need proof? Look at these standings:
AL West
Los Angeles 5-3
Texas 3-3
Oakland 3-4
Seattle 2-5

AL East
Baltimore 5-1
Toronto 4-2
New York 4-3
Tampa 4-3
Boston 3-4

AL Central
Chicago 5-2
Kansas City 4-2
Cleveland 3-4
Minnesota 3-4
Detroit 0-6

It's easy to point out what's wrong with that pictur, but here are some numbers that are tough to ignore:

Seattle is hitting .225, second worst in the AL, just ahead of Oakland at .218. They have the second fewest doubles, no triples and nine home runs.

Defensively, the Mariners are currently the worst defensive team in the AL with a .970 fielding percentage and a league-high eight errors.

I'm bringing a new positive attitude to Tampa-St. Pete. It's warm here, 85 and muggy, perfect running weather for me. It's a new day and a new series, so I'm vowing to stay positive till at least the third inning. I'm going back down to the clubhouse. But I'll post some links and answers some questions when I get back....

Oh and here's the D-Backs lineup...
Iwamura 2b
Crawford LF
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Gomes DH
Aybar 3B
Riggans C
Johnson RF
Bartlett SS
-----
Matt Garza P

UPDATE 5:34 --- Perhaps it's fitting that the pitcher, George Sherrill, who last year would have gone in instead of O'Flaherty comes in and shuts the door. That's three saves for Sherrill, four losses for the M's --- swept by the Orioles.

UPDATE 5:17 --- Silva's numbers: 7 innings, nine hits, four runs with five strikeouts. Not horrible, not great but he did go seven..... Potatoes O'Flaherty just got mashed by Aubrey Huff, who's now not getting booed as he rounds the bases. A reminder, this would be O'Flaherty's third straight day of throwing.

UPDATE 4:51 --- Ichiro's single up the middle was the 1,600th of his MLB career. We have a sac bunt, and Mike Morse is now pinch hitting.

NEW UPDATE 4:41 --- Lost in all of the talk about Brad Wilkerson not hitting has been anemic production from Kenji Johjima, who just popped up with runners on. Joh is 2-for-19 on the season.

UPDATE 4:18 --- Say what you want about Raul's fielding (usually nothing good), but he still knows how to hit a little. And of the Mariners, he's one of the few who is consistently producing. That's his fourth hit in six at-bats.

UPDATE 4:05 --- Great heads-up play by Beltre. To put it nicely, Daniel Cabrera is no rocket scientist when it comes to on-field smarts. Richie also didn't have the most legal break-up slide I've ever seen. Cabrera's play reminded me of this play....

UPDATE 3:52--- Probably not the best decision to throw an 0-2 pitch write down the middle to Melvin Mora.... Also I was just handed the probable starting pitching sheet, the Devil Rays will be starting three righthanders against the M's. Not good if you want to see Mike Morse play, but I think that perhaps Morse may get a start in at least one of those games. I'd give him two at this point.

UPDATE 3:42 --- Dennis also mentioned an emphasis on "small ball" in spring. That's not entirely true. McLaren preached situational hitting most of the time. Meaning things like hitting sac flies, hitting behind runners and things of that nature, which isn't quite the same as using a lot of sac bunts. But at this point, if you are struggling to score runs I say you do anything possible to get runners into scoring position with less than two outs.

I will say this about Carlos Silva, the defense is always onn its toes, because he doesn't mess around on the mound one bit.

And the Mariners have a lead!!!

Once again it was by the long ball, as Ichiro hit the 26th lead-off home run of his career, and then Raul added another solo shot. That now makes it 15 of the Mainers last 16 runs scored by homers.

That's what happens when you have a lineup with Wilkerson .067, Sexson .200, Vidro .130 and Johjima .118

From Dennis in an e-mail...How many times have they had runners on first and second with nobody out, only to subsequently fail with the next batter. I would like to know if McLaren has a bias against the bunt or if he just believes that his hitters are without the required skills to do it right.

I don't recall the Mariners attempting any sac bunts yet this season. For a lot of AL teams, they would rather trust their hitters to hit behind the runners, and McLaren won't ever use any of his 3-4-5 guys to bunt. To be fair, Seattle hasn't had a lot of situations where bunting was viable. Why? Because they haven't had many runners on base. That being said. If it came up in today's game and say Yuni, Lopez, Vidro or Kenji were up, I'd bunt them into scoring psoition, because the Mariners just aren't scoring runs in bunches, so playing for one run an inning isn't always a bad thing.

First of all, it's f-f-f-freezing here in Baltimore. Weather.com has it with a high of 53 today, I don't think that's happening. Plus you got a nice little breeze whipping through the stadium. Not exactly perfect weather to break out of an offensive slump.

Manager John McLaren switched up the lineup a little hoping to get some offense while splitting up Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson. Here's the lineup....

Seattle
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Wilkerson RF
Sexson 1B
Vidro DH
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
-------
Silva P

Orioles
Roberts 2B
Mora 3B
Markakis RF
Millar 1B
Huff DH
Scott LF
R. Hernandez C
Jones CF
L. Hernandez SS
-------
Daniel Cabrera P

Here's some links to get you rolling and kill some time at work....
Here's my game story from yesterday's collapse. Here's the game notebook that deals with the lack of offense for the Mariners.

The Rainiers got one of two games in yesterday getting the win.....

From the Baltimore Sun....
Here's their game story.... and here's a column from Dan Connolly.

Let's do some links to start off the game post today....
Here's my game story..... here's the game notebook, which talks about possible bullpen changes. I also wrote a feature on Adam Jones.

Columnist John McGrath wrote about closers in baseball in the way only Johnny Mac can.

And from the Baltimore Sun..... Here's their game story, which talks about the Orioles strong showing from their bullpen. Here's their story on Bedard being scratched. Columnist Peter Schmuck writes about the lack of fans at Camden Yards being a trend. Here's their Sunday baseball column from national baseball writer Dan Connolly.

The people who are at this game are nuts. I can safely say, I'd be watching it from home if I had that option.

UPDATE 4:46 --- Alright I'm back and Felix admitted that he felt tired and didn't put up much fight to stay in, telling Mel Stottlemyre he wasn't 100 percent. That doesn't mean he was hurt. He was just fatigued and was worried about making a mistake to one of the Orioles better hitters. Why was he tired? Well, remember he wasn't supposed to go today. So he threw a bullpen two days ago and that added to the fatigue, while he was on normal rest, he wasn't on his normal routine. He said if it had been on Monday like he was scheduled, he would have been better suited to pitch the ninth.

As for being bitter, I was a little miffed to say the least to see such a good performance squandered. I thought the Mariners would win three out of four against the Orioles, and now they've lost three and are trying to avoid being swept by what is supposed to be one of the worst teams in baseball.

Also, I'm concerned about the offense, or lack thereof. Most of Seattle's runs have come on home runs, and that's not good because the Mariners are not a home run hitting team. The most runs they've scored in an inning is 3. Brad Wilkerson is clearly struggling right now. He has one hit in 16 at-bats, and he looked completely out of sorts today.

I have to keep reminding myself that it's early in the seaosn. But these losses count, and this one is horrible.

UPDATE 3:56 --- Unbelievable. That's all I can say. If I were Felix, I'd be destroying the clubhouse right now. And if USS Mariner didn't explode before, it will now.

UPDATE: 3:44--- And Mac pulls Felix, for Potatoes O'Flaherty, I'm now awaiting the rant from Dave8557. Felix threw 97 pitches, 62 for strikes. I honestly think the USS Mariner server might explode from angry posts about that decision.

UPDATE 3:33 --- Do you let Felix finish the game? He's not quite at 100 pitches. I know one reader who would let him go out for the ninth --- I say let him finish it

UPDATE 3:08 --- Although most of the media didn't get to talk to Bedard, MLB.com's Jim Street caught him early when he was talkative,.... here's his story.

And as part of tradition in the seventh inning stretch, after "Take me out to the ball game," Baltimore plays John Denver's "Thank God I'm a country boy." I have no idea why.

UPDATE 2:52 -- Gotta love giving up a home run to Ibañez on an 0-2 count. Both teams are swinging at first pitches like they want to be somewhere else..

UPDATE 2:33 --- I predicted Ibañez was going to hit into a double play. I did not predict Sexson was going to hit a double....

I don't know what went on with Wilkerson getting thrown out at second. If it was a hit and run, how could Vidro have swung and missed at that pitch. He's their best contact hitter and the ball was in the strike zone. If it was just a straight steal, well, then I don't know what to think other than maybe he shouldn't get the green light anymore.

UPDATE 2:05 --- With that single to left, Jamie Burke now has as many hits as Brad Wilkerson on the season.

I've been sitting here for the last few minutes trying to think of some words to aptly describe the weather here in Baltimore. And since profanity isn't allowed, I'm going with miserable.

It's gray and overcast with off and on rain. It reminds me of a December game at Qwest Field. Batting practice was canceled. To be honest, I don't think any of the players are that upset about it. Weather.com says it's 48 degrees, but it's far colder than that because the wind is whipping through the stadium. But I guess from what it sounds like, it's not much better weather in the South Sound.

Despite the awful conditions, the stadium is not completely empty.

Let's get to it....
As announced yesterday, Erik Bedard is not pitching today. He's also not talking, giving reporters the brush off hand signal when we approached him. Captain Personality strikes again!!!! I'm really not too upset, it's not like he would have had anything particularly interesting or insightful to say.

In fact, if he would have talked here's what the interview would have been like

How's your hip?
"I don't know"

When did it start bothering you?
"I don't know."

McLaren said you have had this before in your career?
"I don't know. I guess."

Was this a precautionary measure to prevent it from becoming a serious problem?
"I don't know."

The goal is to push you back two days and start in Tampa on Tuesday, do you think you'll make that start?
"I don't know."

Is Scarlett Johannson hot?
"I don't know."

Is it true that the only words you know are "I don't know."
"I don't know."

Manager John McLaren did say Bedard told him he was feeling a lot better today. Bedard threw a side session in the bullpen, so that's a positive.

Anyway, let's get to the people who are playing today.

Last week Felix said he loves throwing in the cold weather. Well, he's getting it today. In six career starts against the Orioles, he's 3-2 with a 5.60 ERA. All three of his wins against Baltimore have come at Camden Yards.

Jose Vidro's home run from the right side was his first as a Mariner. His last homer batting right handed was Sept. 19 2006 off of Atlanta's Chuck James.

Here's the lineups....
Seattle
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Richie Sexson 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Brad Wilkerson RF
Jose Vidro DH
Jamie Burke CA
Yuniesky BEtancourt SS
------
Felix HErnandez P

Baltimore
Brian Roberts 2B
Melvin Mora 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Kevin Millar 1B
Aubrey Huff DH
Luke Scott LF
Jay Payton CF
Guillermo Quiroz CA
Luis Hernandez SS
------
Jeremy Guthrie P

Following the game, Mariners manager John McLaren announced that Erik Bedard will be scratched from his scheduled start today because of inflammation in his hip.

Felix Hernandez will start on Sunday, Carlos Silva will start on Monday and Bedard will try to start Tuesday in Tampa.

Sorry, it took me awhile to get things rolling, I'm working on an extra story for Sunday's paper.

UPDATE 9:27 --- I actually thought Adam Jones hit a grand slam when it first left the bat. Had the bullpen been at full strength, i think McLAren pulls Batista after about two walks.

Hey Richie made contact.....

Nice throw by Morse and even better job of Kenji blocking the plate on Roberts... I watched catching coordinator Roger Hansen work quite extensively with Joh on that this spring.

UPDATE 8:22 --- here's a good link on Phillippe Aumont's minor league debut last night.

That whole play with the Yuni error and Raul's poor decision to throw the ball and even poorer throw was just bad on all levels.

* Can somebody explain where Jose Vidro's power came from. Granted where he hit it, was where Kevin Millar's home run was last night and would have never came close to going out of Safeco. But it's homer in the books.

* Even though he just got thrown out trying to steal third --- although he was safe upon replays -- you gotta like a guy like Brian Roberts. You can see why Lou Piniella and the Cubs want him so bad. He'd look pretty good in a Mariners' uniform.

Before we get to the links, I forgot to ask any readers if they have recommendations for restaurants, cool bars or interesting places when the Mariners are on the road. AS a rookie on this beat, I'm not always too familiar with some of the places I'll be traveling. So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Let's to a few things here.

From Dave8557:
Once again, the 100 pitch limit hurts the Mariners. I have to laugh when I read the comment, "it looks like the starter will not finish tonight because he already has 61 pitches in the nth inning"...Does it really matter today how many pitches a starter has in any inning?

To be fair, I'll let the 100-pitch limit slide for about the first week or two because its early but after that 110 to 115 if a pitcher feels he's up to it. As for Washburn last night, he was clearly struggling to get out any of the right-handers on the Orioles. I think McLaren saw a few righties coming up in the sixth and made the move. But I would expect him to loosen up on the pitch counts for Bedard and Felix in their next couple starts. As for Batista, he always throws a lot of pitches.

McLaren said yesterday that the possibility of going to back to an 12-man rotation was something they should discuss. It needs to happen. If you have R.A. Dickey or even Arthur Rhodes or Chris Reitsma would you even think of going to Cha Seung Baek in that situation? Not hardly. When Putz went down, they couldn't call up Dickey or Morrow because they were optioned to Triple A and they must wait 10 days. Rhodes, who's still in Arizona, could come back sooner because he wasn't officially optioned to Triple A yet. At this point, even Jon Huber could have helped.

AFter meeting with him this afternoon, McLaren admitted there may be some moves made with the bullpen on the Tampa trip. As to who that would be, it remains uncertain, but McLaren confirmed that Arthur has no restrictions by MLB rules as to when he joins the club.

* Admittedly, I haven't always been a big proponent of Richie Sexson in the past. Something about bad strikeouts bother me. But he did look much better at the plate last night. He said he feels comfortable at the plate and is seeing the ball. A big key for that is when he's hitting the ball hard to center and right-center where I think his true power is. When he isn't comfortable, he'll start lunging out at balls and trying to pull it to the left side, which is common mistake for most hitters.

* Brad Wilkerson is batting .083 (1-for-12) with four walks. McLaren said he thinks Wilkerson might be pressing a little trying to make a good impression.

* If the Mariners don't win three out of four games with the Orioles, espeically with Bedard and Felix pitching the final two, it would be considered a ghastly failure.

* Mike Morse gets his first start of the season today, and he was clearly pumped early on. But not as quite as pumped as pitcher Adam Loewen who arrived at Camden YArds at 1 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game.

* Can somebody explain to me the genius who decided to schedule a night game on Final Four Saturday? Really, why not play a day game so we can all enjoy. And though you don't care, I'm taking UNC over Kansas 82-80 and UCLA over Memphis 76-72.

Let's get to some linkage......
Here's my game story from last night, where Jarrod Washburn admits that he doesn't have a pitch to put away hitters. Here's the notebook leading with Mike Morse trying to stay .

R.A. Dickey and the Rainiers lost last night, but McLaren was positive about his performance, particularly the zero walks.

Here's a photo gallery from opening day at Cheney Stadium.

From the Baltimore Sun..... here's the game story....here's the game notebook...... and columnist Peter Schmuck had this column as well.

Also last night.... Rangers lefty Kason Gabbard beat the Angels. Here's the game story from the LA Times.

We're keeping it simple, as per request.

The afternoon showers that canceled normal batting have stopped, and it looks like the game will start on time. Some players actually got on the field for early batting practice at about 3, but the rest were forced to hit inside.

Even if the game does start on time, there is no guarantee it will finish on time or at all... Here's the forecast...

In-game Updates

UPDATE 10:09 --- Richie Sexson with a two-run homer to center. Remember how A-Rod got ridiculed by critics (me included) for always hitting homers when games were already decided?

Mike Morse doubles in his first at bat of the season --- I can hear people typing away to post their anger about him not playing till now.

George Sherrill is in for the O's...

UPDATE 9:46 --- Willie Bloomquist is now pinch-hitting for Jose Lopez because … because … well I'm not sure why, but he is. And he pops up to short. The Mariners have four hits off a group of pitchers I couldn't have named before this game and have already forgotten.

UPDATE 9:22 -- Cha Seung Baek made it less than two innings, allowing three runs on two hits with a walk and a strikeout. Paging R.A. Dickey, paging R.A. Dickey, you have a telephone call -- long distance from Baltimore.

UPDATE 9:02 --- Ramon Hernandez with a greeting for Cha Seung's 92 mph fastball, which was right down the center of the plate. They just announced the attendance 14,429, which is about 5,000 more than what the true attendance is.

UPDATE 8:44 -- Millar's home run would have been caught in Safeco, Washburn is up over 100 pitches. We could be seeing Cha Seung Baek. And R.A. Dickey is probably getting stretched out for his start in Tacoma. You won't believe this, or maybe you will, but there are like four Mariners fans down to my left who are booing Richie.

UPDATE 8:10 -- Aubrey Huff continues to be booed by Orioles fans after the negative comments he made about the city on a radio show in Ft. Lauderdale with a porn star sitting on his lap... I wish I were making this up. They booed him on opening day and haven't stopped, except when he hit a two-run home run the other day. Speaking of booing, Richie Sexson is up, and he just hit a double down the line, raising his average to over .100

UPDATE 7:56 -- It looks like the bullpen is going to be used tonight, unless things change. Jarrod Washburn is already at 61 pitches after two innings.

Adam Jones had a chance to really hurt his old team with runners at first and second and nobody out, but with two strikes, Jones did the smart thing: dialed back his swing and hit a ball to second, moving the runners into scoring position. It led to a run on Luis Fernandez's sac fly.

UPDATE 7:08 -- You cannot believe how few people are at this game. Honestly, it looks as if there are about 5000 people in the whole ballpark. There will probably be more people at Cheney Stadium tonight. There are some people starting to file in, but not a ton. I bet this crowd doesn't get over 10,000, although the paid attendance, which is what they go by, will be far greater.

A few pregame notes...* Mike Morse was scheduled to play today, but since the Orioles were rained out, everybody's start was pushed back a day and he will start the game on the bench. I asked manager John McLaren if he was concerned and he said: "I'm not concerned that's the way it is."

Morse will start tomorrow against Adam Loewen and would have started on Monday against Brian Buress, but Burress is being skipped and will be in the bullpen Sunday and Monday.

It would be nice to get Morse at least an at-bat or two at some point. He said he's staying ready and preparing every day as if we was going to play. You just wonder if four straight games of sitting and seven-plus days of not playing in a game will take Morse out of the tremendous groove he was in during spring.

* McLaren said he's still going with closer by committee and there isn't even a chairman of said committee at this point. He said he'd go with the hot hand. My guess is that Mark Lowe would be the guy tonight since he had two days of rest.

* McLaren said Brandon Morrow's throwing program has been adjusted somewhat. Morrow hit 96 mph on the gun a few times and pitched one scoreless inning, striking out two for West Tennessee last night in its season opener. There is still no timetable with Morrow, but a player option can't return for 10 days, unless there's an injury. Also in that game, young catching prospect Adam Moore went 2-for-3 with a home run.

* Erik Bedard refused all interview requests with the Baltimore media early on. He chatted with a few of the writers and TV people, but didn't want to do any interviews.

* I talked with Adam Jones and George Sherrill. Both were interesting as usual. The one thing that got Adam the most excited was talking about Morse and Charlton Jimerson making the team. "I was pumped!" he said. When he was at spring training in Florida, Morse's parents who live in Ft. Lauderdale, came to a few of his games and even went to dinner with Jones.

George looks like he's in great shape, and he reiterated what McLaren was saying about spring training pitching in Arizona. When he came to Baltimore, manager Dave Trembley told him he'd be competing for the closer job. Sherrill was apprehensive, telling Trembley he'd been lit up in past springs. But much to Sherrill's surprise, he had his best spring ever.

"It has to be that Florida weather," he said. "You really can feel the ball so much better, and it's so much easier to grip."

* Raul Ibañez introduced Felix Hernandez to Orioles pitching legend Jim Palmer, but Felix didn't have any idea who Palmer was and Ibañez had to explain to him that Palmer was once a great pitcher.

Here are the starters
Seattle....
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Richie Sexson 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Brad Wilkerson RF
Jose Vidro DH
Kenji Johjima C
Yuni Betancourt SS
-------
Jarrod Wasburn 2B

Orioles
Brian Roberts 2b
Melvin Mora 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Kevin Millar 1B
Aubrey Huff DH
Jay Payton LF
Ramon Hernandez C
Adam Jones CF
Luis Hernandez SS
-------
Steve Trachsel P

Camden Yards was the first of the retro old-school ballparks, and even all these years later its still very cool. Just saw George Sherrill conversing quite a bit with Mark Lowe, Eric O'Flaherty and Ryan Rowland-Smith among others.

Let's get to some early links there's plenty a going on....

Here's my story today on Erik Bedard's return to Baltimore, believe it or not, I actually talked with him and it was productive. (More on this at a later point)...

I also did another story on M's third base coach Sam Perlozzo also returning to Baltimore.

Yesterday was the Rainiers' opener ... they picked up a 2-0 win as Ryan Feierabend and Cesar Jimenez combined for the shutout. John McGrath was also at Cheney Stadium and filed this column.

The Baltimore Sun has a few stories worth noting.

National Baseball writer Dan Connolly was up in Seattle for the opening story and has a great story on Bedard coming home.

He also wrote a similar story on Perlozzo.

Here's a story on Adam Jones' improved defense.

The Orioles set an attendance low on Wednesday, (Thursday's game was rained out) but they hope the fans are coming back sometime. Here's a scouting report from the Sun on the game.

Elsewhere in the AL West
It appears that Angels closer Frankie Rodgriguez has seen his velocity drop as of late.
Ervin Santana picked up a rare road win for the Angels.

Keith Foulke is feeling as healthy as ever with the A's

We're coming to live to you from the Atlanta's Hartsfield-something-extremely-crowded Airport.

I will say this, my connecting flight from Atlanta to Baltimore will have one of the most attractive flight attendants I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I'll be sitting in the middle seat for this flight, so I'm also looking for the general size and weight of the people crowded around the terminal.

Speaking of weight, I got his question from WaBubba

"Wondering what you're doing hanging out at the West End?...for a guy complaining about finding an additional 15 lbs. from spring training, that is the last place I would like to be in if I was trying to lose them. A lot of good, greasy food and suds! :-)Signed, The middle school Health teacher."

Very good question and I don't have much of an answer, except that I didn't eat any food during the game. But after playing some hoops on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Downtown Y, I thought I could treat myself with a few cold beers while watching Carlos Silva look pretty sharp on their array of Plasma screens... which reminds me, how sweet is that FSN is showing all the games in Hi Def. Plus I've got a favorite waitress I hadn't seen in six weeks. But it is the best bar food in Tacoma. I've got relatively decent self control when I want. I'm not going to pull a Carlos Silva and eat four quadzilla burgers from IN and Out -- and no I'm not making that up.

Anyway let's get to a few links before the plane starts boarding...
A big thanks to my boy D-Beene for covering the game last night... here's his game story, and his notebook which deals in depth with JJ's injury.

Dave Boling also had a column on the JJ situation.

Here's the game story from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram

And here's some coverage from the Dallas Morning News.

MARINERS NOTES:

Carlos Silva made his Seattle Mariners debut by tossing 7.0 innings, and allowed only a home run to Ben Broussard. Silva struck out five, he only struck out at least five batters six times in 2007, while walking three.

Jose Vidro’s homer in the bottom of the second was the Mariners first homer of the season, and his first since August 31, 2007 at Toronto. Vidro has now hit 28 home runs in April, the most of any other month.

Brad Wilkerson’s single to left field in the bottom of the sixth inning was his first hit as a Mariner.

With tonight’s win, Carlos Silva improved to 4-1 in his career at Safeco Field with a 2.82 ERA (11 ER, 35.1 IP). With today’s outing Silva improves to 3-2 with a 2.20 ERA (10 ER, 41.0 IP) against the Rangers in home starts.

=> Read more!

Well, this isn't good. The J.J. Putz injury bothers me on several levels I'm sitting here watching the game in one of my favorite establishments, the West End Pub & Grill in Tacoma. If you ever come here, I recommend the Hawaiian Chicken Burger,. And the thought of the Mariners going closer by committee is killing my appetite

I really don't know what the solution is. My choice would be Mark Lowe. He's look good so far and he has closer stuff, but we still don't know how he is going to hold up as the season progresses. Arthur Rhodes and Brandon Morrow could do the job, but they still aren't ready to go. So that leaves Eric O'Flaherty who I think could be a closer in the future - his stuff is that good. There is some talk about having Miguel Batista do the job and having R.A. Dickey or Cha Seung Baek move into the rotation, which isn't a ludicrous proposition. Batista did it before in the past, and that's a possiblity.

It certainly won't be Roy Corcoran.

He's a nice guy from Southern Lousiana, who's about 5-11, average build. He was Erik Bedard's best friend during spring training and he also had a copenhagen in his lip a day and half after having two of his wisdom teeth pulled.

From what I saw his fastball tops out around 91 miles per hour. He delivers three-quarters to side arm and kind of short arms it. His best pitch in the spring was a snappy little breaking ball that he throws often and basically plays his fastball off of it. He's a gritty little competitor who can throw every day, but he's not overpowering and he isn't a closer.

I will say this with certainty -- he's better than Rick White. Yep, I brought up his name.

I think with JJ out, the possibility of moving to a 12-man pitching staff looms even larger.

So who would you go with as the closer ... here's your choices now...

1. By committee
2. Mark Lowe
3. Eric O'Flaherty
4. Roy Corcoran
5. Miguel Batista

And if and when Morrow and Rhodes get healthy...

1. By committee
2. Mark Lowe
3. Eric O'Flaherty
4. Brandon Morrow
5. Arthur Rhodes
6. Miguel Batista

ineups for the Rangers-Mariners game tonight. They are the same, minus the pitchers of course, as Tuesday's lineups.

TEXAS
Kinsler, 2B
Young, SS
Hamilton, CF
Blalock, 3B
Bradley, DH
Catalanotto, LF
Murphy, RF
Laird, C
Broussard, 1B

Jennings, P

MARINERS
Suzuki, CF
Lopez, 2B
Ibanez, LF
Sexson, 1B
Beltre, 3B
Wilkerson, RF
Vidro, DH
Jojima, C
Betancourt, SS

Silva, P

The news on Putz isn't as bad as it could be, say the pitcher, his manager and trainer Rick Griffin. That's good news, I suppose, but still bad news in that the Mariners are now without their closer just two games into the season.

Here's the story I'm filing for Thursday's paper, which has some more details:

The Seattle Mariners not only suffered their first loss on Tuesday but their first injury requiring a stay on the 15-day disabled list.

Closer J.J. Putz, who surrendered a game-winning home run to Josh Hamilton in the ninth inning of a 5-4 loss to the Texas Rangers, hurt his right side while throwing splitter to the previous batter, Michael Young.

Putz described the pain “like an ice pick stabbing in the side.” The official diagnosis after Putz had an MRI on Wednesday is mild costochondritis – or inflammation where the cartilage attaches to the 10th rib.

=> Read more!

The Mariners placed right-handed pitcher J.J. Putz on the 15-day disabled list because of a rib injury suffered in Tuesday's night game against the Texas Rangers. Right-handed pitcher Roy Corcoran from AAA Tacoma was recalled to take his spot on the roster.

Putz felt discomfort on a pitch to Michael Young in the ninth inning and was sore after the game. Putz had a precautionary MRI exam done Wednesday which revealed a mild costochondritis on his right side. Costochondritis is inflammation where cartilage attaches to a rib.

Putz, 31, appeared in both of Seattle's games this season, recording a save on opening day. On Tuesday he allowed a two-run home ru, blowing his first save opportunity since Aug. 1, 2007 vs. the Angels. Putz, selected to the 2007 All-Star team, was named the Most Valuable Pitcher by the Seattle Chapter of the BBWAA and also became the first Mariners pitcher to win the American League Rolaids Relief Man Award in 2007.

Corcoran, 27, was one of Seattle's final cuts this spring after posting a 0-1 record with a 6.75 (4 ER, 5.1IP) in five relief appearances. Corcoran spent the 2007 season at AAA Albuquerque in the Florida Marlins organization. He went 4-4 with a 3.54 ERA (24 ER, 61.0 IP) in 53 relief appearances and finished fourth in the Pacific Coast League with 15 saves. Corcoran has also pitched in the majors in parts of three seasons with Montreal/Washington (2003, 2004, 2006).

He was signed by the Mariners as a minor league free agent on Nov. 20, 2007.

A few thoughts and postgame notes from last night's loss. ...

Manager John McLaren thought that J.J. Putz and Eric O'Flaherty didn't have quite as good of stuff as they did on opening day, which is somewhat expected going back-to-back in the first two games. Obviously, Putz and O'Flaherty are burned for tonight, Mark Lowe has only threw to one batter on opening day and to two yesterday, but that would be throwing him three straight days, and McLaren said they weren't going to abuse him early on. Thatt leaves Sean Green, Cha Seung Baek, Ryan Rowland-Smith left as relief for tonight's game.

This is why I don't how much longer they will go with a six-man pen, especially if they are going to adhere to 100-pitch pitch counts early in the season. The whole point of going with an 11-man staff is that the starters go deep into games, Bedard went five and Felix went six and both were held to right about 100 pitches.

McLaren was asked about pinch hitting Mike Morse for Brad Wilkerson in the eighth against Eddie Guardado. Here was his response.

"We talked about it, but we wanted to let Brad get his feet on the ground a bit," McLaren said.

That's all well and good, but if Morse is good enough to play over Wilkerson when a lefty starts the game, he's got to be good enough to replace Wilkerson in that situation late in the game -- Wilkerson's feelings or adjustment period be damned. These are losses that you lament months down the road when you are one or two games out.

As for Richie's strikeout ...
USS Mariner has a pretty cool post on the Sexson at-bat last night. And let's be clear: there is no way that pitch could have a looked like a strike at any point when it left the pitchers hand. I was sitting next to Darrin Beene and gave him the strike three sign before the pitch was even thrown. Why? Because in the last year or so, it seems like those moments overwhelm Richie. He wants to get a hit so bad and contribute that it clouds his judgement. And he even admitted it last night.

"I got caught up in the moment," he said. "I swung at a bad pitch."

It happens to a lot of players, but to Sexson with growing frequency.

"You want to hit a five-run homer," he said. "If I could have felt like I did on 2-2 pitch and was extremely relaxed I would have never swung at it. But it got to 3-2 and I said there's no way he was going to walk me, and a I swung at a bad pitch."

So in a way, Richie decided to swing at the pitch before it even left his hand.

I was surprised that he didn't get booed more, but fans for the most part have given Richie a little latitude so far.

"I think they boo me because they want me to do well," he said. "I think down deep they want me to succeed."

With all that being said, it's two games into the season and Sexson could have the "big year" he said he was going to have. But at what point do the Mariners wait around for him to get going. It's early in the season, but the Mariners need to win the bulk of the game with a soft early schedule and Sexson needs to contribute or make way for somebody that can.

Let's get to the links....
Here's Darrin's game story from last night.. I wrote the game notebook leading with Carlos Silva's anticipation for tonight's game.

John McGrath has a good column on R.A. Dickey's first day in Tacoma.

Here's how the Texas papers played it...
From Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News... And from the Ft Worth Star Telegram, here's their game story.

I didn't get to post the opening day links....
Here's a slideshow from the

Here's my game story ...

.

Dave Boling wrote about the Mariners expectations this season

Doug Pacey wrote about Erik Bedard.

HEre's Scott Fontaine's story on the gameday experience.

My first blog post of the day wasn't supposed to be so late, but a few things intervened -- the first being my attempt to shed some of the 14 pounds I gained while I was in spring training. I know exaclty how it happened a few too many late night meals of mexican food mixed with margaritas, In-and-Out burger next to the stadium, Chick-Fil-A and stadium Gyros. Maybe I should ask Felix his weight-loss tips.

I also went to media day for the Tacoma Rainiers. I talked with R.A. Dickey, who's still upbeat about his place with the Mariners. Greg Norton was there and in good spirits and the minor cosmetic stuff done to Cheney Stadium look good.

Look, it's not the major leagues, but if you're looking for a good bargain and some pretty good baseball, going to a Rainiers game isn't a bad idea. They open the season on Thursday at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma and have eight straight home games. Ryan Feierabend will start the opener on Thursday, while Dickey will throw on Friday.

Here's their schedule. And here's their roster. And announcer Mike Curto is even writing a Rainiers blog this season. I'll also try to post some stuff about the Rainiers on here to keep you guys up to date.

Anyways, I am working on a longer post about Erik Bedard and the media stuff on opening day. But I wanted to get some other stuff out here first and foremost. Also I'm going to get back to the linkage posts now that the season has started.

I won't be covering Wednesday's game because I'm trying to pack for the trip to Baltimore on Friday. Darrin Beene will be here and blogging.

UPDATE 10:04: Not quite sure what Richie was swinging at on the strikeout, I mean how could even conceivably think that pitch was going to be a strike. It's like he decided he was going to swing at it before the pitch was thrown. I thought there'd be more booing.

Of course the Mariners get a little home luck with the wild pitch. I can safely say that it's going to be a long year for Ron Washington.

UPDATE 9:52: Boo all you want, every manager in their right mind would walk Ibanez and load the bases to face Richie.

UPDATE 9:46: McLaren uses the bench and puts in Jimerson, who made it look easy running from first to third on Yuni's single to right. You have your best hitter up and best runner on third with less nobody out.

UPDATE 9:43: I'm still waiting for McLaren to use one of his five bench players. Both Ibanez and Wilkerson batted against lefties with Mike Morse just sitting there.

UPDATE 9:33: Potatoes O'Flaherty is getting mashed a bit. And he gave up back-to-back hits to lefties, which isn't supposed to happen. O'Flaherty gave up three hits to lefties in that inning, paging Arthur Rhodes, Arthur Rhodes.

UPDATE 9:12: OWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! How bad do you think Ian Kinsler's fingers hurt right now, his hands were already cold and he squares to bunt and Felix hits on the fingers with a mid 90s fastball. I can't believe he's getting back into the box. His fingers are going to be throbbing tonight.

UPDATE 9:06: Felix made a great play on that ball to get the runner at home. Replays show that the runner might have been safe. No one is complaining.

UPDATE 8:48: Josh Hamilton's catch will be making ESPN's top 10 plays.,

Here's a few game thoughts so far....

After looking totally and completely lost, Richie Sexson singles off of Vincente (I look like a crazed serial killer) Padilla. The boo birds were out after Sexson's first two strikeouts.

Does it bother anyone else to see Felix reach out with his bare hand try and grab a comeback. I'm all for making a play and competing, but I dont' think its worth your pitcher risking a break of his throwing hand.

How bad would it hurt to hit a Felix fastball off the end of the bat?

The official scorer credited Jose Vidro with a stolen base earlier. So that means Jose Vidro has a stolen base. "The end is near! The end is near!"

Tonight's starting lineups:

TEXAS
Kinsler, 2B
Young, SS
Hamilton, CF
Blalock, 3B
Bradley, DH
Catalanotto, RF
Murphy, LF
Laird, C
Broussard, 1B

P - Padilla

MARINERS
Ichiro, CF
Lopez, 2B
Ibanez, LF
Sexson, 1B
Beltre, 3B
Wilkerson, RF
Vidro, DH
Johima, C
Betancourt, SS

P - Hernandez