Till I collapse I’m spilling these raps long as you feel em
Till the day that I drop you'll never say that I'm not killing them
Cause when I am not then I am stop pinning them
And I am not hip-hop and I’m just not Eminem.

There you go SNydro hopefully this works because in the time that it took me to remember the opening lyrics to "Til I Collapse," (a very underrated Em song) the Tigers scored a run off of Silva on a CArlos Guillen RBI single.

So hopefully the Eminem thing works. Cause I'd hate to think it was really me.

MAybe it is me because Sheffield just had an RBI single as well.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:30 --- It appears that the Mariners' lethargy has infected even me. Or could it be that the game is just so unbelievably boring, I have nothing to post about. I think the most excited the crowd of 34,019 got was during the hydro races or the ball under the hat game. It's bad enough that the Mariners lose, but they play boring baseball when they do lose. I went back and checked and in the last 22 games I've covered, the Mariners have won two. In the last 29 games, they've won four. I've only covered 12 of the Mariners 20 wins.

8:30 -- Sorry for the delay there, I was trying to finish up my game notebook (huge pain) and it wasn't like there was much going on, other than R.A. Dickey making a case to subplant a starter. Dickey's been very sharp and he just seems to exude moxie when he's on the mound.

But Adrian Beltre has forced me to post hitting his second homer of the game. Unfortunately, both homers were solo shots.

As for superstitions, I've got a few. During legion and college baseball and even now in fastpitch softball, I rotate the bat seven times in my hands and then give the barrel a quick tab with my tongue --- sounds gross. It is. But I feel like it works. The first time I ever did it, I hit a home run, and two more in the doubleheader.

7:55 --- Well, Beltre hit a homer, so it's now 7-1. It really feels like all the energy has been drained out of stadium, along with the last remaining pieces of warmth as well.

7:37 --- WEll, the damage was seven runs on eight hits. That's pretty brutal, I'm getting flashbacks of being in Detroit again, minus the fear of being mugged or shot outside the stadium

7:30 --- Make the bad man stop!!! They are just pummeling Mariners pitching. Silva is gone (to the chorus of a lot of boos) and Dickey gives up a ground rule double.

Nothing like a seven run first inning to get the fans' hopes up.

I'm back covering a game, so that's not a good thing. I think in the last 24 games I've covered, the Mariners have won two.

2-for-24?

That's kind of like Richie's recent run of hitting. Maybe that's why he is out of the line-up for the third straight game, which might be a good thing since the Mariners won the last two with him on the bench.

Manager John McLaren said he's going with the hot hand, meaning that Miguel Cairo is playing first and not Sexson, who's predicted AL Comeback Player of the Year campaign is still in the early stages.

"You know Richie, he wants to play and stuff," McLaren said. "There's not an easy answer for this. This is not a long-term thing. I'm just sticking with the hot hand. We know Richie wants to play, but it is what it is."

Let's look at their numbers....
Miguel Cairo: .186 (8-for-43) with a double.
Richie Sexson: .200 (31-for-155) with a six double, nine homers and 21 RBI

Wow, it's gotten that bad.

We tried to press McLaren more about Richie, particularly about the quote he had in Jim Moore's column today in the P-I

Asked if he still had faith in Sexson, McLaren said, "As long as he has faith in himself, I have faith in him. ... It's a battle, but he's working hard. We wanted to give him space to get himself together. There's not an easy answer to this."

For a moment it looked like McLaren really wanted to kind of clear the air, but he stopped short and offered this.

"This is starting to take on a life of its own,'' McLaren said. "It's just a situation where we expect a lot out of our players. We're just trying to get him going. But in the meantime, the team was struggling so bad and we won two games, and that's why Miguel is back out there."

My thoughts?

I have no problem with the move for a few games, but if Sexson has really become that bad, then you know what it's time to ship him out. I think we can all agree on that. As for a replacement, why not bring in Scott Hatteberg, who was just released by the Reds, or even call up Bryan LaHair and give him a chance to see what he can do. Could the production be any worse at this point? I think not.

Richie doesn't seem to happy with the situation. He avoided the open area of the clubhouse completely. So much so that a few players even commented, "Where's Richie? Has anybody seen Richie?" just loud enough for us all to hear. I didn't see him take any ground balls. He stood most of BP in the outfield sun talking to teammates. It's not exactly something you do when you 've been benched for not producing. I got to the field early today and didn't see him taking extra BP on the field, but he may have hit in the tunnels.

I'll be honest, I don't know what all he does pre-game, but I haven't seen much from him. Maybe he has a legit excuse, but if he's just pouting, it's not exactly the best thing to do to play your way back into the lineup.

And this isn't the first time this has happened, he did the same thing last season.

It's one thing to not produce, but it's something else to not produce and not give the extra effort to start producing. If Richie is doing it, then I'm wrong. But nothing I've seen in the last two weeks tells me that he is. I don't know that I'd even wait for a trade offer. Just designate him for assignment and send a message to others that this won't be tolerated.

Here's the pitching matchups for the Detroit series:

Friday – RHP Silva (3-2, 5.14) vs. vs. LHP Robertson (3-3, 5.88), 7:10 p.m.

Saturday – RHP Hernandez (2-5, 3.60) vs. RHP Verlander (2-7, 5.16), 12:55 p.m.

Sunday – RHP Batista (3-3, 5.98) vs. LHP Rogers (6-4, 5.88), 1:10 p.m.

SCOUTING REPORT
Sweeping the Mariners last week in Detroit didn’t exactly propel the Tigers onward and upward. Since outscoring Seattle 30-14 in a three-game series the Tigers have lost two out of three to the Minnesota Twins and two out of three to the Los Angeles Angels.

=> Read more!

The Mariners rack up a series win against the the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox Wednesday with a 1-0 victory. And, since Peter Haley and John Froschauer went through all the trouble to make some photos, I thought I'd share them.

First of all, I must be a jinx. I left in the fifth with the Mariners up 1-0 and they won. If I had stayed, they probably would have lost 10-1. Anyway, thanks for your patience so I could get some time off and some fastpitch softball in.

Here's some notes from the Mariners media staff

RED SOX NOTES:
• Tim Wakefield tossed a complete game, 1 run on 4 hits, while striking out 8 in 8.0 innings. The 8 strikeouts set a new season high and are the most since he struck out 8 on June 6, 2007 at OAK.
• Wakefield is now 0-3 at Safeco Field with a 3.20 ERA (14 ER/39.1 IP) in 7 G. He is winless in his last 18 appearances, 8 starts, against Seattle, dating back to his last complete game shutout on July 29, 1997 at Fenway.
• Tim Wakefield tossed his 30th complete game of his career (last: 4/15/06 vs. SEA). It is his second consecutive 1-0 complete game loss (also 9/11/05 at NYY).
• With his 20th stolen base of the season, Jacoby Ellsbury tied Patsy Dougherty (1902) and Henie Wagner (1907) for 5th on the Red Sox all-time list for steals in a rookie season. Nomar Garciaparra (1997) is next on the list with 22.
• Boston has now lost 10 of their last 12 road games and currently 1-5 on their current road trip.
• The Red Sox have now dropped 11 of their last 14 games at Safeco Field.

MARINERS NOTES:
• Erik Bedard allowed only 2 hits in 7.0 IP scoreless innings, with both hits coming in the 4th inning. He is now 3-1 this season at Safeco Field with a 1.34 ERA (33.2IP/5ER) in 5 starts. Bedard has yet to give up more than 2 earned runs in any start at home this season, while recording 4 quality starts. His 1.34 home ERA is second best in the Majors.
• Today was the Mariners first shutout of the season (last: 9/21/07 at LAA).
• This was the first time this season Mariner starters have tossed 3 consecutive games of 7.0 innings-or-more. It’s also the first time since the final 3 games of the 2007 season (9/28-30 vs. TEX).
• Yuniesky Betancourt went 2x3 with a solo home run and RBI. It was his 4th multi-hit game in his last 5 games and his 13th of the season.
• Brandon Morrow appeared in 17th relief appearance, tossing a scoreless 8th inning. Has allowed only 2 earned runs this season 13.0, lowering his ERA from 1.50 to 1.38.
• Wladimir Balentien has reached base safely in 17 consecutive games, drawing a walk or recording a hit in each game he has appeared in since May 8.
• Ichiro swiped his league leading 23rd stolen base during the 8th inning. He has stolen 17 bases in the month of May.
• The Mariners have turned a double play in 13 of their last 16 games (20 total).
• Jose Lopez had his 6-game hitting streak snapped after going 0x3 with a strikeout. During the streak he hit .360 (9x25). It was his 3rd hit streak of at least 6 games this season.
• Tonight’s lineup was the 15th different lineup that the Mariners have used over the last 17 games.
• This was 33rd 1-0 win Mariners history (last: 8/9/05 vs. MIN). Seattle is 20-15 at home in 1-0 games, while going 12-24 on the road.

RED SOX MANAGER TERRY FRANCONA:

On Tim Wakefield: “He left one ball up all night and it left the ballpark, otherwise Wake was spectacular, and they made the run stand up. His pitches were there, he was throwing strikes all night long, and when he has that kind of movement on his pitches, that’s when he has success.”

General Comments: “We’ve seen some great arms on this road trip and in certain games we’ve had nothing to show for it. When the pitchers are pounding the strike zone against us we can’t just take a pitch because we’ll be behind 0-1, so we’re trying to be aggressive.

First of all, I want to thank Don for covering the game last night, and Todd for tonight. The few sort-of days off have been refreshing.

John McGrath offers up a few reasons for the Mariners to maintain hope for success this season in his latest column.

Anyway....

Jeff Clement got hurt last night's game against the Fresno Grizzlies. It doesn't seem to be anything too serious, but he took a foul ball off the ankle. You can read about it in this story..

I'm firing up the Jeff Clement Watch, not because I think he should be up right now (another week or two in Triple A can't hurt him, metaphorically speaking anyway), but just so you don't have to go looking for his stats all the time. He went 0-for-3 and had his 13-game hitting streak snapped.

Here's the Rainiers stats ...

Clement is hitting .372 with 14 doubles, nine home runs and 30 RBI with 27 base on balls.

Guess who's back? Back again. Shady's back, tell your friends. ...

Gotta love quoting some old Eminem...

Yep, I'm back, well sort of, I'm actually not covering the game tonight. That honor goes to our Coug/golf writer Todd Milles. I'm actually up here doing a little work, but will be sneaking away from the game a little early, so no game thoughts from me tonight. I'm not getting lazy on you, I asked for a few days off to recover from the road trip. But I'll be back full strength for the Tigers series and the Angels series.

And since I've wrote about two wins in the last 24 games covered, I think that's probably a good thing that I'm not covering it. I actually went to last night's game as a fan. No, I didn't sport any Red Sox or Mariners gear. I was sporting a Long Beach State hat. Anyway, the experience was pretty fun, even with the obnoxious Sox fans everywhere.

One thing that is different is that I've been brainwashed into never cheering. I never cheer, never yell (except when the beer guys comes by and at Montana football games), but I will say that I did get a little excited when Morrow struck out Manny and Lowell and Lopez came through.

That's the one thing about Morrow, I know everybody wants to convert him to a starter, and I guess I agree with that, but when you see what he can do in a relief role it's tantalizing to think about him being a closer one day.

If you look at the situation he came into last night, he was the only one, besides JJ built to succeed. You needed to have strikeouts, not just outs like Mark Lowe would get, or groundballs like Sean Green would induce. The Mariners needed strikeouts and with Morrow's sick velocity, he was the only one going to do that.

I know McLaren said that the transition for Morrow to being a starter could happen soon, but I wouldn't start trying to anticipate when to buy tickets his first start in Safeco, unless you are looking at tickets for next season.

McLaren has said they are only in the talking stages, and Morrow said that management told him, "it's not going to happen this year."

A few notes....

* Jarrod Washburn's start has been pushed back again. It will now be RHP Carlos Silva on Friday, RHP Felix Hernandez on Saturday, RHP Miguel Batista on Sunday.

McLaren was kind of contradictory saying that Washburn didn't get pushed back because he was shelled for nine runs and 11 hits in his last outing against the Tigers, but then said that they are going to try and go with the best match-ups when they can.

* Miguel Cairo is starting again tonight. McLaren said he likes the energy that he brings to the game and he wants to give Richie another day off to clear his head. I asked if he thought some of Richie's struggles might be due to the suspension. McLaren thought it might be the case. Now let's kid ourselves, Richie wasn't exactly tearing the cover off the ball before the suspension. But since he's had 17 strikeouts in 36 at-bats since he's returned.

* Jamie Burke is also starting tonight as Bedard's personal catcher. We'll see if it works better than the last time in New York. But because Burke is starting, Cairo has been moved to second in the batting order and Jose Lopez has been slotted in the fifth spot.

As mentioned in the Mariners notebook in this morning's paper, the Mariners have sent pitcher Cha Seung Baek to the Padres for pitcher Jared Wells. Wells will join the Rainiers in Fresno. The team release:

MARINERS ACQUIRE RHP JARED WELLS FROM SAN DIEGO PADRES
Will Be Optioned to AAA Tacoma.

Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the Mariners have acquired right-handed pitcher Jared Wells from the San Diego Padres in exchange for right-handed pitcher Cha Seung Baek. Baek was designated for assignment on May 21.

Seattle will option Wells to AAA Tacoma today. He will join the Rainiers in Fresno.

Wells, 26, made his Major League debut with the Padres this season, appearing in two games and not recording a decision. He had nine saves with AAA Portland, allowing 19 hits in 20.0 innings pitched while compiling a 1-1 mark.

In 2007, he spent the full season with Portland. After beginning the season in the starting rotation, he moved to the bullpen fulltime on June 8. Beginning June 8, he was 2-1 with 9 saves and a 2.93 ERA (14 ER / 43.0 IP) in 37 games. Wells did not allow a home run in 43.0 relief innings. He did not allow a run in his final 15 outings (Aug. 6-Sept. 3) converting seven consecutive save opportunities over that span.

Baek, 27 (turns 28 May 29), appeared in 10 games, making one start, with Seattle this season and was 0-1, 5.40 (18 ER, 30.0 IP). He was 10-9, 4.96 in 37 games/24 starts over parts of four seasons with the Mariners. The native of Pusan, Korea was originally signed by the Mariners as a non-drafted free agent on Sept. 25, 1998.

I guess we assumed this had already happened, but ESPN is reporting this morning that former Mariner Bret Boone is retiring. He tried to make a comeback with the Washington Nationals in spring training, but he didn't make the team out of spring training.

The Mariners beat the Red Sox, 4-3. And here are the photos to prove it.

Postgame trade: The Mariners are expected to announce Wednesday that they have traded pitcher Cha Seung Baek to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Jared Wells. Baek, who spent much of his career in Tacoma, was designated for assignment last week.

Final: Jose Lopez two-out single in the bottom of the ninth gives Mariners a 4-3 win.

A predictably happy clubhouse.

“There’s something special about a walk-off,” Mariners manager John McLaren said. “I just wanted to win for everybody. We really played the game right and we played the game hard. That goes for (the series in) New York and Detroit too. … This is a good feeling because the guys are sticking together. We’re going to come out of this. The fans were great. There’s always something special about the bottom of the ninth when you’ve got to go on the field and meet your guys and jump up and down. It’s a real special feeling.”

And perhaps a little intimidating.

“I wanted to run to center field because I knew my team was coming to kill me,” Lopez said. “I feel great after that hit, the RBI, the team winning, and ending the seven game losing streak.”

Matsuzaka, who left after four innings, apparently suffered a right shoulder injury of undetermined severity. He'll be examined more fully Wednesday.

Other notes:

*The Mariners snapped a season-high seven-game losing steak.

* This was Seattle's first walk-off win since Sept. 27, 2007.

* Ichiro went 2x4, his third straight multi-hit game.

* Raul Ibanez got a hit, snapping an 0x16 streak.

* Kenji Johjima stole third base in the sixth inning ... the first time he's ever stolen third, and his first stolen base since September of 2006.

* The Mariners are 3-1 when I cover their games.

The Sox and M's will conclude the series at 7:10 tonight, with Seattle ace Erik Bedard going against Boston’s Tim Wakefield.

“We’re looking for Erik to follow-up (tonight),” McLaren said. “Give us another quality start, win us a series and feel good about ourselves on the off day (Thursday).”

9:20: Tonight's attendance: 30,758.

8:55: Nicely dramatic moment. A Yuniesky Betancourt error opens the door. Manny Ramirez at the plate representing the tying run. Red Sox fans cheering. Mariners fans answer with boos. Ramirez sends a shot 364 feet into the right field stands, tying it at 3-3. Ramirez lifts his right hand to the crowd twice as he circles the bases.

8:45: They're dropping like flies. With two outs in the Mariners half of the fifth, Boston shortstop Julio Lugo was tossed from the game. (Apparently complaining about a checked-swing ruling by third base umpire Angel Hernandez ... but it TV has a better idea, I'd be happy to hear it.) Then Boston manager Terry Francona came out to have his say and he got tossed too.

8:30: Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka has been removed from the game. He took the mound to warm up for the bottom of the fifth, and suddenly teammates, coaches and training staff were around him. Moments later, he was headed to the clubhouse.

8:27: Halfway through: M's, 3-0.

8:10: Through three, Mariners, 3-0.

8 p.m.: Through two and a half: Mariners 2, Red Sox 0.

7 p.m.: Nice day, fair crowd, roof open and a team on a seven-game losing streak facing an 8-0 pitcher. Play ball.

5:15: It's early, but this may be the line of the day:

McLaren was saying his team is tense and just needs a laugh for morale. He was asked if he's ever seen anything like that help a clubhouse.

His answer: "In Toronto, I think they brought a stripper in the clubhouse. It got mixed reviews. Some of the guys who were pretty close to the Lord weren’t too happy about it."

4:50: The Mariners took the field a bit earlier than usual today in order to accommodate infield practice.

Manager John McLaren said it wasn't to improve the defense -- which has has been satisfied with lately -- but just an effort to a button -- any button -- to get this team on track.

"I’m just changing the routine," he said. "We’ve actually been fielding the ball really well. I’m just trying to change the routine up, and maybe give it a little spring training theme, I don’t know, maybe just trying to break the monotony."

4:45: Here's the Mariners' lineup:
Ichiro, cf
Lopez, 2b
Vidro, dh
Ibanez, lf
Beltre, 3b
Johjima, c
Balentien, rf
Cairo, 1b
Betancourt, ss

You'll notice that Richie Sexson is sitting. McLaren told us not to make to much of that.

Check out more images from last night's game.

Well, it was a pretty quiet clubhouse again.

Manager John McLaren thought Felix pitched well and had his best stuff of the season. But the eighth inning just fell apart with some bad breaks.

"There's some encouragement but we are just looking for a win," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "Moral victories; that's not what we are looking for."

Felix also tried to remain positive, but also admitted he wasn't pleased with taking the loss and how the eighth inning went down.

"I'm not frustrated. I've just got to find a way to win some games, that's all," Hernandez said.

As for Ichiro's catch the conversation was interesting as usual ...

Here's his quotes ..

On the catch?
Yesterday for some reason, some people thought I should have caught the ball yesterday for some reason. So today I thought I’m going to go for this ball no matter what. I don’t care if I get injured or anything. I had a lot of stress piled up from yesterday. So that was my thoughts.

Because of that I don’t remember much about what happened in the play, I just let my body go. I kind of thought the wall was near, I don’t remember what really happened.

Was he hurt?
I was not dizzy, but I felt kind of unsure about my neck and hips and I was checking them to be sure.

And now?
I’m alive.

On keeping his hat on?
My hat was down here so I couldn’t see, so I pushed my hat up to see. I guess in that second I was pretty calm and collected.

What did he think after watching it on the jumbotron?
I thought as long as I don’t look ugly it was all good.

On who was saying he should have caught the ball?
I don’t think that’s necessary for me to say.

After saying things might be falling apart, is he seeing signs that it might be getting better?
I don’t know. I hope so. But I don’t know.

Also for the guys over at USS Mariner, Shannon Drayer told him of the quest to find beer from Papua New Guinea and he found that quite amusing. "I didn't know that, you mean there's an article about that ..."

Here's some other final stuff ...
Colon went 7 innings allowing one run on five hits and struck out four, and you're right Orogenic Colon didn't pitch that well, but when you have some of the Mariner hitters blindly hacking at anything, he's going look good.

For Sharkhawk: The announced attendance was 35,818, about 60 percent Red Sox fans.

Ortiz's home run was a 12th of the season and Felix said it was a changeup and a good pitch.

All five of Boston's runs were scored on two outs.

The win snapped a seven-game Boston road losing-streak.

Felix has now lost five straight games. During that run his ERA is 5.55

Another large crowd, with plenty of Sox fans, I'm sure a few M's fans might have sold their tickets for this series.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:41 -- Papelbon makes it interesting, but the Mariners still lose.

9:26 -- Just an unreal play by Adrian Beltre for a double play. I know he's not hitting well now, and he's made a few errors in the field, but there are only maybe two other third basemen in the league that can make that play.

9:03 -- and the wheels have fallen off. Pedroia and Manny jump on pitches over the plate and with the Mariners, once they get down, they stay down.

Well, this just sucks. 1-1 going in 5-1 now.

8:26 -- How many American League teams have their DH and No. 3 hitter sacrfice with two on and nobody out in a one run game? The Mariners that's who. And I couldn't agree more with it. You need runs.

And it worked. Tie game, good at-bat by Raul, it wasn't easy. He got behind a little.

8:01 -- And that is why I would pay to watch a game Ichiro plays in. Just an unbelievable catch and he slammed opened the fence with melon. THe play received standing ovation from the fans here, all of them, not just the Mariners.

I think the coolest thing when a player makes a great play is when all the players wait at the front of dugout for him to come in. That is so cool.

7:51 -- Ortiz with a bomb to center off a two-seamer that was barely in the bottom part of the line-up. It was pretty good hit. That pitch was in the bottom of the strike zone. As expected Felix was not to happy. I couldn't tell if he was yelling at Joh about it or not.

7:46 -- Alright no more dancing ushers till this team wins a game.

7:42 -- Ichiro can't get a run home, popping up to shallow center, perhaps the beers of Papua New Guinea are taking their toll.

7:35 -- Felix looking pretty sharp. What I like is that he's not trying to strike everybody out and he's pitching to contact.

7:30 -- Colon strikes out Ibanez and then Beltre and screams .... "Get in my belly!!"

LINEUPS
Boston
Jacoby Ellsbury CF -- Another strong product of the 2005 draft.
Dustin Pedroia 2B -- I can't help but like him, then again I like most major leaguers I'm taller than -- Pedroia, David Eckstein, Chone Figgins, Mike Gallego.
David Ortiz DH --- Big Papi vs. Vidro in the battle of DHs, who you got?
Manny Ramirez LF --- How many Manny being Manny moments will there be over the next three days
Mike Lowell 3B -- He's starting to hit, which makes the lineup much more dangerous.
J.D. Drew RF -- The only thing more frustrating about watching Drew play would be if he wore a Mariners uniform.
Jason Varitek C -- Remember this guy was traded along with Derek Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb. I will now jump out of the press box.
Sean Casey 1B -- a late replacement for Kevin Youkilis
Julio Lugo SS -- One shortstop in the AL that I wouldn't take over Betancourt.
----------------
Bartolo Colon P -- looks to be in better shape, he's only weighing about 290 with 250 of it in his butt and mid section.

MARINERS
Ichiro CF -- was his beers and booing line a joke or a prediction
Jose Lopez 2B -- Lopey was kind of mopey the other day after making that error, which he should have been.
Jose Vidro DH -- Mac says he's healthy and starting to hit again.
Raul Ibanez LF -- Clearly frustrated after his performance in NY. He'll punish himself with more work in the cage and weight room.
Adrian Beltre 3B -- Still hitting under .150 with runners in scoring position.
Jeremy Reed RF -- his last at-bat in the YAnkees game was something to build from.
Richie Sexson 1B -- Richie dropped all the way down to seventh behind REed, Beene said it's only cause they can't bat him 10th.
Kenji Johjima C --
Yuniesky Betancourt SS -- he doesn't get cheated, ever.
-------------
Felix Hernandez P -- You mean Tiger. I don't think he'll be talking about his golf game in public anymore.

Well, I'm at Safeco Field today, after a nice cross country flight that took me from LaGuardia Airport in New York, to Cincy for a quick layover -- no I didn't see Ken Griffey Jr. boarding a plane to Seattle - to Sea-Tac, where I saw Miguel Cairo there - no he wasn't being shipped out to another team. Anyway my day started at 3 a.m. Eastern time and I did managed an hour nap on the plane and an hour nap in Tacoma.

So if my writing is a little off and more mistake-filled than usual, that's my excuse. Anyway some of you may wondering if it commitment to the job that brought me up to Safeco on a travel day. Well, sort of. I will admit that as a kid I grew up cheering for the Boston Red Sox. It kind of started after Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. I really didn't care for them, but I just remember the look on Bill Buckner's face walking off the field at Shea. I just felt sorry for him and I remember cheering for them in Game 7. And from there, I just kind of liked the Sox. I was a big fan of Mike "Gator" Greenwell - don't ask me why, but I have 234 Greenie cards, and even his rookie probably isn't worth the cardboard it's printed on. I'll get more to this later, and the trend of the Sox fans taking over Safeco.

One thing I did do on the trip was grade the suckfest, err, road trip.

Six games, six losses, a multitude of runs, a multitude of mistakes, is there any question what the grades for this road trip are going to be.

Hmm, let’s take a line from Animal House.

The Mariners are now 18-33 with a firm grip on last place in the American League West, and perhaps more frustrating – the worst record in the American League.

Hitting: D-
To be fair, the Mariners actually scored some runs over the six games - 27 runs, which is just over four a game. But let’s not kid ourselves. Things like Detroit’s pathetic bullpen and Richie Sexson’s meaningless two-run home run in the eighth inning of a nine-run game helped the overall numbers. But in terms of playing good offensive baseball, the Mariners were below sub-standard. I can remember at least two times where they had a runner on third with less than two outs and failed to score him. One thing to remember though. Because the Mariners were constantly down by a plethora of runs, they weren’t able to do much in the way of manufacturing runs and being aggressive, instead having to stay back and hope for some walks and homers, which we all know they aren’t good at.

Pitching: F-
Let’s see the Mariners gave up a gajillion runs, only twice did a starter make it past the fifth inning, and that was Silva and Washburn going six in the road trip's last two games. In all the Mariners gave up 61 runs on the road trip for an ERA of 11.44. That span of pitching dropped them into a tie with Detroit for the worst overall ERA in all of baseball at 4.96.

But it was the matter in which the pitchers gave up the runs. The pitching took their team out of the game almost immediately. The Mariners would be down five, six sometimes nine runs before the fourth inning. Those type of shellings are hardly morale builders. And the bullpen wasn’t much better. Sure most of the games were basically out of hand when they came in, but Sunday’s meltdown was bad. Sean Green cannot walk Derek Jeter. He just can’t. Make Jeter beat you, but don’t walk him. He’s the lead-off hitter. And Arthur Rhodes has one job – get lefties out – and he couldn’t do it. Yes Bobby Abreu had a nice at-bat, but when you’re one job is to come in and get one left-handed hitter out and instead you give up a double that scores a run. It should be deemed failure.

Fielding: F
When the pitchers weren’t giving up earned runs, the defense was tossing a few unearned runs out as well. Jose Lopez’s booted ground ball at second on Saturday led to two runs and turned a manageable deficit into an impossible one. Lopez had a couple of bad fielding miscues. Wlad Balentien still has some trouble at the hard line drives hit to him in left. Raul Ibanez is simply not going to get to certain balls. His range is that far gone. And Adrian Beltre continues to add to his error total this season - 8 total. Hell, even Ichiro isn’t exempt in this. He over ran a ground ball in the outfield, and couldn’t come up with a tough catch in center yesterday. I’m chalking up J.J.’s error to poor judgment of the situation. Like he said, he got caught up in the moment and when you’ve lost five in a row, that play seems like a good idea, when really it is the opposite.

Management: inc.
Why? Because I really didn't know if it was going to stay in tact for the whole trip.

First of all, I liked that general manager Bill Bavasi backed John McLaren, while blaming the players. He’s right - there’s a lack of leadership and accountability in the clubhouse and some players have developed a sense of tolerance of inconsistence play. That’s not to say they want to play sloppily, but that mistakes just don’t’ bother them as much as they should. But Bavasi seemed unwilling to take any responsibility for it. Yes, he said that ultimately it’s his responsibility. Still, he’s questioning the character and competitiveness of the players he brought in. I would think that’s something he might want to have done a little research on before signing a guy. You check a player's health, you scout his baseball abilities, perhaps inquiring as to a player’s personal make-up might be instructive. Or with someone like Bedard is he willing to overlook certain things because of the baseball talent.

Just finished up a Q&A with Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, the Belleramine Prep grad, I'm doing for Tuesday's paper. I figured there's no reason to wait, so here it is:

Q: What has the attention been like since you threw the no-hitter on May 19 vs. the Kansas City Royals?

A: “Go to the field, talk to the media, then go work out. That’s been my routine lately. But it’s calming down. I think, after today, things will get back pretty much to normal and I can go resume my normal routine.”

=> Read more!

For those not with us today.

It may be a day off for most people, but let's not forget to why we remember this day. With a dad, who was a drill sergeant in the army, I was never allowed to think of Memorial Day as just another day off from school or work.

Regardless off your personal or political views, we must remember those who have given their lives for us and for this country.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
1:57 --- Gentlemen, gentlemen if you want to go in there and start firing fastballs at their head every pitch, please be my guest. But the problem is sometimes you are going to need to talk to them again. And my job as a beat writer is more of a reporter, than opinion guy, that's what the columnists are supposed to be for. But that being said, we have more freedom than ever as beat writers to express opinions, especially on the blog. I think I've been pretty tough on the Mariners when I felt it was necessary.

But if you think we weren't going to ask JJ about throwing that ball, you guys are insane.

Of course we asked.

"I never had had it in my hand," he said. "I just got caught up in the moment. I probably should have eaten that ball."

As for Ichiro, we went up and asked specifically if there was communication issues, and he said, "No." in english, which doesn't happen too often. What he said happened is that they were playing Molina a little up because he's not known to have great power. And when the ball was hit off bat, Ichiro said he took off running immediately because he knew it was going to be over his head. And because of that, his angle to where the ball would be was a little off. That's why it looked awkward. And the sun also played a minor factor as well.

And also dropped this smart ass comment to a cute woman reporter from New York

"If I had spiritual powers and knew the ball was going to be landing there, I would have positioned myself better, but I don't have those spiritual powers," he said, which set the girl into a giggling spell.

1:05 -- Absolutely unbelievable what is happening right now. I just don't know how to explain it.

First of all, JJ has lacked some of his usual velocity from the the first pithc, I don't know if he's trying to save for the ninth. But it won't matter because with Cano's sac fly to center and now Jose Molina's double to right-center. Jose Molina? Are you kidding me? And did Ichiro lose the ball in the sun a little. This is really brutal.

I don't want to go in the clubhouse too badly now.

12:35 -- And Richie's average now drops to .198 with that strikeout, that's all the hat trick for this game. Mariners baseball: The Mojo's Risin'

12:19 -- Turbo!!! with a couple of RBIs. Actually, I know it makes some fans cringe seeing him do well

11:51 --- Well that had the potential to end badly for Washburn with runners on second and third and the top of the order coming up, but a couple of nice plays by Richie at first base kept the game at 3-2 for the Mariners.

11:22 --- Well, with bases loaded, Yuni was typical Yuni, first swinging at a pitch six inches off the outside corner, and then swinging at a pitch that almost hit him and then fighting off a few to get an RBI single to left.

Shelley Duncan with an error to give the Mariners a lead.

That has to be the strangest double play ever a 3-2-6... I don't even want to describe it.

11:06 --- The Mariners 1-0 lead was brief. Wlad Balentien misjudged a line-drive off the bat of Johnny Damon that went for a double and then Jeter doubled home Damon to tie the game.

Jeter's hit snappped an 0-for-18 streak, which seems impossible considering how the Yankees have treated Mariners pitching.

10:50ish - Ichi-Bomb and the Mariners have a lead

10:39 - This is why I'm hot, this is why I'm hot, this is why, this is why, this is why I'm hot. I'm cause I'm fly, you ain't cause you not. This is why, this is why I'm hot.... There's the lyrics to A-Rod's walk-up music. I think I'm going to go vomit now.

10:30 --- Not much going on here. The MAriners have had a few baserunners, but other than that pretty boring. Since I have nothing to post about here's Mike Curto's story about the Rainiers fourth straight loss.

10:20 -- It's best to mention that manager John McLaren was asked about doing with Brandon Morrow what the Yankees are doing with Joba Chamberlain, which is transitioning him to a starter.

McLaren said that it's something they've talked about in the past. And could possibly do this season. That wouldn't mean that Morrow would necessarily be shipped to Triple A Tacoma. They could do it at the major league level like Chamberlain is doing.

Here's the lineups ...

CF Ichiro Suzuki - nothing like a cool refreshing beer Papua New Guinea after a long day at work.
2B Jose Lopez - He was visibly upset following last nights game, perhaps knowing how costly his error was.
DH Jose Vidro - .233 average, three homers and 22 RBI, that's standard DH numbers there.
LF Raul Ibanez - Continues to show up early for extra BP to get out of this mini-funk
3B Adrian Beltre - Lead's the team 10 homers, but hitting .125 with runners in scoring position
C Kenji Johjima - Wonder what he's thinking when he calls this game, should I go with the fastball, or the fastball?
1B - Richie Sexson - position in the order continues to go down, much like his batting average of late.
RF Wlad Balentien - When was the last time he hit a home run? The last time he saw a fastball.
SS Yuni Betancourt - still believes the strikezone starts at his ankles and ends at his eyebrows.
------
P Jarrod Washburn - He says he always pitches well in Yankee Stadium. We shall see.

Yankees
LF Johnny Damon - HE throws a baseball like Uncle Rico threw a football on Napoleon Dynamite.
SS Derek Jeter - maybe the Mariners could borrow him for a series or two as a reminder of what true leadership is all about.
RF Bobby Abreu - i have no interest in him
3B Alex Rodriguez - In greed he trusts
DH Jason Giambi - Is it really the gold thong or the Mariners pitching that is getting him hits.
1B Shelley Duncan - one of the most homely players in baseball
2B Robinson Cano - Remember when somebody on ESPN picked him to be the MVP of the league? Good call.
C Jose Molina - He's gotta be faster than his brother Bengie. But so is a man with two broken legs.
CF Melky Cabrera - A long way from Mickey to Melky.
-----
P Chien-Ming Wang - read the article on him in SI, he makes ERik Bedard look like Robin Williams in terms of outgoingness.

I know the arguments we have had about the impact of leaders, and the need for accountability in the organization, starting with the players.

Some people don't believe it's necessary, some people do. I think most of you know where I fall on the side of the debate. And that's why I was happy to see starting pitcher Carlos Silva show a little bit of that yesterday after his start.

Without naming names or pointing fingers, Silva questioned some of his teammates and their motivation these days. Let's see, this guy has been here for less than a year and could see something was wrong. It's that obvious.

As I mentioned before, general manager Bill Bavasi also backed manager John McLaren and criticized the players and their lack of leadership and accountability yesterday.

It was very similar to what Padres general manager Kevin Towers said about his team and manager Bud Black a week ago.

But as our columnist John McGrath points out, many of these players that Bavasi is being critical of, are players he brought in himself.

Still, President Chuck Armstrong has said again that Bavasi's job was secure.

So where do we go from here?

Is the season hopelessly lost?

At what point do you call it good and start playing young players?

I really don't have answers to these questions right now.

Here's the transcript from the interview with Bill Bavasi from yesterday.

You guys know guys that we don’t and never have commented on contract situation, whether its free agents or employees or me anything else.

On John McLaren’s status..

“This is not a field managerial issue. John is doing a good job. Our performance is not related to his work. It’s purely related to player performance and underperformance and underachievement.

Nobody had the nerve to pick us less than second place in our division. We were picked anything from first to second to wild-card. You name it. The expectations were a heck of a lot higher than this, based on any analysts’ evaluation of our players’ individual track records and their age. Their ages are such that they’re not all young guys that they’re inexperienced. But they’re not too old to believe that they would backslide. So, I think those expectations are realistic. They were and they are.

From our point view this is not a field managerial issue. It’s more an issue of player performance, the roster and the like. To that end, our biggest issues are just playing the game clean. We’re not in a position to be talking about wins and losses. We have yet, since spring training, played three clean baseball games in a row.

We’re ending up with a man on second or men on second and third with nobody out and they stay there. Then we run into a period, where we can’t get out first three innings without giving up 20 runs.

Unfortunately for us, we don’t have on this club so far, we don’t have that players, or players, enough in his guts to take care of himself and with enough left over to take care of somebody else as well.

We don’t get a runner over, don’t get a runner in. As a group of individuals, the players are tolerant. Good teams just don’t tolerate that.

We can make changes on the roster because we have a player designated, so we’re talking to every club by virtue of that. We’re going to be hard pressed to make deals this far before the deadline for anybody that’s better than what we have. If we can, we can get back into character issue.

We’ve expended a lot of minor league players in deals for guys that have a lot of talent.

That’s it in a nutshell right here.

So you’re saying this a direct call for leadership from players?
As loud and clear as I can. I hear that from our McLaren. I hear them out from our guys. That’s self evident. Good teams they take of this stuff in the clubhouse. They make demands of each other and I’m not sure we’ve got that going on right now.

“I know the popular refrain during a period like this is that he manger becomes a topic That’s not the topic for us. We’re looking inside; we’re looking at our club for help. We’re looking for them to step up and play like they can, not like they want, but like they can.”

Do you have anybody in mind to be that leader?
I see people who can. You’d be surprised who can in all walks of life. But you have to be wiling to take that first step out of your shell.

What can you do?
I don’t know that that’s something that we want to react to right now. If we have a magic bullet, we would fire it. From our point of view as a staff, in the office we have to keep looking player personnel, deals, but like I said we’re going to be hardpressed to find somebody better than what we have now. That doesn’t mean we stop looking.

Every club plays close attention t0 the character of guys, but you never what their character is truly like till they get into the heat of battle. John and his staff and all of us just have to keep doing what doing now which is identify problems on a daily basis, address them and keep making changes that way. Make changes in the way we play, and keep keeping on guys from the staff’s point of view about the way were playing, make the correction and try

At the end of the day, the players gotta go out and do this. This interview isn’t meant to be a sole attack on the players, you can’t send out a memo saying play better. These guys are putting their effort into it. They just might need to put effort in a little differ in more intelligent way and play the game right.

We can analyze this thing real well, we’re looking for people who can analyze and help solve it. Sometimes that is making demands on each other. The good teams do that. The good teams can point out the things they’re doing wrong they’ve done wrong and but they can demand of each other that they do things right

How this has affected him personally?
It’s beyond frustrating. It’s tough to fathom. That’s not to say we’re giving in. We’re kind of a lucky bunch that in this kind of fix that we’re in that nobody has blasted away in our division. I think there is hope here. We’re not devastated to the point that we’re giving in. I get worried when I hear play talk about and say it’s falling apart. I get more worried when I hear about things falling apart and not anybody stepping up to find their own solution within that clubhouse.

On Ichiro’s comment that the team could be falling apart.
From a personal point of view, it’s frustrating to see what’s going on and its frustrating to hear those kind of things. It’s a very, very, very frustrating time right now.

On whether he can sit and watch a whole game?
This whole thing isn’t easy to go through, but these are our jobs. They’re no fun to watch, but you watch. Every time you watch one, like John, like his staff trying to pick something up to use.

On the players’ playing hard.
This group of guys, the players do care, I think they’re playing hard, I think they’re trying hard, but sometimes have to try more intelligently, have to find some sort of strength, get that runner over, runner in. It’s the same examples on the mound, make a pitch.

On the sloppy play, the last few rundowns as examples…
“We need that player that will grab somebody by the throat and say, ‘Hey, that’s not what we do here,’ The best teams, they take care of this stuff in the clubhouse. They make demands of each other, and I’m not sure we have that going on.”

Will he make changes in the future?
"I don't know that that's something that we want to react to right now,'' he said. "If we had a magic bullet, we would fire it. I think we have to, from our point of view as a staff, in the office we have to keep looking for player personnel, deals, but like I said, we're going to be hard-pressed to find somebody better right now than what we have. We have to keep looking for those guys. It doesn't mean you stop looking.

OK, here's what's going down.

KOMO's Shannon Drayer talked with Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi on the phone earlier this morning about the state of the team. Listen to that here.

About 10 minutes ago (10:41 a.m. Pacific time) we had a conference call with Bavasi as well to address manager John McLaren's job status and his thoughts of the team.

Basically, he said what's going on with the team is not McLaren's fault. He instead said that much of this is due to lack of player leadership in the clubhouse and execution from the players.

"We need that guy who's going to grab somebody by the throat and say this isn't how we do this," Bavasi said.

One thing also worth noting is that Bavasi is also taking some of the responsibility for this team, since, well he built it.

"It's my responsibility, the buck stops here," Bavasi said. "This is a club I think we all had a lot higher expectations on."

The Mariners have lost three straight and 11 of 15 and 16 of 21 and just 7-17 on the road. Inspiring numbers to be sure.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
8:54 -- This is just sad and nauseating to watch, kind of like a Dr. Phil show. It's 12-2 and Sean Green is getting rocked, and now they are bringing in R.A.

Here's Bedard's final line 4 1/3, 9 runs, 8 hits, and a walk with three strikeouts. Yep, it's all Johjima's fault.

8:39 -- Wow, well this games over with for certain, Bedard gets knocked around, including Matsui who's now 3-for-3 off him. Perhaps he took offense to how Bedard treated his fellow countryman.

8 p.m. -- so once again, I post about four or five paragraphs of thoughts and they don't save, thanks to the sweet software we are using. I've had it with this stuff. HEre's the gist of my thoughts
1. Ichiro mad at ump
2. McLaren mad and gets tossed
3. homeplate ump Mike DiMuro not so good.
4. It's 50-50 whether this even saves to the blog.

7:34 -- the Mariners have a lead, my God, I cannot believe it. Yuni Betancourt with an RBI single to left. Even more impressive, Betancourt laid off a couple pitches that weren't strike.

7:19 -- A-Rod's walk up music is "This is why I'm hot" by Mims. He makes it too easy to dislike him.

Here's today's lineups...
Ichiro CF ---
Lopez 2B --- McLaren wanted him back batting second because he seems to hit best there
Vidro DH --- .208, two homers, 19 RBI, name another No. 3 hitters with numbers that good
Ibanez LF --- He came in and took extra BP this afternoon, the guy's never afraid to work.
Beltre 3B -- .246 batting average, even lower with runners in scoring position
Sexson 1B --- .206 batting average, hardly the stuff of a comeback player of the year award winner.
Balentien RF --- Still striking out far too much for his liking or anyone elses.
Burke C --- That's Erik Bedard's personal catcher to you.
-------
Bedard P --- he has Burke catching so no excuses are accepted.

Yankees
Jeter SS --- as much as I want to I can't say much bad about him.
Abreu RF --- At least he isn't wearing the white glove
Rodriguez 3B --- never liked the guy, never will
Matsui RF --- doesn't have quite the Japanese media entourage as Ichiro
Giambi DH --- the Giambino has been getting booed some.
Shelley Duncan 1B --- never trust a guy with a first name of a female.
Robinson Cano, 2B --- got the big hit for the Yanks on Thursday night, might have been his only hit in weeks
Moeller C --- I have no idea who this guy is.
Cabrera CF --- Melky has been pukey at the plate.

What would this guy have done if he managed this team?

If you read my story today, I hinted that if the Mariners continued to play as they have the last three days in New York, that John McLaren's days as manager of this mess could be ending.

Our columnist John McGrath also discussed McLaren's fate, but wanted to give him till June 26th - the point at which McLaren managed 162 games - to make a decision.

So what will happen? Is McLaren going to be fired in the coming days?

I'm not sure.

I've already heard some speculation that Mac may be fired as soon as today. However, Bill Bavasi isn't on this trip ... as of yet. Director of baseball administration Jim Na has been traveling with the team, and he certainly won't be firing Mac. However, if I suddenly see Bavasi wandering around Yankee Stadium today, McLaren's demise could be imminent.

If I were put to make a guess by gunpoint, I’d think it would happen during the homestand.

When you are going this bad like the Mariners are, a move needs to be made to just to show that the status quo is unacceptable. Since Bavasi isn't likely to fire himself (a dream many of you have every night). and Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln don’t seem to want to fire Bavasi, and the owners in Japan aren’t going to fire Chuck and Howard because they are raking in the dough, McLaren will end up being the scapegoat in all of this. The Oswald to the FBI, CIA and Dallas Mob, if you believe Oliver Stone.

I know a lot of you are down on McLaren. And I can understand that. There have been decisions that I haven't agreed with, particularly the handling of the catching situation and Jarrod Washburn's comments to the media. He should have just hammered that down right away, silenced a No. 4 pitcher with a losing record for having the audacity to start such nonsense.

As for some of the roster decisions, i.e. keeping Miguel Cairo, letting Greg Norton go, I wonder how much of that is Mac and how much of it is Bavasi. To be fair, even though McLaren has 30 years in baseball, he has less than a season of major league managing cache. Perhaps that makes him less likely to contradict or do things in spite of Bavasi or management, unlike Lou, who did whatever the hell he felt like, consequences be damned.

Sometimes it feels like things like Cairo staying around is because Bavasi doesn’t want to admit yet another mistake. I’ve said it before: I don’t like how the team was built. And I don’t like how it stands now. How much of that falls to McLaren or to Bavasi we don’t know.

As for McLaren, maybe he’s too nice of a guy. He’s a players’ coach, who trusted a bunch of veterans to self-police and self-motivate the clubhouse. And that trust could ultimately cost him his job. Also his gallivanting believerism in his team and his players and his willingness to say as much may also hurt him. He steadfastly stood by underachieving, underperforming players like Vidro, Sexson and even Beltre, telling everyone that they would be fine. But they did nothing to reward that faith.

He believed this team could prepare and motivate itself into being the team that every hoped it could be – a playoff team - and it’s clear this team can’t do it.

Maybe McLaren should have been more forceful, maybe he should have been a little tougher, a little more demanding. But he really felt like the players would expect enough of themselves. And it’s clear that most players can’t or won’t hold themselves up to that standard.

There was no fear, no anxiety that if they underperformed they would be replaced. They knew no matter what happened, they were still playing. It’s why Vidro showed up out of shape and did little to get in shape, and Wilkerson was deemed the starting right fielder when he was clearly outplayed all spring by Balentien, Reed and Jimerson. Or why players that were struggling still seemed content to hang out in the clubhouse instead of telling themselves to put in extra work.

Simply put, there was no trepidation for poor play, like there might be with other managers who have a little more lead in their butt from years of experience.

Would Lou have put up with things that McLaren swallowed? Not hardly. But McLaren isn’t Lou.

What McLaren is … is a good man, a man that’s honest and accommodating, a man that has perhaps more faith in his players than the players have in themselves, a man who ultimately believes it’s the players that make a team win, a man that believed this group of players could live up to expectations, a man that’s given his life to baseball for one major league managerial chance, and a man who could soon be fired.

SCOUTING REPORT
The Yankees have won two consecutive games, but even with that little streak, they haven’t done much since sweeping the Mariners earlier this month.

Since that series, the Yankees have gone 5-9 – not exactly the kind of record you would expect from a team with postseason aspirations.

But hot or not, that hasn’t seem to matter when teams play the Mariners, who drag a three-game losing streak into the Big Apple.

The Mariners need to get going, and although they pitch two of their top starters (Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva) this weekend, so do the Yankees. Two of those pitchers – Chein-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina – have already beaten the Mariners this year. Wang gave up only a run in six innings in a 5-1 victory, and Mussina turned in the same effort in 6-1 Yankees win.

PLAYER TO WATCH
Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez missed the earlier series vs. his former team because of a quad injury that cost him 17 games.

He’s back now and he’s making up for lost time. Although Rodriguez was hitless on Thursday, he homered in each of his two previous games since coming off the disabled list on Tuesday.

RECORD VS. MARINERS
The Yankees swept a three-game series in New York earlier this month.

DID YOU KNOW?
Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter needs 10 more hits to tie Mickey Mantle on the team’s all-time hit list with 2,415.

We were just talking with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre about possible changes to the rotation. And he admitted there had been some, but he wouldn't tell us completely how or why the changes were made, saying he'll let Mac handle that. Originally we were talking to Stottlemyre about perhaps Miguel Batista or Jarrod Washburn getting skipped or replaced, but the changes appear to be because of other things...

But here's what we know...

Felix Hernandez will not be making his scheduled start on Saturday. It looks as though his sore calf is still bothering him to the point that he can't go. Manager John McLaren said that Felix will try and pitch on Monday to start the homestand against Boston.

Instead, Carlos Silva will get pushed up a day and pitch on Saturday, while Jarrod Washburn will pitch on Sunday.

The Yankees have also adjusted their rotation, switching Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina.

So here's how it looks like the updated match-ups will be

Bedard vs. Pettitte, today
Silva vs. Mussina, Saturday
Washburn vs. Wang, Sunday

It appears that everybody's favorite soft-tossing left-hander, no not Jamie Moyer, I'm talking about Horacio Ramirez is back in the major leagues.

Apparently Ho-Ram signed with the Kansas City Royals....

Couldn't they have waited a few days and signed Cha Seung Baek?

But really, I guess you can't make fun of the Royals too much. Since their record is better than the Mariners.

Seattle 18-30
Kansas City 21-26

Ok, so I'm still having trouble with getting posts to register sometimes. It's like if you try and post more than a few times in a half hour, the system can't handle it. Probably not what you want to see from it.

I'm a little bitter because I typed in the starting lineups, complete with comments and they've now vanished into the Internet vortex.

Anyway let me post the line-ups below ...

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
3:47 -- From Chris Mulick - the Tri-Cities Herald state gov't reporter in Olympia....

At any rate, reading your blog while watching the miserable game this morning I thought I'd mention that the broadcast crew has spent the last inning and a half talking about hockey. Perhaps that says something about the game and this team.

Chris, I'd be talking about hockey too at this point, and I don't even like hockey.

3:24 -- I'm slowly losing my mind here, and my will to post anything. It's now 9-2, and getting worse with every inning. I really think if this continues into the weekend we could see a managerial change to open the homestand.

3:01 -- Joyce now with a diving catch on an Ichiro pop-up....

2:53 -- Matt Joyce just crushed a ball off of Dickey into the right field stands. Dickey is going to give up some hits and a few runs, which makes him like everybody else on the staff.

2:37 -- Sorry for the break, but I was applying for my passport on-line, I'm leaving this job to find a desert island where things like Beltre swinging at pitches above his head, and
Betancourt swinging at everything and starting pitchers not going more than four innings doesn't exist. Nothing but beers, beaches and bikinis. Or a june trip to Toronto.

BAses loaded for Raul? Double play that gets a run in

1:45 -- Reed nearly makes a brilliant catch, the ball in his glove and the glove comes off, I'm guessing Raul doesn't make that catch, or even gets his glove on it. It's now 4-0, and i can hear radios all over the Puget Sound being clicked off.

1:30 -- The Mariners down 1-0 after one. Batista allows an RBI double to Ordonez and Sheffield scores on a close play at the plate. Joh didn't quite have the plate blocked very well.

1:15 --- Ichiro gets to third after an infield single and a two-base error on a bad pick-up throw from Bonderman. And you know what? He doesn't score. Beltre pops up to second, Lopez hits a bullet to third that Guillen gloves and Ibanez flies out to left. A runner on third no outs and no runs .... "Mariners Baseball: The Mojo's Risin'"

Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Lopez 2b
Ibanez DH
Sexson 1B
Reed LF
Johjima C
Balentien RF
-----------
Batista P

* little different look, the outfield defense should be a little better. And it's another game that the M's make sure Jose Vidro doesn't get those 450 plate appearances.

Tigers
Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Sheffield DH
Ordonez RF
Cabrera 1B
Guillen 3B
Joyce LF
Renteria SS
Inge C
--------
The pride of Pasco and the prince of free passes --- Bonderman

I don't like these afternoon games because there isn't as much time to post some of the pregame stuff.

Here's a few things.... from ESPN page 2's Jonah Keri and Rob Neyer conversation about disappointing teams.

Rob: OK, so how about the Mariners? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it, that they were everybody's favorite dark horse?

Jonah: Not mine! I didn't like them at all at the start of the season. I wasn't quite as optimistic about the A's as you were in late March (kudos on that one), but I had no problem with anyone predicting a third-place finish for Seattle, even last place if the Rangers ever got their pitching together. To me, the biggest issue with the M's was their woeful lack of secondary players. You had four stars on this team: Erik Bedard, King Felix, J.J. Putz and Ichiro, with Adrian Beltre a fifth player you could classify as very good. After that, ugly. The Bedard trade subtracted a very important bullpen arm in George Sherrill and what would have been a valuable defensive outfielder in Adam Jones.
In fact, for all the wailing about the M's offensive problems, it's been their inability to catch the ball that's been their most consistent problem over the past couple of years. They turn fewer balls in play into outs than just about any team in baseball. Raul Ibanez resembles a mummified Boog Powell in left field, and plenty of others on the roster have defensive reputations that far exceed their actual contributions. Throw in injuries and ineffectiveness turning Putz into half the dominant force he was last year, and Ichiro, at least to date, looking like he may actually be human, and I just don't see enough here. The Mariners don't make the playoffs, they don't contend for the playoffs and we see wholesale changes between now and Opening Day 2009.

Rob: I think that's right. The M's went to a great deal of trouble to improve their rotation, and the guys they got have been fine. But they're still stuck with Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn, both of whom make good money but can't actually pitch. And the M's are last in the league in OBP and only figure to improve a few slots once Ichiro gets going. Fork, meet M's.

From McLaren's pregame media session ...

He was as usual honest and forthright about everything with this team. He still maintains hope, but it's clear that this is wearing on him. It looks like he's aged considerably in the last month.

* On the Cha Seung Baek decision, he said it wasn't spur of the moment.

"We’d been talking about this for awhile. Although Baek gave us some nice innings last night, we’d been thinking about making this move for awhile."

There was some other day to day stuff, but then McLaren without much prompting again talked out the issues of the team like a mini-therapy session. Here's some of the highlights* .

* I know we haven’t, for at least the last month plus, we haven’t played three clean games in a row. What I mean is solid pitching, timely hitting and good defense We’ve had breakdowns in one or two of those areas and sometimes all three.

We just need to start to play clean games. There might have some days where we play clean games, but might not win, but we still play clean games.

We just haven’t had any. I stay up late at night thinking about it. Why would we have breakdowns in couple areas, and the next day we breakdown in another area and the others areas are good?

Winning baseball is about playing a complete game.

We’re still looking from answers.

I look at it, and I just don’t understand, I really don’t. The only scenario that could be worse than what’s going on right now is if we didn’t prepare and we didn’t play hard, it would be unbearable.

It’s pretty close to that now.

No one likes to lose and if you accept losing, I really think you’re in the wrong field of work. This game is about competing and being the best you can be. It’s a team sport.

Losing should never be an option. Sometimes it’s out of your hands, but no one should ever accept losing. It’s unacceptable.

I walk in there every day just to get a pulse like I’ve done for years to see if I can get some kind of read on where are mentally. It doesn’t look like people are down. I know they care. I know they prepare behind the scene, I know they watch film. If we weren’t applying ourselves before the game.

There are not any easy answers around here. It’s going to take us collectively as a team to fight our way through this.

It seems like we plug one hole and another one spurts out. WE need to start playing some clean baseball games. It’s about as easy as I can put it.

You probably get tired of asking the same questions every day. I guarantee the people get tired of reading the same thing every day. It’s a challenge for myself, my team and you. It’s a grind.

The expectations we had at spring training, we all understand that this unacceptable from you, me and the fans.

I know some of you dislike Mac and his decisions, but I love his honesty and his willingness to answer everything the best he can. And I don't think his decisions have been bad, I think he's been hamstrung by a bad roster and pushed in front of moving traffic by some of his players who simply don't have it any more. I don't know if it mattered who would be in here managing this team right now, it would still struggle.

Here's the official release from the Mariners. I haven't been down to the clubhouse yet so I haven't got a chance to talk him.

MARINERS RECALL RHP R.A. DICKEY FROM AAA TACOMA

Will be Available for Today's Game in Detroit.

DETROIT, Mich. -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the Mariners have recalled right-handed pitcher R.A. Dickey from AAA Tacoma. He fills the spot created when Seattle has designated right-handed pitcher Cha Seung Baek for assignment after Wednesday night's game.

Dickey (#41) will be in uniform and available for today's 1:05 pm (ET) game at the Detroit Tigers.

Dickey, 33, will be in his second stint with the Mariners. He was recalled from Tacoma on April 14 and optioned back to AAA on April 22 when J.J. Putz was activated from the disabled list. Dickey made two appearances with Seattle in April, going 0-1, 6.43 (5 ER, 7.0 IP). He started and recorded the loss in his lone start on April 18 at Los Angeles of Anaheim (6.0 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 IBB, 2 SO).

In seven starts with the Tacoma Rainiers, the knuckleballer was 2-5, 3.44 (19 ER, 49.2 IP) with 30 strikeouts and eight walks. He lasted at least 6.0 innings in all seven of his starts, including going 7.0-or-more innings five times.

"Our pitching is a little beat up right now, and having R.A. here will give us some protection if we need a long man today or this weekend," Mariners manager John McLaren said.

As most people know, newspapers and publications often have pre-written, updated obituaries of famous living people on file in case they die. Particularly for older celebs who might be on the verge of death. That's why when someone dies suddenly, a paper like the Washington Post or the New York Times can unveil this monster and in-depth obit for someone the next day. They only need to call it up, update a little with some current info and quotes and then run it. I wonder how many times papers' thought they'd be using the Keith Richards' obit that particular month.

There was some recent public debate when it was leaked that the Associated Press decided to pre-write an obit for Britney Spears when she was in her full, non-underwear wearing, drug doing, depressive glory. Was it premature? Perhaps. But logical.

What does this have to do with baseball, specifically the Seattle Mariners you ask?

Well, maybe like Britney it's time to start preparing the obituary for the passing of the Mariners' playoff dreams.

For some fans it died a slow, awful death a month ago, for others it's on life support but the pulse is fading fast with each loss. Either way, maybe it's time to come the realization that the chances of the Mariners making the playoffs have about as much chance as Britney reviving her singing career, or her winning mommy of the year in 2008.

How bad is it that you can compare all of this to a washed up performer, who really didn't have much talent to begin with? Then again, that's what some fans accuse some of the Mariners' players of being as well.

Is there any chance that Britney cleans up her act, releases another decent album and becomes relevant again?

Is there a chance that the Mariners can come back and somehow find a way to get in the postseason or at least become relevant?

The answer to both is: It's possible.

For Britney? Well, let's not kid ourselves about how celeb obsessed our society is and how many bad songs (this one in particular) that become hits.

For the Mariners? Mathematically, yes. They are 18-29 with 115 games left to play. Baseball is a strange game and perhaps the Mariners find a way to get hot and other teams completely implode it could happen.

But ..........

Really for either Britney or the Mariners it comes down to the fact that nothing either is doing now seems to be helping. In fact, it seems like the current trend for both is steering them toward failure.

The Mariners are just playing so poorly right now that it's tough to imagine them turning this ship around quickly. It would be different if they were getting any combination of: scoring runs, putting up a good fight, getting decent starts, solid bullpen, late-inning rallies or a few good breaks. But they are barely getting one of the seven in each game.

It's clear they have no idea how to stop it. When they do talk, they say all the right things, and act like they believe. But it's more the idea of believing in believing that they have a chance still.

No player will ever to admit to not competing, but they know when they are competitive and not. They don't step on the field believing they will win, they step on the field hoping to win. And soon as a few things go wrong, it all falls apart. Everyday you look for signs that it might change. And you see hints, but never any one moment or situation that says, "things are going to change."

And that's the reason for the prewritten obituary. Any thoughts as to what it should include.

Here's how I've started mine so far ....

SEATTLE - The 2008 Seattle Mariners, a team with lofty goals, postseason dreams and newfound expectations, stumbled and then succumbed under the weight theirs' and their fans hopes. Seattle was mathematically eliminated from postseason play on (insert date here), but it was something that most involved saw coming for months.

This wasn't a sudden end. It was a prolonged and often painful-to-watch process as the team slowly eroded from American League West contender, to postseason possibility, to slow starting squad, to early underachiever, to massive disappointment, to complete catastrophe.

The symptoms of this struggle were few at the beginning, but many at the end, none more apparent and debilitating than questionable front-office decision-making starting in year's past that rendered the organization crippled in personnel and personality in 2008.

It looks like Cha Seung Baek paid the price for the Mariners' starting pitchers transgressions. After making his second straight appearance, throwing three scoreless innings and allowing just two hits, Baek was designated for assignment by the Mariners.

No actual explanation was given. However, since both he and Ryan Rowland-Smith both pitched on consecutive days and leaving no long relief option available and Miguel Batista starting on Thursday, the Mariners had to make a move to bring in another arm in case of an emergency or if Batista pitched like he has the last few games.

Baek was informed about 10:20 local time and received plenty of handshakes and hugs from his teammates.

The Mariners haven't made an official announcement who they are calling up, however it would seem like R.A. Dickey would be the likely candidate. Dickey has already been up once this season and has the type of arm to provide plenty of innings if needed. He pitched on Sunday so he would be ready to go.

The Mariners have 10 days to trade, outright or release Baek. The Mariners will have to place Baek on the waiver wire. Last season, the same thing happened but nobody claimed off the waiver wire and he was sent to Triple A Tacoma, that might not happen this year with pitching-starved teams like the Milwaukee Brewers out there.

Jarrod Washburn said after the game that he tried to stay in the game and "wear the loss" and pitch some more innings to save the bullpen. But McLaren chose to pull him and it looks like Cha Seung is left wearing it this time.

Well, here we are. Another game for the Mariners, more thoughts, more banalities, more of me trying to come up with something quippy to say. Like the Mariners, I'm running out of answers.

Of course, I'll be paying close attention to how Washburn does with Burke behind the plate. But if you look at his numbers, they are not quite as dramatic a difference between catchers.

K Johjima 6 games, 138 plate appearances, 21 runs, 36 hits, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 7 homers, 8 walks, 25 strikeouts, .293 battting average, .348 on-base percentage, .545 slugging percentage.
J Burke 3 games, 58 plate appearances, 5 runs, 16 hits, 5 doubles, 0 0 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, .302 average, .316 on-base percentage, .396 slugging.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:24 --- I now take back all the times I teased Sonics writer Eric Williams about covering a losing team.

9:19 --- Squid, per your comment about my choice of Shania photos, I can't put scantily cla ones of her up. I think we all know she's quite attractive for a 42-year old woman.

8:48 ---- I have no idea what's going on with our blog software, suddenly it's not saving some of my posts to this thread. But you know what nothing surprises me. It's inferior software and it really makes me want to pick my laptop and fire it through the press box window. I've wanted to make some changes to the blog to make it more reader friendly, but I think we're waiting to get some new software. Not sure when. Right now, I feel like I'm going to gun fight with a slingshot. It's times like this where I wonder why even try to blog. AS you can tell I'm irritated. Probably from covering bad baseball.

Anyways, the Mariners have managed to put some stuff together off Kenny Rogers and cut the lead down to 9-4.

It's starting to rain hard, but this game is official regardless.

My buddy Wally back on the desk came up with a funny thought. When Washburn was getting shelled, McLaren should have called time, walked to the mound, and changed catchers, just to prove a point.

7:45 --- Yuni with a homer to left-center, the ball traveled an estimated 396 feet.

7:20 --- Jarrod Washburn might get drilled with a line drive at this point. That's two back through the box on him tonight. Not a good pitch to Inge on 1-2, an 85 mile per hour fastball that caught too much of the inside part of the plate and stayed belt high.

Manager John McLaren briefly apologized for often repeating the same things over and over during his pregame talks with the media. Of course with the daily losses, everyday probably feels like groundhog day to him.

"You know I feel like I'm saying the same things every day," he said.

And perhaps that's why he decided to let us know that Jamie Burke will be catching Erik Bedard for the foreseeable future. You have to love his his blatant honesty. God knows Mike Hargrove would have never admitted as much.

What led us into this little nugget of information is when it was made mention that Burke was catching starter Jarrod Washburn today. Normally Kenji Johjima would catch today and be given tomorrow off, but McLaren switched that. Partially because Washburn and Johjima haven't always been "on the same page" in the last few starts. So McLaren decided to go with Burke.

"Whenever we can do it we'll try to do it," McLaren said. "I'm not going to switch everything all around, but when we have the opportunity we'll do it."

But McLaren admitted that he will make whatever concession necessary to have Burke catch Bedard.

"You gotta look at it two ways, if a guy having success with one guy, you definitely gotta weigh that heavily, that doesn't lie," McLaren said. "We've got kind of that situation with Burke and Bedard. It's been a good combination so we're going to stick with it for awhile."

So basically Burke will become Bedard's personal catcher. Like Eddie Rodriguez for Greg Maddux, Joe Girardi and John Flannery for Mike Mussina.

And McLaren's right the numbers don't lie.

Here's Bedard's numbers with Burke catching ..
4 games, 2-2 record with a 1.57 ERA, 28.2 innings pitched, 109 plate appearances, 7 runs, 17 hits, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs, 7 walks, 25 strikeouts, .168 batting average against, .229 on-base percentage, .277 slugging.

Here's Bedard's numbers with Joh catching....
3 games, 1-0 record, 6.92 ERA, 13 innings pitched, 67 plate appearances, 11 runs, 15 hits, 2 doubles, 0 triples, 5 home runs, 12 walks, 12 strikeouts, .283 batting average, .418 slugging....

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:24 -- This is awful, the Mariners have scratched a few runs on the board to make it somewhat not as embarrassing, but its a bad loss.

9:04 -- Cha Sizzle Baek is anything but, he's getting absolutely rocked. Edgar Renteria has a career high 5 RBI and is a double away from the cycle.

8:53 -- My God, the fans in the outfield should look out for what appears to be baseball-sized hail that's raining down on them.

8:42 -- This may be off topic a little, but it's 8-1, so can you believe that Shania Twain's husband cheated on her?

I mean look at this picture.... or this picture below.

Talk about a guy that clearly married out of his league. Well, I guess Sophia Bush has some competition.

8:30 -- Any suggestions for a lead to my story?

8:29 -- Cha Sizzle Baek enters the game, Cha Sizzle gives up a 371-foot homer to Magglio Ordonez on his fourth pitch.

8:10 -- There's something you don't see every day, Ichiro usually finds a way to get to that ball, but he was playing extremely shallow for some reason. I know McLaren wanted them to play a step closer because of eliminating the runners advancing first to third, but I don't think he was looking for home to third with the bases loaded. It's now 5-1 and safe to say time for me to start planning on writing about a loss.

8:03 -- Baseball America's Jim Callis, who is a MLB draft guru similar to that of Mel Kiper Jr., released this mock draft... which has the Mariners selecting high school pitcher Tim Melville.

7:49 -- What are the odds that Ichiro attempts to steal another base this series after being thrown out?

7:44 -- Mariners now down 2-1 after Renteria's RBI single up the middle.

7:35 -- Well that was apparently an RBI single for Carlos Guillen, but I think we all know that Jose Lopez should have fielded that ball. Even if he doesn't get the out, he keeps it on the dirt and Cabrera doesn't score from second.

First of all Ichiro was safe at second. I love Pudge Rodriguez. He is one of my favorite players to ever put on a uniform. Part of it was because my college coach made me watch videos of him and his catching mechanics. I also love the way he hits to all fields.

With all that being said, Ichiro was safe at second on his steal attempt. HE easily slid under that tag. But Pudge got that call because, well, he's Pudge.

Ultimately it cost the Mariners a run as Adrian Beltre crushed a 3-1 pitch from Justin Verlander over the wall in left. The ball traveled 411 feet according to the press box.

Also the third strike to Raul was not a strike.

Not a good sign for the Ms having issues with the umps in the first inninng

* Here's my story from today's paper.

* Here's Darrin's scouting report for the series.

Pretty low-key clubhouse this afternoon. We talked to Jeremy Reed, who's very excited to be back up with Mariners. Was it really that long ago that he was supposed to be the centerfielder of the future? But Reed is here now and that's all that matters to him.

Did he ever wonder if he was doing enough to get back?

"Yeah, you go through a time when you feel like you are doing everything you possibly can. You never know what’s going to happen. It got really tough. Last year when I got called up in September, I would go through weeks with really good days. And you wonder if things will turn for you. Luckily I came earlier than later this year and hopefully I can stay here."

Reed will most likely be used off the bench, according to manager John McLaren, but as for a late-inning defensive replacement, McLaren said he thinks the outfield's overall defense has "been good." I'm sure some of you might disagree.

A lot of talk in the Seattle blogosphere about "team chemistry" and it's meaning. The USS Mariner had good post on it. And I know Baker is having his verbal sparring about the subject as well on his blog.

Even Detroit manager Jim Leyland weighed in on it today in a big story by USA Today.

Here's some brief thoughts I have on the sujbect...

* I think clubhouse and team chemistry makes a difference, particularly for a team that may not have as great of talent. I won't bore you with my stories of my past playing days, but I have been around the team dynamic for part of my life and have experienced both ends of the spectrum. I do know this: you work, you play, you do most things better if you have some camraderie and respect for the people you are doing them with.

Good chemistry and leadership helped supplement the talent of the 2004 Red Sox. I mean guys like Kevin Millar, Trot Nixon, Mark Bellhorn and Bill Mueller weren't the most talented guys, but they were good teammates.

There were also plenty of places where talent overcomes poor chemistry like the 1986 Mets, who won in spite of the fact that it was a collection of degenerates, misfits and malcontents.

Everybody says chemistry gets too much value when things are good, which is probably true. I think the true measure of chemistry is when things are going bad and whether a team will stick together or split apart.

The one misconception of clubhouse chemistry is that everybody needs to like each other. That doesn't need to be the case. They just need to respect each other and the game. In a group of 25 guys along with coaches and staff, not everybody is going to like everybody else. It's a fact. But all those people must be able to move beyond any differences personal, cultural or whatever and play together, play for each other, not just play for themselves. It's about the idea of every player playing hard regardless if they hate the guy in the locker next to him. As much as we want to believe professional players can put aside petty differences and gripes when they step on the field and give maximum effort would be ignorant. They're human and fallible.

Do I think the Mariners have bad chemistry? Not right now. But I think, it's not as strong as some other teams. There's a certain level of tenseness in the clubhouse that exists, and it's not just because the team is losing.

George Sherrill and Adam Jones both pointed out how different the Baltimore clubhouse is in comparison. I believe Adam's words were, "you know I'd only been in one major league clubhouse, so I thought that's what they were all like. But this is way different."

That's not to say the way the Mariners clubhouse operates is bad. It's just different. And it's different than it's been in the past. It usually follows some of the personalities of the team. And players like Ichiro and Raul aren't much for sitting about and lounging and conversing, they're are about preparing, which is respectable. I don't know if its possible but maybe the team dynamic can be overrated and underrated at the same time.

I know I talked to Jay Buhner about it during spring training and he said it was invaluable to success.

Here's John McLaren's take on team chemistry ....
Chemistry is about winning. It seems like you’re great chemistry when you do win and your challenged when you don’t win. When you win, you overlook things, things won’t bother you as much. You just kind of let things pass over. But when you’re losing, you’re making it a big deal, bigger than it ought to be.

If you see most of your good teams, there is good chemistry.

There’s been exceptions, the Oakland As, the Yankee teams of the 70s, there was some problems off and on there, I think basically you know when you win, you have great chemistry.

I think you’re seeing that with Oakland and Baltimore right now. They’re doing better than expectations, what I'm hearing and what I’m reading is that they all get along well together. That’s way the usually it is. When you lose, you lose, you lose, you just don’t seem to have that cohesion and that brotherly atmosphere that you do when you have that really good winning team.

Here's tonight's lineups....
Mariners
Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Balentien RF
Betancourt SS
-----------
Silva P

Tigers
Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Sheffield DH
Ordonez RF
Cabrera 1B
Guillen 3B
Joyce LF
Renteria SS
Rodriguez C

Yeah, we all knew it, but here's the official release, along with the fact the Mariners picked up pitcher Tracy Thorpe

MARINERS RECALL OF JEREMY REED FROM AAA TACOMA

RHP Tracy Thorpe claimed off waivers from Toronto.

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the Mariners have recalled outfielder Jeremy Reed from AAA Tacoma. Additionally, the Mariners have claimed right-handed pitcher Tracy Thorpe off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays.

Reed (#8) will be in uniform for tomorrow night’s game against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. He fills the spot on the Mariners 25-man Major League roster of catcher Jeff Clement (#9), who was optioned to AAA Tacoma following Sunday’s game vs. San Diego. Thorpe will report to AAA Tacoma.

Reed, 26 (turns 27 June 15), was batting .349 (52x149) with 11 doubles, 1 triple, 6 home runs and 21 RBI in 38 games with the Tacoma Rainiers. Among Pacific Coast League leaders, Reed ranks 9th in batting average (.349). He recorded at least one hit in 26 of 39 games, including 16 multi-hit games.

In 239 career Major League games, Reed is a career .253 (196x775) hitter with 9 home runs and 67 RBI. In 13 games with the Mariners last season, he batted .176 (3x17) with one triple.

Thorpe, 27, was claimed by the Mariners after being designated for assignment by Toronto on May 10. The right-hander was 2-0 with four saves in 13 relief appearances for AAA Syracuse in the International League. He struck out 18, walked 9 and limited opponents to a .213 (11x51) opponents batting average.

Originally selected by Toronto in the 11th round of the 2000 June draft, Thorpe has spent his entire career in the Toronto organization. In nine minor league seasons, Thorpe has combined to go 27-36 with 35 saves and a 4.49 ERA (260 ER/521.1 IP).

With the addition of Thorpe, the Mariners now have 39 players on the Major League 40-man roster.

Well, it was pretty uneventful travel day. Catching coordinator Roger Hansen and pitcher Miguel Batista along with the FSN guys were on my flight. I sat with Roger and Batista in the airport for awhile. Batista was talking for a long time about pitching philosophy. Not so much to me, but to Roger.

I got in about 8 p.m. local time and grabbed something to eat, conversed with Geoff Baker for awhile at the restaurant/bar at the Renaissance Marriott in Detroit and then had to write my off-day story, which centers largely on the un-met and higher expectations for the Tigers ...

Check out this story from the Detroit Free Press... apparently the Tigers are having issues.

A big thanks to Darrin Beene for covering the game on Sunday. It wasn't a dull day by any means. Here's his game story, and here's his notebook which led with Jeff Clement being sent down.

I spent part of my day off watching baseball. I went to the Rainiers game. Yeah, I have a problem, but actually I was there to just hang out, have a few beers and sit out in the perfect weather. Here's Grant Clark's game story from the game.

A few things from the Rainiers game. R.A. Dickey pitched and his knuckleball was really moving. It made it difficult for catcher Rob Johnson who had a few passed balls, but did admirably considering. Dickey seemed to have trouble spotting the knuckle at times and a couple walks hurt him. Tucson started Doug Davis, who's coming back from Thyroid cancer surgery. Davis looked like a major leaguer throwing in Triple A. He was absolutely dominant at times.

Let's get to grading the homestand...
I said earlier that winning 2-of-3 would be acceptable. And it was. But I didn't think it would be such a fight just to win two. The Mariners' offense hardly looked dominant against the starting trio of Chris Young, Randy Wolf and Shawn Estes. But thanks to a fantastic performance from Erik Bedard and the overall play of Jose Lopez the Mariners got back-to-back wins for the first time in a month.

Speaking of Jose, John McGrath had a nice column about Lopez as well.

We'll do this quickly...

Overall: B
Look they won two of three and won a series for the time in nine tries, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that the Padres are anything but a poor team at best. I don't know what they'd do offensively if they didn't have Adrien Gonzalez. Still, the Mariners got two wins that they needed, not just for the record but for their waning confidence.

Hitting: C
Lopez was solid with some clutch hits, and Ichiro had a few hits as well. This team is still far from where it can be offensively. Clement was struggling, and really Balentien isn't hitting that well, but doing enough to stay viable. Lopez, Ibanez and Ichiro have been the most consistent. But they definitely need more. I think Sexson's five games off messed with his timing a little, look for him to hit a little better (not hard to do) on this trip.

Pitching: B
It would have been an A if not for Batista's no show on Friday. Every pitcher is afforded a few bad starts, but Batista's had three poor one's in a row. You wonder if it's a trend? Bedard pitched like the guy they expected when they traded for him, and Felix competed and fought even if he didn't get a decision. JJ is looking a little more polished, but his first appearance in four days was a little shaky at first.

Defense: B
I guess I look at it this way --- they didn't make any huge, costly errors, and they made the bulk of the plays they are supposed to make. Lopez had a few nice plays in the field, and Richie also showed some decent glove work with nothing to show for it, also Beltre had a few highlight reel plays. Everybody knows that Raul is a step slow in the outfield, but he's not going to move to first base, and he doesn't really enjoy DHing, so you better get used to him out there. He costs some hits and base runners, but I have yet to see him lose a game.

I'll have more in the morning, including my thoughts on Jeff Clement being sent down.

I know this is Mariners Insider, but it's also the News Tribune based in Tacoma, WA and Lester is a Bellarmine Prep grad and local boy, so we'll offer him some props for throwing a no-hitter tonight.

* Here's Gordon Ede's story from the Boston Globe.

* And here's Dan Shaugnessy's column about the big night.

* Jacoby Ellsbury made a huge catch to save the no-hitter.

And so we don't forget the Mariners, here's a list of the two no-hitters in club history..

Randy Johnson on 06-02-1990
Chris Bosio on 04-22-1993

Felix Hernandez said he had a cramp in his right calf, which happened while he was warming up to start the third inning. That's why the Mariners lifted him, against his wishes, after six innings and 91 pitches. He said he doesn't think it will be an issue for his next start.

The Mariners, before Sunday's win, were 0-21 when trailing after seven innings.

This was the team's first series win since winning twice in Oakland on April 16-17.

Raul Ibanez (8 games) and Adrian Beltre (5 games) had their hitting streaks snapped.

Jose Lopez, who delivered the game-winning double in the eighth, is hitting .373 from the seventh inning on.

The Mariners optioned catcher/DH Jeff Clement to Triple-A Tacoma after today's 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres.

General manager Bill Bavasi said it was a matter of Clement getting consistent playing time. Clement, since being recalled on April 30, hit .167 in 48 games with no homers and two RBI.

Clement said he pressed some while trying to help the Mariners struggle offense get on track. He said DH'ing and not playing regularly weren't reasons for his problems at the plate. "I just didn't get it done," he said.

Manager John McLaren said Jose Vidro will return to the starting DH role. Vidro delivered a key pinch single in the eighth in Sunday's game that helped fuel the Mariners' game-winning rally.

A corresponding roster move, the Mariners said, will be made before Tuesday's game with Detroit. The likley option is outfielder Jeremy Reed, who was pulled from Sunday's start with the Rainiers.

Break through for Mr. Lopez, 3:20ish
Jose Lopez, your new No. 3 hitter, just delivered a clutch hit. Two outs – after Beltre K'd – and he drives in two to give the M's a 3-2 lead heading to the top of the ninth. Now it's J.J. time.

Rally! bottom of eighth, 3:19 p.m.
Back-to-back singles by Jose Vidro and Yuni and a walk by Ichiro (I know, hard to believe) loads the bases for Beltre. This is the ballgame for the M's.

1-2-3... the story of the day, 3:02 p.m.
Heath Bell just blew three high fastballs by Richie Sexson to end the M's "rally," if you consider a runner on second with two outs a rally. FYI: Estes had four innings where he went 1-2-3.

Good bye Mr. Estes, 2:54
The Mariners just knocked Shawn Estes out of the game when Ibanez drew a one-out walk. Yeee-haw! Still, you've got to be impressed/depressed with how Estes pitched... 6 1/3 innings, two hits, two walks...

Going to the seventh
We have a pitching change. Felix is done after six – seven hits, five strikeouts and one walk. Sean Green is the new pitcher. And if you are curious, Shawn Estes has given up on two hits in six innings.

Middle of six, 2:33 p.m.
Felix is slinging it. He struck out two of the four hitters he faced in the sixth and one of his fastballs was clocked at 97 mph, according to the stadium scoreboard. However, if the Mariners don't do something, all he's going to have to show for it is his fifth loss of the year.

Bottom of fifth, 2:19 pm
The streak's over!!! After Estes got Joh to ground out to lead off, Sexson slapped a solid single to center to end Estes' mark of 12 in a row.

Going into the fourth, 1:50 pm
Shawn Estes? You've got to be joking. The Mariners have one hit off Estes after three and it barely qualified as a hit. Ichiro led off with a nubber and got to first and other than that, the M's have nada off this ancient Padre pitcher.

Top of third, 1:42
Gulp.. Mariners fans just about choked on their lunch after watching Felix walk gingerly after throwing a strike to Luke Carlin. Trainers and John McLaren came out to see what was up, and after a warm up throw to Joh, he continued pitching. We'll be sure to ask what that was all about after the game. FYI: Felix struck out Carlin and easily retired the next two hitters.

Bottom of second, 1:37
Richie Sexson just grounded out on a 3-1 pitch to shortstop. He threw the bat almost to first base. I guess that might be the very definition of frustration.

From my man Ryan Divish:
Talked to Ryan a short bit ago and he dropped some interesting information on me about Tacoma Rainiers center fielder Jeremey Reed. Ryan said Reed was supposed to start today but was pulled from the starting lineup.

Bottom of first, 1:25 pm:
Ichiro, with one out, just stole second base to set the Mariners all-time team record for most steals with 291. He eclipsed JULIO Cruz's record. ... And then, with the crowd still standing and applauding him, Ichiro broke for third on the very next pitch to steal No. 292.

Just as important, Ichiro scores the first run on a ground out by Jose Lopez. He wouldn't have been able to do it if he hadn't stole third...

Here's one from the Padres side of the field:

* Jake Peavy, the team's ace starter and last year's Cy Young Award winner, will not make his scheduled start on Monday because of elbow soreness. The team said Peavy (4-3, 2.91 ERA) will have an MRI.

* Mariners manager John McLaren acknowledged there was some tension in the Mariners clubhouse because of the team's poor start. He said the tension is gone now and is not a sign of a team that does not get along but one that is frustrated with its AL-worst record.

"The tension was because we weren't winning," McLaren said. "The problem was we weren't shaking hands after the game. We would come into the clubhouse with nothing to show for it."

* The Mariners rolled out their 29th different lineup in 45 games on Sunday.

* The Mariners relievers have lowered their ERA from 6.00 to 3.91 over the last 21 games. Since April 25, the bullpen is 2-2 with three saves and a 2.40 ERA.

* The Mariners have not won back-to-back games since winning April 20 and 22.

Mariners manager John McLaren spent a majority of his time in his pregame meeting talking about the Mariners struggles, primarily the offensive ones.

He said he and his staff have continually preached the importance of patience at the plate but he wonders if trying to make the Mariners something they are not – McLaren readily acknowledged that his team is a free-swinging bunch – is only making the offensive problems worse.

"If you try to make impatient hitters patient, you might be shooting yourself in both feet," he said.

The biggest problem, McLaren said, is a lack of consistency. He said the Mariners are patient at times but not always.

"It runs in streaks. We (work counts) for awhile then it disappears," he said. "We've talked about this for hours."

=> Read more!

Ok, I started a long post to John's questions about a leader in the clubhouse. I think we all know that there is no definite one, but I was breaking down which guys could and should be leaders and why, anyway I'll have to do that tomorrow, or later tonight at 3 a.m.

A quick programming note, I won't be covering the game tomorrow since I'm traveling on Monday. I think Darrin Beene is covering the game but I am not certain.

We waited to talk to Miguel Batista today, but he grabbed his Louis Vuitton man-purse and disappeared into the back dining room. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't speak to the media for quite a while.

Batista's failure to be accountable for his own start, clearly irked JJ Putz in the clubhouse last night after the game. Putz even grabbed Raul Ibanez to voice his concern. Today Richie Sexson also said something to Carlos Silva about it as well.

Look I'm not complaining about them not talking. We all know that it's not their job, but it is expected. And from a veteran like Batista, who usually has plenty to say, it's surprising. But it works like this, if a starter doesn't talk to the media, it forces somebody else in the clubhouse to have to do it. Like on the Texas road trip, Raul Ibanez had to stand up and do it three days in a row. It's kind of why Billy Wagner was so mad after having to be interviewed following a game he didn't even pitch in.

I understand if Batista was upset following last night's game, but he could have come out and addressed a few things today, like why he can't seem to not throw 30 pitches in the first inning in every start.

Anyway, let's get to the game thoughts ....

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9"16-- Bedard left with 101 pitches. I can hear Dave8557 firing up a rant.

8:55 -- Bedard has been solid all game. I doubt we'll see Joh catch him again this season.

8:52 -- Well, Ichiro made that whole rant not quite as important. But if Burke had already been on second it would have been easier for him to score. Still, a big inning for the Mariners.

8:51-- Look I realize this is the American League, but you're down a run and Burke leads off with a single. Bunt him over, especially with a lefty on the mound. Yuni is your nine hitter and he's shown no great ability to hit the ball with control.

8:02 -- Gonzalez gets a pitch he can handle and hits a bomb off of Bedard. That's the seventh homer Bedard's given up in 37 innings

7:51 --- As for the logos, the smaller print says, "There's no crying in baseball." I think there is one with JJ as well.

7:27 -- I take back what I said about Gonzalez and his fielding ability now.

7:25 -- Nice piece of hitting by Raul to score a run and give the M's a rare lead, it's a lot better than a 3-0 deficit.

Here's the lineups...
Padres
Scott Hairston CF -- It makes you wonder how bad Jim Edmonds was to get released.
Tadahito Iguchi 2b -- This Japanese lefty looked like a tougher out last night than the Mariners.
Brian Giles RF --- The guy can still hit.
Adrian Gonzalez 1B --- One of the best fielding first baseman in the NL, got a glove like Mark Grace.
Tony Clark DH --- I think he might be 109 years old. And still five years younger than Julio Franco.
Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B --- Met him last night, a very nice guy.
Khalil Greene SS --- I want to walk up to him and say "What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?
Josh Bard C --- Nothing to say about him.
Justin Huber LF --- Saw him play in Triple A last season, never thought he'd leave it.
--------
Randy Wolf P --- That's a name you just don't hear a lot anymore. Randy.

Mariners
Ichiro CF ---
Adrian Beltre 3B --- McLaren moved him around to help Beltre get going.
Jose Lopez 2B --- "I just hit, it doesn't matter where," he said before the game.
Raul Ibanez LF
Kenji Johjima DH --- I would have bet what's left of my liver and my good kidney that he wouldn't be catching Bedard.
Richie Sexson 1B --- I bet he hits a homer tonight.
Wlad Balentien RF --- Do you know he has a gold tooth with a heart cut out of it.
Jamie Burke C --- I honestly think he'll be Bedard's personal catcher.
Yuni Betancourt SS
---------
Erik Bedard P -- Look he has his personal catcher catching him tonight, that means he should last more than three innings.

Sorry, for the late start, but I'm having some internet issues, namely I can't stay connected for that long. Clearly it's operator error, but I'll see if I can try and get through this and keep posting.

Perhaps its a good thing I didn't have to write about the slop that Miguel Batista is tossing up to the plate. It's getting swatted around pretty hard.

Let's see the worst offensive team in all of baseball, now has a 4-0 lead after two innings. That's just great.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:

9:51 -- sorry for the delay, but I will say this, I don't think you should be doing the wave when you're losing by two runs. yet the fans at Safeco are still doing it.

8:52 --- How about these logos...

or

8:40 -- That's a great catch by Beltre. Gold glove caliber.....

8:25 -- Jeff Clement didn't have the hardest ball I've ever seen hit, but it got the run in.

7:57 --

From snydro: How is Dickey doing for Tacoma, Ryan?

Well, I didn't get to talk with him, but he's 2-4 with a 3.48 ERA. In 42 innings, he's allowed 42 hits, but one bad start in Tucson kind of skewed those numbers. He also has 25 strikeouts and just six walks. He's starting on Sunday in Tacoma against Doug Davis, who's coming back from Thyroid cancer and making a rehab start.

7:47 -- Joh-San!!!! Perhaps the Mariners' pitchers need to be more critical of his catching more often, because he seems to hit when they do.

Well, that natural rival that is the San Diego Padres is in town and the bad blood and ill will is palpable. I guess it comes from having to share a spring training complex on the mean streets of Peoria. It just gives you this edge that's tough to explain. There's just a bad feeling between the two groups, like the mafia and cops, buffets and skinny people, Erik Bedard and the media, and Dave8557 vs. most modern day managers.

Anyway, let's get to a few things.

We were giving Willie Bloomquist a hard time for his "breaking" of the law. He said that he and a buddy were digging razor clams and they knew they were close to the limit, but weren't exactly sure. The total they could have had was 30, they actually had 32. He wasn't upset about having to pay the ticket, saying he was in the wrong.

Not many of his teammates know about it yet, and he certainly isn't telling them, but he is expecting to receive some grief when he does.

CAtching coordinator Roger Hansen is at Safeco Field and worked with Jeff Clement today and will work with Kenji tomorrow, while evaluating Clement, Joh and Jamie Burke over the next week or so. John McLaren said Hansen will go with the team on the road trip.

Hansen was entertaining as usual.

Here's tonight's lineups....

Padres
Gerut CF
Iguchi 2B
Giles RF
Gonzalez 1B
Clark DH
Kouzmanoff 3B
Greene SS
Bard C
Hairston LF
----------
Young P

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Sexson 1B
Clement DH
Johjima C
Balentien RF
Betancourt SS
-----------
Batista P

Sorry for the lateness of my first post of the day, or is it tomorrow now, whatever. Does it really matter?

Basically I treated today like an off day for me. It wasn't exactly an off day since I spent much of it working. I spent my morning doing my expenses from the floor of the Dallas Airport, spent a good portion of my four hour flight trying to figure out what to write about, the other part doing the crossword. And then I got a sweet hour and half drive to Tacoma from Sea-Tac.

So that's why I didn't post earlier. I should have but I didn't. I also went to the last four innings of the Rainiers' game tonight. Assistant GM Lee Pelekoudas was there, along with minor league director Greg Hunter and top Asian scout Hide Suyeoshi were also there. Not much going on really. I saw Jimerson get a hit and also get caught in a run down, Jeremy Reed also had a sweet bunt base hit.

After the game, I went and talked a little with Jimerson, Bryan LaHair and Rob Johnson. I also went to the West End to see my favorite waitress Dusty and ponder a little bit about this homestand.

Winning two of three would be acceptable, but taking three of three should be expected. No Paavy, no Maddux, and the Padres are reeling and scuffling offensively, plus Seattle has Bedard and Felix going. They need to win all three.

Here's my story from today's paper, which includes stats to prove that the Mariners aren't the worst team offensively in baseball, although there were times it felt that way.

Also I should have posted this earlier because I got an e-mail from our sister paper, "The Olympian" but I just forgot because I was trying to write my story... anyway, the Mariners have a small jurisprudence issue. It's far from anything major indeed, but in the interest of fairness, I am running it to make sure nobody ever accuses me of having favorites (though we all know I dislike everyone equally).

Too many clams result in ticket for Mariners' Bloomquist

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published May 15, 2008
A state Fish and Wildlife officer cited Mariners utilityman Willie Bloomquist on April 21 for unlawful recreational fishing for going over the state’s limits on razor clams while he was digging at Twin Harbors, according to a citation filed in Montesano Municipal Court.
Click here to find out more!

Bloomquist, 30, has paid a $50 fine after being issued the citation, a Grays Harbor District Court official said.

The ticket issued to Bloomquist does not indicate how many clams over the limit he had harvested on April 21. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Craig Bartlett said Thursday that he could not reach the officer who issued the ticket to find out how far he was over the limit.

“The catch limits and other rules are in effect to protect our resources,” Bartlett said. “The rules apply to everyone, regardless of who they are.”

Bloomquist was born in Bremerton and is a 1996 graduate of South Kitsap High School. He has spent his entire major league baseball career with the Mariners, and was called up to Seattle in 2002.

He lives in Peoria, Ariz, with his wife and daughter.

Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale hadn’t heard of Bloomquist’s citation from Fish and Wildlife, and she had no immediate comment.

Through 20 games in 2008, Bloomquist had five hits in 32 at-bats and was hitting .156, according to espn.com. His 2008 salary is $1 million, according to espn.com.

The day Bloomquist was cited was on the Mariners' day off.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.

With the Mariners enjoying their first day off in 16 days, here's a scouting of this weekend's opponent, the San Diego Padres.

Here’s a reason to get excited about the return of interleague play: The Mariners get to face the San Diego Padres for three games.

The Padres limp into this series having lost three of their last four against the Chicago Cubs and now own the worst record in the majors at 15-27.

Their weak offense produced just 12 runs in those four games against the Cubs. Worse, their pitching – the supposed strong point of this team – gave up 27 runs in the series and ranks just 19th in the majors in team ERA at 4.25.

=> Read more!

4:43 -- EVERYBODY!!! PUT ME IN COACH I'M READY TO PLAY!!! TODAY!! Miguel Cairoooooooooooo with a single to give the M's the lead. Of all the people to give Seattle a lead the last person I never thought it would be Cairo.

4:16 -- I was right Washburn is now warming up in the bullpen.

Also it looks as though Jose Lopez might have hurt his wrist when he collided with Balentien. To his credit, Balentien didn't budge which also makes him better at breaking tackles than Shaun Alexander..... thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

4:07 -- Now that JJ is in, here's a refreshing thought. ONly Cha Seung Baek remains in the bullpen and Jose Vidro is on the bench. I think we might see Batista or Washburn ambling out to the bullpen.

3:52 -- EVERYBODY!!! PUT ME IN COACH I'M READY TO PLAY!!! TODAY!! -- Miguel Cairo with a huge double play on the bunt.

3:43 -- A squandered opportunity there. Runner on third and less than two outs and Wlad can't get one out of the infield.

3:35 -- Huge catch for Wlad. Maybe this playing shallow thing is paying off.

3:26 -- Wow, Sean Green not looking so good and gives up back-to-back singles. Mac spent part of the pregame meeting talking about not wanting to let runners go first to third on a single, but Balentien was very cautious making sure he fielded it cleanly, probably looking to avoid what happened to him last night.

3:18 -- Carlos Silva left the game with lower back tightness.

3:08 -- Be honest, how many of you thought the Mariners were going to blow that one? I know I wasn't the only one. The M's come up with big double play to get out of the inning.

3:03 -- Brandon Morrow with two walks, he really battled Shelton, who had a fantastic at-bat. but it shows that Morrow still doesn't have much confidence in his secondary pitches, because he never threw them.

We now have Arthur Rhodes coming in to face Mariner killer Ramon Vazquez.

2:50 -- Silva is hurt and we're not quits sure what he did. I'll let you know as soon as we find out.

2:42 -- Yuni with a go-ahead double that he thought was a bomb and even went into his trot. If he sprints from the beginning, he gets a triple.

2:36 --- Wow, the Mariners get two breaks in one inning. First a throwing error by Vazquez and then Hamilton badly misjudging Clement's fly ball to center that led to an RBI triple. That was Clement's first major league triple - for obvious reasons, and the fifth of his career. HE actually had three last year with Tacoma.

2:28 -- just who is this master of pitching named Scott Feldman, who is dominating the Mariners. Well, was born in Kailua, Hawaii. He is 1-1 this season with a 4.07 ERA. In his brief career, he's 2-6 with a 4.34 ERA. Though you wouldn't know it today.

2:07 -- Mariners get a run on a Lopez double to left, good hustle by Raul to score from first. But the Mariners still have just three hits off of Scott Feldman.

1:53 -- I know some of you aren't like me and don't arise too early unless it's absolutely. So here's John McLaren's lengthy interview with Mitch Levy. It's pretty honest and interesting.

1:32 -- Wow the umpires huddle and get one right. Ichiro clearly made that catch and the reason we know this is that he argued with the ump about it. More importantly he didn't have to dive to do it.

Center fielder Ichiro Suzuki makes a sliding catch on a ball hit by Texas Rangers' Ramon Vazquez during the second inning today in Arlington, Texas.

Originally Chad Fairchild ruled it as no catch.

1:25 -- I'm about an inning behind. I was still trying to wrap up my pregame stuff and get it on the web.

One thing to note from the first inning -- McLaren said that they were concerned with runners advancing from first to third on base hits, so he was going to have the outfielders play a step or two more shallow. This is notable since, Michael Young's RBI double sailed just over Balentien's head.

The play at the plate seemed relatively close, but they never showed replays on the local Fox sports affiliate here. Was it really that close, or am I just grasping at straws?

Good Morning Mariners' fans. A little too early of a start for a pregame post, since I got to the field and went straight down to the clubhouse. I got up a little late because I spent a few hours writing my little 3 a.m. postgame rant. I guess you could say I was miffed a little with this team. I guess that's what happens when you cover 12 straight losses.

But as John McLaren said eariler in pregame, "It's a new day today."

Anyway here's my game story from today's paper.

And here's my game notebook.

We sat with a couple scouts during lunch and there was interesting comments. One of the scouts, who works for the Yankees, said this .... "If you want see a team that takes the field every night waiting to lose, that's them." Really? That's not a good thing.

He also said he thought the umps have squeezed Mariners' pitchers lately. When I asked him about Joh's receiving skills, he thought they were fine. But said that the pitches need not get caught up in who's catching them and instead worry pitch to pitch. "I always believed the less they think the better. Let the catcher do the thinking."

The other scout, who's scouted for 50 years, didn't have much good to say about the Mariners pitchers, especially the whole idea of pitching to a particular catcher.

"Just shut up and pitch the damn ball, you're getting paid 12 million dollar to do it," he said. "It's that simple. Everybody has a damn excuse these days."

I'm not certain if he spent the morning yelling at little kids to stay off his lawn. But what he said had some truth to it.

Let's take care of a few questions....
From yesterday...

From Squid: Yo RDiv: Just wondering your thought process on your game story in this morning's paper, leading with Morrow's performance. To me, the lead is Lopez' horrific error, or at the very least the main part of the story of the game.

Yo, Squid. I actually had that as my lead and most of my story written and then Joh had to go muck it up by hitting that game-tying home run. So then I wrote my lead around that really believing they were going to win. Unfortunately that didn't happen either, and I started over again with the Morrow thing.

Funny story though, when Joh walked to the plate, I actually said this to Baker and Andreissen, "I'll buy the first five rounds at the bar if he hits a bomb."

I didn't have to buy five, but I did buy a few.

From emitch423: Is Jojima using a new glove or something? Everytime I look up (haven't watched the whole game) he's dropping a fastball that was in his mitt. Maybe a notebook item you can ask him about tomorrow: The art of breaking in a new mitt at such a crucial position.

Joh is not breaking in a new mitt that I know of. He has several of the red gloves and he always takes great care of them. But he has dropped a few catchable balls recently. But Jamie Moyer used to say that Joh wasn't a great receiver and that his tendency to drop pitches over the plate and poor pitch framing skills cost pitchers strikes and outs.

Look, Joh isn't Johnny Bench and he isn't Pudge Rodriguez or Russell Martin, but he isn't Mike Piazza or Javy Lopez either.

But a closer breakdown of his defensive skills is something I'm looking into.

Looking...

Still looking ...

I guess we'll just have to manufacture some.

I guess this team is hitting better, I guess this team is sticking together, I guess this team is on the verge of breaking out, I guess this is still a good team. At least this is what Raul Ibanez told us earlier tonight. It still feels like a guess to me. What do I know? I've only had to be around them nearly every day since February 15.

I want to believe what Raul says. I think he wants to believe it. But at the end of the day, I don’t know if any of it is inherently true.

Let me preface this rant by saying that I picked this team to win the division. Not because I’m a homer, or just to play to readers. I really thought that with the acquisition of Erik Bedard they could contend with the Angels.

But now the Mariners have the worst record in the American League. So if you're looking for sunshine, cookies and good feelings stop reading because this team is in last place right now, and it shouldn't be.

Look I won't pretend that you empathize with me and my plight to talk to baseball players on a daily basis. It’s not as great as you think it is, and conversely it’s not as bad as sometimes writers make it sound.

Whether Felix acts like a complete child means little to you. I know because of the emails and comments I received when I wrote something about Bedard and his attitude toward the media. But don't you see that something as simple as Felix making a timely effort to come out and speak tonight to the media about a second mediocre start, instead of blowing off a quality and hardworking Mariners' staffer, who asked very politely for him to come out and talk, is small reminder of the bigger picture?

Am I mad that I stood for 45 minutes to talk to Felix? Hell yes. But I had these thoughts well before this.

Sometimes it seems to me there is an allowance of a lack of accountability in this organization for certain members of management and certain players.

Granted there are more exceptions than there are suspects. JJ Putz has never ducked an interview that I've seen. The only time I thought he might be hiding out, he was actually getting treated for a rib injury. And his crew in the bullpen is solid and upstanding on most occasions. Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista have been nothing but professional. Richie Sexson has been one of the best guys to about standing up for himself and the team all season.

Even Jarrod Washburn, who views much of the media skeptically even more after this week, understands his professional duties, and can be very interesting and engaging. Another good example tonight is Raul Ibanez, who is like Edgar and wants to do his postgame workout every night. Yet, he still comes out when asked and answers questions, even if it's about his own mistakes, much like tonight. Although, he loathes to talk about himself or speak for the team as a whole, Raul understood that because nobody else was saying much, that as one of the veterans on the team, he needed to.

Heck, even Jose Lopez admitted to costing his team the game on Monday night. He didn't duck and hide. As we approached to talk to him, he knew exactly what we were going to ask and he manned up and took it. No fault, no blame. Just stand there accept fault and move on. There are others, that go in this list and others that headline the other list.

Now don’t misunderstand me.

Do I think that the players try hard when they go out there? Absolutely. These guys would have never made it to the big leagues if they weren't highly competitive and intense. And even once they get here, I think they are so ingrained to hate losing that they always go out and play to win (it would be frightening if I ever thought they didn't). I believe that once anybody that steps on the field wearing a Mariners uniform cares. They care. They want to win. But winning, or at least being around a winner, is the easy thing. It’s when you’re losing, or things aren’t going right, when a player’s true convictions come out, and also his true professionalism. It comes down to acceptance and accountability, and sometimes I don't like what I see in either category with this Mariner team.

Certain unwritten rules and responsibilities limit me from saying exactly how it is. But know this, the Mariners as of today are a flawed team. And the responsibility for this situation can be found in many people, perhaps the least of them is manager John McLaren, who was given a dysfunctional team unable to overcome certain things, without his control.

Can it be fixed? Yes, the team has talent and enough character to do so. But not under current conditions. But this doesn't have to be permanent.

I keep searching for positives and they are there. But right now, they aren’t readily apparent.

Yes, I know there was no pregame blogging, with exception of a press release from the Mariners. My apologies. We sat in the clubhouse a little longer than usual trying to get some stuff for out notebook for the paper, and I didn't come back and blog.

Not much going on...

I talked to former Mariner and last night's hero Ramon Vazquez and Ryan Rowland-Smith about their on-field conversation that featured the use of the F-word as noun, verb, adjective, interjection and possible an adverb. Neither made too big of deal about it. Basically they both thought the other was staring them down.

Vazquez said he wasn't trying to stare at Rowland-Smith, but the radar gun beyond him and Rowland-Smith said he thought Vazquez was glaring at him so he glared back, it's amazing how one little thing can spark something.

Not much else was going on, let's get to the updates, I'll post some other stuff throughout the game.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:56 -- I have now covered 12 consecutive losses.

9:52 --- And an error by Wlad Balentien which costs them a run, and basically another run by allowing another runner to advance to third. And now the M's are down three. Anybody think they are coming back from three runs down in the ninth two nights in a row? Umm no.

9:37 --- Another nice catch by Josh Hamilton robbing Joh of a double and perhaps saving a run, and perhaps a win.

9:20 -- Well, that was interesting..... Raul drops a ball and it leads to a run eventually.

8:50 --- Joh comes up with a clutch double to left. He's starting to swing the bat pretty well as half the starting pitchers cringe every time he gets a hit.

8:14 -- Another walk? What is Felix channeling his inner Freddy Garcia.

8:08 -- Umm, I thought the Mariners hit lefties well?

7:54 -- It appears that Barry Bonds may have bigger things to worry about than playing this season. I'm thinking no team is going to pick him up this season.

7:45 -- Nothing like a little 1-2-3 double play to bail Felix out of a bad inning.

7:40 -- Gerald Laird with a single to score a run.

I realize it was tough play, but I think even Raul would admit he should have caught that ball that resulted ina double for Brandon Boggs.

7:34 -- An opportunity squandered by the Mariners. I would have kept having Johjima bunt.I don't care what he did in the last at-bat of the night.

7:21 -- Columnist Dave Boling writes about Bill Bavasi in today's paper. You can check out his column here.

And since we try to be an interactive newspaper.

You can vote on whether Bavasi should be fired here.

7:12 -- Adrian Beltre commits his seventh error of the season with an "ole" play at third. Perhaps if he wore a cup, he might want to get in front of the ball more.

I knew he was a good guy, and if you need proof, check out this press release.

From the Seattle Mariners..

MARINERS CATCHER KENJI JOHJIMA "ASSISTS" KIDS AT RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE

Catcher will donate to the Seattle House every time he helps get an opposing player out

Seattle Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima would someday like to start his own charity. Until that day, he has decided to put his fielding skills to use to benefit Ronald McDonald House® in Seattle.

Every time the Mariners catcher throws out a runner or gets credit for an assist when an out is made, Johjima will donate $250 to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington and Alaska.

Johjima decided to start his "Assists for Kids" program because he loves children and would someday like to start his own charity or foundation. "One reason I decided to work with Ronald McDonald House is that I can help children in Seattle during the baseball season and I can help children when I am back home in Japan."

Ronald McDonald House Charities® has 259 Houses in 28 countries worldwide, including Japan. The Seattle House provides a caring "home-away-from-home" for families of serious ill children being treated at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. Most families who stay at the House in Seattle come from Eastern Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. The length of time a family stays varies greatly-some call the Seattle House home for over a year.

That connection to Children's Hospital was also a major consideration for Johjima. "Children's Hospital treats all children with hospitality and respect. I want to help repay the hospital in some way for all they have done for the children of our community," said Johjima.

"We're thrilled to have Kenji be a supporter of the House," said executive director Dianna Finnerty. "Now when Kenji makes a defensive play to help the Mariners win, he's also helping seriously ill kids and their families win."

The Seattle House can accommodate 80 families each night and currently is the second largest House in the world, serving 1,200 families annually. Families are asked to pay $20 a night, which covers only a quarter of the actual cost of their stay. But no family is turned away because they cannot pay.

Last season, Johjima was among the top catchers, both offensively and defensively. In 2007, he was credited with 56 assists, which would have resulted in a donation of $14,000. That amount would have nearly covered the cost of an entire year's stay at the House for two families.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
11:00--- Wow, Joh with a three-run bomb off CJ Wilson. Unbelievable.

oh and the Mariners pitchers have walked 13 batters this game.

I don't know who's happier right now Jose Lopez or Erik Bedard.

10:13 -- Wlad with a monster two-run home run to left. To cut the lead to 10-8. It's not an impossible comeback, but not an improbable one either. THey just need to keeping getting guys on base.

10:06 -- And that's going to be the ballgame barring a miracle. Lopez fails to make a routine play with two outs and the flood gates open for four runs in the seventh. All four runs in teh inning are unearned.

9:57 -- Hmm, it seems that Ryan Rowland-Smith and Ramon Vazquez are both quite able to use the F-bomb effectively. You don't need to be a lip reader to know that, the big Aussie isn't saying G'Day Mate to Vasquez. There is some bad blood between these teams.

I don't know what happened to my earlier posts but they are gone. Anyway, Jeff Clement hits a lead-off double for his first multi-hit game of the season, and he later scores on Yuni's double. But the Mariners fail to take the lead as Ichiro strikes out with one out and a runner on third.

8:23 -- thanks to our stats guru - Victor Yoshida - our Asian version of the Schwab, I've been informed I haven't covered a win since April 26th. That's for you Snydro

8:13 -- Cha Seung Baek woarming up, he may want to keep his head up. He might get hit by a baseball. Another single and it looks like Capt. Personality is out of here.

8:11 -- Back-to-back bombs, and they weren't short. REmember when Bedard said he thought giving up home runs were really funny when they go really far. I guess he found those last two funny, or maybe not.

And another ball off the fence. Remember that lead I was reminding Bedard about, it's gone.

7:50 -- If the wind isn't blowing, that ball Clement's hit would have gotten over the head of the right field.

7:40 -- Another run for Texas, does Bedard know he used to have a four-run lead?

7:25 -- Does Bedard know that he has a five-run lead?

7:18 -- Five runs in the first inning, I can't believe what I just saw, I also sat down below for the first two innings, just to get a different perspective and get out of the press box. This isn't a bad place to watch a game.

NEED A REASON TO HATE/RESPECT DEREK JETER? From the SF Chronicle....

Check out Derek Jeter's social resume. In its May 20 editions, Maxim magazine will publish its "Hot 100" list, and six of the women on the list dated the Yankees' shortstop: Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Mariah Carey, Scarlett Johansson, Vanessa Minnillo and Gabrielle Union. In case you're wondering, the list includes none of Roger Clemens' gals.

LINKAGE:
A big thanks to the pride of Southern Miss University - no not that Favre guy - Don Ruiz for covering the game and also manning the blog. Here's his game story from yesterday, he also filed this game notebook.

* The Mariners are not the only team in the AL West to lose a few games in a row.

Seattle
Ichiro CF -- Wouldn't use a pink bat yesterday, will wear a pink shirt today and everyday.
Vidro 1B -- The back must be better, a definite improvement over Cairo at the plate
Beltre 3B -- Still can't get over the look on his face when Ichiro got called out at home.
Ibanez LF -- Any reports of his loss of power were ended with one swing.
Lopez 2B -- Always smiling, always hitting it hard.
Clement DH -- I think he comes around starting this week
Johjima C -- It appears that Jamie Burke isn't Bedard's private catcher
Balentien RF -- FSN's Brad Adam is having a kid, he might name him Wlad Adam.
Betancourt SS -- Two hits with the pink bat yesterday, gotta stay with what works

Texas
Kinsler 2B -- Wonder if he and Felix exchanged pregame hugs
Young SS -- The guy hits. And as a fielder, the guy hits.
Hamilton CF -- Still didn't get much of a response on whether you'd trade Morrow for him.
Bradley DH -- Does anybody find it strange that he was the voice of reason in the fight.
Boggs LF -- Wonder if this Boggs can drink 64 beers on cross country flight.
Laird C -- Another member of the Felix fan club
Shelton 1B -- Yes, it's that Chris Shelton.
Duran RF -- I really have nothing quippy to say about him.
Vazquez 3B -- Or this guy either.
---------
Padilla P -- Just one creepy looking dude and from what reports not the most sane guy.

Look I’m not trying to be overly pessimistic. But as I try to type, while being wedged into the middle seat of three hour coach flight, I can’t help but be realistic, because it seems “HEAVY” doses of realism are either leaning on me or bumping my shoulder from each side at this point. The level of discomfort and claustrophobia I feel right now is like what Erik Bedard feels when he sees the media heading toward his locker after a start. That’s what I get for not using the e-check in.

So for all the good feeling that we are feeling from yesterday’s win that snapped a five-game losing streak – let’s not forget that the Mariners went 2-5 on this last homestand. And the five losses in between the win in the first game and the last were overwhelming displays of punchless hitting, inconsistent pitching, questionable decision making by both players and John McLaren and just an overall lethargy and confusion.

Maybe if I wasn’t a state of total discomforting pain right now, I could be a little more forgiving, but it just isn’t happening right now.

Hitting: C
Sunday’s outburst and even the mild progression from Wednesday to Saturday elevates this grade some. It also helps that I didn’t have to sit through Wednesday’s shutout by either former or soon-to-be serial killer Vicente Padilla.

Positives: Jose Lopez continues to hit the ball well, Ichiro Suzuki’s tradition of getting hot in May seems to be continuing, Raul Ibanez’s perfect swing on a 3-0 pitch and Adrian Beltre suddenly not blindly hacking at every pitch served up whenever there is a runner on base.

Negatives: Jeff Clement continues to struggle and the strikeouts are a concern, because he’s just not that type of hitter. I heard KJR’s Jason Puckett and Ian Furness discussing moving Clement to the No. 2 spot behind Ichiro. It’s not a horrible idea. It would take some pressure off Clement to produce and drive in runs. But the only thing that would give Seattle three lefties in a row, that could be detrimental late in the innings against a team with a good left on left pitcher, especially with a limited bench because of Richie Sexson’s suspension. Although when they are hitting well, Ichiro and Clement can hit lefties as good as they can hit righties, if not better.

Pitching: C
The bullpen carries this grade a little. Though not given many chances to pitch with a lead – just Monday and Sunday – the relievers were solid in those situations. Morrow was absolutely filthy on Sunday. Arthur Rhodes had a big strikeout, Mark Lowe looked good on this homestand, Sean Green continues to pile up performances and of course JJ seems to have his fastball command issues figured out.

Positives: That none of the pitchers came out and openly blamed the offense for going 24 innings without scoring ad 34 innings with just one run.

Negatives: Me having to sit through Miguel Batista’s start on Tuesday which was simply the most mind-numbing, painful, boring and frustrating 2 2/3 innings of my life. Also the business of Jarrod Washburn and Kenji Johjima not agreeing on pitch selection and strategy is ludicrous. Who’s fault is it? Both. Washburn can shake off Johijima, and Joh has been in the league for long enough and with this team to figure out how the game should be called.

Defense: B
Raul had a few rough moments this week. Sometimes it looks as though he’s got weights on his ankles and no ligaments in his knees when he moves toward a fly ball. Look I know everybody is calling for him to play first base. It’s not something I’m opposed to by any stretch, but he needs some time to get some work in there. You just can’t throw him in at first right now. It could be a disaster.
Positives: Jeff Clement looked pretty decent behind the plate again, catching Carlos Silva. Wlad Balentien throwing out AJ Pierzynski at second from the right field corner.
Negatives: The Raul stiff-legged chases for balls in the corner or the gap.

Management: C
Since nobody in the clubhouse was willing to own up or in some cases even talk about the base-running mistake in Saturday’s loss where Ichiro Suzuki was thrown out at home for the third out of the seventh killing the rally, McLaren at least shouldered most of the blame, which on some level is fair.

Positives: Giving Raul the green light on 3-0 on Sunday, which produced a home run that landed in somebody’s soup in the Hit It Here café. Sitting Yuni Betancourt for a day and delivering a message that having four awful at-bats in one game won’t go unnoticed.

Negatives: Every time Greg Norton steps up and gets a hit for the Atlanta Braves, it makes me want throw something, usually in Bill Bavasi or Miguel Cairo’s direction.

Interesting story in today's Dayton (Ohio) paper, written by Hal McCoy, on the Mariners checking out Junior. Enjoy:

NEW YORK — The Seattle Mariners covet Ken Griffey Jr., want him as much as a loving mother wants to see her children on Mother's Day.

Club President Chuck Armstrong wants the Cincinnati Reds outfielder desperately, wants him to inject excitement into the Mariners and boost attendance, because Armstrong knows Griffey is a deity in the Northwest.

That's why Duane Shaffer, a special assistant to the executive vice president, was in Shea Stadium on Sunday, May 11 — to check out Griffey.

The Mariners most likely would use Griffey as a designated hitter, something that Griffey has said in the past he wouldn't like to do. And he has said he wants to win a World Series ring before he says goodbye.

A ring isn't likely in the immediate future either in Cincinnati or Seattle, but Griffey likes to be loved, and he is more than loved in Seattle. While many fans in Cincinnati still love him, many don't.

When Griffey was asked about Shaffer's visit, he said, "Don't know the man. Never heard of him. I just live and play for the present. I've never been a what-if guy."

As a 10-and-5 player, Griffey must approve any trade, and he said, "The problem with (10-and-5) players is that by the time they come to the player, it is down to them wanting a 'yay' and a 'nay' right away."

Griffey said last week was difficult, and not because of all the trade chatter. It was mostly because of the death of his closest friend, Frank King, a victim of cancer at 38.

"Last week was the longest of my life," he said, as he laced up pink shoe laces on his pink-trimmed Nike spikes as part of annual wearing-of-the-pink by major-league players on Mother's Day to bring attention to breast cancer. The players wore pink wrist bands and several used pink bats.

"Every time I call home, she (wife, Melissa) is still crying," Griffey said.

Final: Obviously a happier clubhouse in the afternoon than it had been in the morning.

A few quotes:

JOHN MCLAREN
When we got behind in the first inning we kept our composure and kept after it, and that’s what we’ve got to do. This is going to be a battle, and as soon as we can start feeling good about ourselves, then we can start taking off. And I think we’re starting to feel better about ourselves.

The bullpen pulled together, which was a very nice sign. J.J.’s velocity was very good. We go to Texas and we’re looking for a big series there.

J.J. PUTZ
I felt really good. I felt like I had good command. My arm felt good and it was nice being in the energy like that again.

RAUL IBANEZ
The last couple of days … we’re seeing guys having a better approach at the plate and a lot of good sounds coming off the bats. ... We were able to string together some hits and put some pressure on the defense out there. We had guys on base a lot. A good effort by everybody.

And a few notes:

The win ended a five-game losing streak. … Seattle is 15-8 when scoring four or more runs. … Ichiro Suzuki doubled in his first at bat, extended his season-high hitting streak to 11 games. Ichiro also stole his 16th base of the season and 288th of his career, leaving him two short of the Julio Cruz’s club record 290… … Ibanez’s third-inning home run was his 56th at Safeco Field, leaving him five short of Bret Boone’s park record.

4:10 -- It sure looks easy when the big three of offense, starting pitching and relief pitching are working for you.

Miguel Batista got his third win, the offense got its most runs since Monday, and Arthur Rhodes, Sean Green Rob Morrow and J.J. Putz made it stand up without undue suspense.

A nice -- if chilled to the bone -- crowd of 30,346 looked on.

2:20 -- Raul Ibanez just gave the Mariners a 3-2 lead with a two-run, 443-foot shot to right ... one of the real power shots I've seen here for quite a while.

2 p.m.-- Mariners just loaded the bases with no outs and ended the inning with no runs: Wladimir Balentien hit into a 1-2-3 double-play and Yuniesky Bentancourt grounded out. It's Chicago 2, Mariners 1 heading into the third.

1:25: White Sox 2, Mariners coming to bat.

By the way, players from both teams are wearing pink wrist bands, pink necklaces and pink ribbons -- and many are using pink bats -- in honor of Mother’s Day and breast cancer awareness. Major League Baseball Charities has committed $50,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure through the “Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer” program.

Fans also can purchase their own personalized pink bats at www.slugger.com, with $10 from each purchase going to Komen for the Cure.

And while I'm at it, happy Mothers' Day to any moms reading the blog today.

1:05 -- We've had the anthem. The roof remains closed. It is cooooold. Time to play ball.

1 p.m. -- No big news out of our meeting with John McLaren today ... unless you consider Jarrod Washburn working on a split-fingered pitch to be big news.

Otherwise, the conversation today was mostly devoted to "mood" ... how the team is dealing with losing 10 of 11 games.

McLaren admits to a tension in the clubhouse, which he believes could be showing up from players trying too hard

A few of his quotes:

"I’ve been in better times in my life, I can tell you."

"They’re frustrated and there’s some tension in the clubhouse, which I think is what it is. ... There hasn’t been a whole lot to feel good about for a long time."

"We’ve gone through a lot here. As a positive I hope its bringing us together as a group. We’re sticking together. We know we’re the only ones who can get ourselves out of this. There’s not an easy remedy. I can tell you the guys have probably been working too hard. With that said, that’s probably a positive step because they’re working at it. I think this is probably more of a mental grind than it is mechanically hitting."

Noon: Today's Mariners lineup

1. Ichiro, cf
2. Cairo, 1b
3. Beltre 3b
4. Ibanez lf
5. Lopez 2b
6. Clement dh
7. Johjima, c
8. Balentien, rf
Bentancourt, ss

Pitching: Batists (2-4, 5.66)

11:55 a.m. -- A slight drizzle has begun, and the Safeco roof has closed.

Trivia quiz -- How many games the roof is closed in a typical 81-game home season. (Closed means closed for all or part of the game.)

10:30 a.m. -- It's cool and cloudy at Safeco Field, but the roof is open.

Today's 1:10 p.m. game against the White Sox concludes what has been a dreadful homestand for the Mariners.

They play Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Texas -- the team that got this homestand off to its nasty start -- and then return home Friday for the start of interleague play with three games against the Padres.

I'm heading down to the clubhouse -- also presumably cool and cloudy.

And if I'm reading correctly Mr. Divish will join in with the blogging as the day moves along.

Yuck.

I need a few hours, and a few cocktails to process my thoughts. But I'll post tomorrow from Casa De Divish.

Don Ruiz has the game.

Here's a few quotes to leave you with....

“It wasn’t a designed play or a double steal,” Manager John McLaren said. “We had taken the green light off of Willie, but Dotel was slow to the plate and we told him to go ahead go.”

“Ichiro saw the ball in the dirt and that’s when he took off and the ball came right up to Uribe and he threw home,” McLaren said. “We’re trying to stay aggressive, but it didn’t work there.”

“Given the situation, there’s a high probability that the last out of the inning was going to be made at second base, but that’s something that must not happen,” Ichiro said through translator Ken Baron. “If there is an out to be made, it must be made at home not second base.”

“Please watch the video and find out because I’m going off feelings of the situation and I’m kind of into the moment,” he said.

“It’s tough a call, so it’s hard for me to say, but that’s the reason we have umpires,” Ichiro said.

“Bloomquist is always running,” Guillen said. “We just got lucky. We caught the play at the right place at the right time. This game’s crazy.”

“A loss is a loss let’s be honest, but there was a few games there we didn’t have anything,” McLaren said. “Tonight I could tell there was something there, we had some fire and some enthusiasm even when we were losing 6-0.”

9:32 --- wow that was not good, all the way around, they get lucky that Bloomquist doesn't get nailed at second but they weren't satisfied and just made the third out at home.

9:30 --- I wonder if the pitching coach just asked Dotel, umm, why did you walk Bloomquist to get to Beltre. Why? Why?

9:25 -- It would have been nice if that were Greg Norton at the plate instead of Cairo. But Norton's probably busy winning a game for the Braves tonight.

Ichiro's walk-up music is Fergie's "London Bridge" I wish I were making this up, but unfortunately I'm not.

Tonight's attendance --- 33,078

9:05 --- Well three runs in one inning, you can't really complain. But it's surprising what you can grow accustomed to settling for.

8:59 --- That was a pretty good walk for Clement. He's been struggling and could have easily chased that pitch away, but he drew a walk instead. The Mariners actually have something going here. We now have Octavio Dotel in the game....

8:52 --- Beltre comes up with a big single up the middle, scoring two runs. Coming into the game he was hitting .118 with runners in scoring position.

8:48 --- And that one at-bat kind of sums up why Willie hasn't won an every day starting job.

Ichiro didn't even hit that ball that crisply. Anderson almost made another great play, interesting baserunning moves for CAiro there.

8:29 --- It's now 7-1. I can't wait to get down to the clubhouse for postgame comments.

8:18 --- THE MARINERS SCORED, THE MARINERS SCORED!!! Adrian Beltre with a solo homer to right-center. Now they need just five more.

8:12 --- The Mariners have one hit. A Kenji Johjima single up the middle.

7:44 --- A double and then a home run to Carlos Quentin. It's now 6-0. Any bets on if the Mariners can come back? Hmm. How many people changed the channel off the game already?

7:37 --- Yes Raul should have caught that. I can hear the keyboards over at the USS Mariner and Lookout Landing going into highspeed right now.

7:30 --- I got a late start on my game thoughts, and now it is already over. Well, basically it is. I mean Brian Anderson just crushed a 3-run homer to dead center, and the Mariners have never come back and won a game in which they've trailed by two runs or more this season.

We talked briefly with Richie Sexson, who will be replaced in the line-up tonight by Miguel Cairo. Apparently, Jose Vidro's back is still bothering him some. And Vidro believes he strained the back playing in the field in New York.

Here's some of Richie's quotes...

It’s acceptable for what happened, it’s better than six. One is better than none.

I just want to get it taken care of now.

It’s best to get this over with now, I don’t want to get hot in August and have to serve the suspensions.

You never know how many I’ve seen seven and 10, with the helmet, I’m pretty happy about having five.

Here's today's line-up. Betancourt is getting the day off to get a rest, but also because he's swinging at anything and everything that's being throw to the plate. So that means Willie Ballgame is in the lineup tonight.

Here's the lineups ...
White Sox
Cabrera SS
Quentin LF
Dye RF
Konerko DH
Swisher 1B
Crede 3B
Anderson CF
Uribe 2B
Hall C
-------
Vazquez P

Ichiro CF
Bloomquist SS
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Lopez 2B
Clement DH
Johjima C
Balentien RF
Cairo 1B
---------
Washburn P

Here's some links...

* Here's my game story from today's paper.

* And here's my game notebook that talks about Richie

* John Lackey's return to the Angels is nearing.

* So is Eric Chavez's to the A's

* The Rangers pitchers have carried them as of late... I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Of course, two of those games came against the Ms.

* The Angels lost on Evan Longoria's walk-off home run.

* Here's a nice article on A's catcher Kurt Suzuki.

From the Mariners' press release.

RICHIE SEXSON’S SUSPENSION REDUCED TO FIVE GAMES
First Baseman Will Begin Serving Suspension Tonight

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that Major League Baseball has reduced the suspension of first baseman Richie Sexson to five games after an appeal process was completed.

Sexson will begin serving the suspension with tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox. He will miss the final two games of the current series vs. the White Sox, and all three games in Texas (May 12-14).

Sexson was ejected from Thursday’s game against the Texas Rangers after charging the mound.

Let's get to it.
9:18 -- It's not the same when JJ comes in and has thunderstruck rocking and the Ms are down three runs.

9:06 -- Another loss is looming.....

Thome absolutely crushed that 3-2 pitch off of Silva.

8:45 -- Silva is at 91 pitches, but there doesn't appear to be too much activity in the bullpen.

8:37 -- Great play by Balentien. Do you honestly think Brad Wilkerson could have made that play.

8:14 -- That's typical Mariners luck, Sexson scalds a ball to center and Brian Anderson makes an unreal catch against the wall. He was running so fast you could hear him hit the wall all the way in the press box.

8:03 --- MY GOD, THEY'VE DONE IT, THEY'VE SCORED A RUN!!!!! thank you AJ Pierzynski and you're shoddy catching skills. The scoreless inning streak ends at 24

8 p.m. -- Game notebook is all filed, so we can get some game updates rolling. But its not like there's anybody out there on the net right now. I know if I wasn't covering the game, I'd probably be watching it in a bar or not at all. After all it is Friday.

Yes, the Mariners are down 3-0 after Silva had a momentary lapse of control, but today is a new day and I'm trying to remain more positive. It may only last a few innings, but who knows.

7:33 -- Not much going on early, but the Mariners have a runner on third with less than two outs thanks to some aggressive base running by Adrian Beltre. Richie comes to the plate and draws a very large round of applause -- that isn't a common thing.

Sorry for no earlier posts, but I was up rather late last night trying to get find a way to put add beeps into my audio so I could post it on the blog, but I couldn't figure it out.

We know that Sexson has been fined and suspended for six games. He isn't speaking with media on the situation, having been advised by the players' union not to speak until after the appeal hearing.

As to when that will actually take place, no one is quite sure because it's a matter between major league baseball and the player's association so the Mariners have little to do with it. It happens independently of the Mariners.

Still, manager John McLaren said they have some evidence and some other information that was said after the melee that could help Sexson get his suspension reduced. As to what, McLaren wouldn't say. Sexson is in the lineup tonight.

Anyway, here's my game story from last night's debacle.

* Here's my game notebook that led with Jeff Clement and his hitting struggles.

Want to see how the opposing team's paper covered it?

* Here's Evan Grant's story from the Dallas Morning News.

* Jeff Wilson from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, filed this story.

* This is interesting.... this blog posted transcripts of what Rangers announcer Tom Grieve said about Sexson during the fight.

Here's a sample...

As Sexson leaves the field: “If Kason Gabbard’s gonna hit anybody, he’s gonna hit one of their good hitters, he’s not gonna hit Richie Sexson… You got a chance to hit Ibanez, you got a chance to hit Beltre, two good hitters. You got a guy coming up there that can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat, and you think he’s gonna throw at him?”

* Rangers pitcher Kason Gabbard refused to talk about the situation last night after the game, but he talked today, and here's his comments.

* HEre's another story about the situation.

Elsewhere.....
* Jeremy Reed had three more hits for the Rainiers, but they lost to the Iowa Cubs.

* It appears that Brad Wilkerson has found work.

Here's today's lineups ...
Slumping Kenji Johjima was left out of the lineup and replaced with Jeff Clement so McLaren could get an extra left-handed bat in the lineup with Jose Vidro feeling better after missing the past few games with back spasms.

White Sox
Cabrera SS
Quentin LF
Thome DH
Konerko 1B
Dye RF
Pierzynski C
Crede 3B
Anderson CF
Uribe 2B
-----------
Contreras P

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Sexson 1B
Clement C
BAlentien RF
Betancourt SS
------
Silva P

Mariners: Carlos Silva (3-1, 4.20 ERA)

Last start: Picked up the loss in an 8-2 defeat to the New York Yankees. Threw a season-low three innings while giving up a season-high eight runs on 11 hits.

Against the White Sox: This is Silva’s 17th career start vs. the White Sox. He is 4-9 with a 5.55 ERA; the losses are the most against any team in his career.

Did you know? Silva has the longest current errorless streak among all active pitchers at 151 chances. He has not made an error since May 27, 2004.

White Sox: Jose Contreras (2-3, 4.08 ERA)

Last start: Threw the fifth complete game of his career but lost, 4-3, to the Toronto Blue Jays. Contreras, who threw a season-high 104 pitches, retired the last 16 batters.

Against the Mariners: This is Contreras’ fifth start vs. Seattle. He is 2-2 with a 4.18 ERA with an impressive 22-4 strikeout-walk ratio.

Did you know? Contreras has recorded at least 10 wins and made 30 starts in each of the last four seasons.

Richie Sexson was suspended for six games and fined today by Major League Baseball after charging the mound and throwing his helmet at a Texas pitcher the previous night.

Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president in charge of discipline, cited Sexson for “violent and aggressive actions.”

Sexson asked the players’ association to appeal, and any suspension will be delayed until after a hearing.

Seattle’s Felix Hernandez and Texas’ Gerald Laird and Sidney Ponson also were fined.

Sexson charged the mound and flung his helmet at Rangers pitcher Kason Gabbard after the left-hander threw an eye-high pitch to him in the fourth inning of Seattle’s 5-0 loss. While benches cleared, no punches were thrown. Sexson was ejected.

Tensions began to build in the top half when Hernandez hit Ian Kinsler, who had homered in the second, in the back with a fastball. Kinsler turned toward Hernandez, who put his arms out then stared at Kinsler as the second baseman walked to first.

When benches cleared, Hernandez was restrained by three players, including former Mariners closer Eddie Guardado, now with Texas.

Here's the full transcript of Richie Sexson's postgame interview following last night's game in which he was ejected for charging the mound and throwing his helmet at Rangers' starter Kason Gabbard. It took Richie a while to come out for the interview. But he was very honest about the situation ...

Here's the complete transcript.

I understood the situation. There's a right and a wrong way to play the game. H it me below the shoulders and I'm fine with it. I was well aware of the fact that he's probably going to hit me and I go to first. But if you get up near the face that's when you start talking about careers and you start talking about family. There's a lot of stuff you can lose going up toward the head.

I'm sure it will turn into a he said, she said, and I wasn't throwing at him, but everybody in the ballpark knew what was going on. You get up it near the face or the head, nobody should deal with that. It's the wrong way to play baseball.

What goes through your mind in that moment?

It's a rage. If that ball hits me in the face, what are we talking about here. Who knows what that could have led to. At that time you're so (expletive) off, you don't know what even exactly happens for the next five minutes. It's a rage at that point.

I know throwing the helmet was the wrong thing. It's a chicken (expletive) move. I know in the end it wasn't the right thing to do. I lost it right there. I kept on thinking about a lot of things.

The whole time I was walking up to the plate, I was saying I don't mind getting hit, just keep it down.

Last night, I missed the game. I was with my child at Children's Hospital. It's just a lot of (expletive) running through your head right there. So if you get up near my face, I'm not dealing with it.

I wouldn't have been angry if he kept the ball down. He knows where it's going, keep it down.

Did the team's recent woes also help fuel his anger?

I'm sure it all came to a head right there. It's no secret we haven't scored any runs for a while. It's no secret we haven't been living up to our potential.

Has he ever seen a team struggle like this offensively?

No I haven't. This team offensively, on paper we're way better than this.

The Rangers made a few roster moves before the game, activating tonight's starting pitcher Kason Gabbard from the disabled list, along with infielder Travis Metcalfe. They optioned AJ Murray to Triple A Oklahoma City, while designating Ben Broussard for assignment.

It's amazing how far Broussard fell in the Rangers' eyes and how fast. He was supposed to be an everyday starter for them, now he's looking for a job.

Broussard was hitting just .159 with three home runs and 8 RBI and was basically replaced by Frank Catalanotto at first.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:46 -- It's one thing to show some fight in a fight, but the Mariners need to show some fight on the field. They still only have three hits.

9:39 --

9:05 -- all of that brouhaha and posturing won't mean as much if the Mariners don't put up a fight in this game.

Sexson is going to be suspended. I wonder if because he used his helmet it will be longer, like 8 games or so.

8:33 -- Maybe there is a pulse to this MAriners team afterall

8:23 -- Ian kinsler is not happy about getting hit by Felix there. His stare down needs some work. Hey good for Felix, the guy hits a bomb off you, you don't have your best stuff, stick one inside and send a message.

8:01 -- Down 4-0, I wonder how many fans have turned the channel at this point.

7:44 -- So much of what Felix does is based on emotion and that one little confrontation with home plate umpire Chad Fairchild over the swing and the miss has clearly bothered him. He lost his focus on Kinsler and left a pitch out to be hit.

7:37 -- on the list of things I never want to have happen to me, getting hit by a Felix fastball on any part of my body is right up there.

7:19 -- Wow, that was not to good of a throw there by Raul. He doesn't have a great arm, but that wasn't a good effort there. It looked on replay like he might not have had a good grip on the ball.

And Felix well on his way to another 30 pitch first inning.

Well, I've been released from Don's trunk after the Mariners' awful offense proved I'm not a jinx. Don't worry Don, I won't tell them that you have the remains of Jimmy Hoffa in your trunk.

I knew I wasn't a jinx.

Why?

This Mariners' offense is bad beyond jinxes and superstitions. Still, a big thanks to Don for covering the game, which allowed me to play some fastpitch softball last night and avoid getting more bitter and frustrated with the Mariners.

Here's some linkage...

* Here's Don's game story from last night.

* Here's his notebook which leads with a conversation with Chuck Armstrong.

* Our columnist Dave Boling calls for Junior to be brought back to Seattle.

* Here's Evan Grant's game story from the Dallas Morning News.

* LA Times baseball writer Bill Shalkin thinks the Mariners should go after Barry Bonds.

I cannot believe how bad Vicente Padilla made the Mariners look. Basically the Mariners let a guy, who looks like a serial killer, hold them to two hits...

The lineup looks a little different for tonight's game...

Ichiro CF
Lopez DH
Ibanez RF
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Betancourt SS
Balentien RF
Johjima C
Bloomquist 2B

McLaren decided to give a slumping Jeff Clement - 13 strikeouts in 23 at-bats - the night off with the Rangers starting lefty Kason Gabbard.

Clement is obviously pressing a little, which is something the whole team is guilty of. But the youngster is not this bad of a hitter. I did ask McLaren that if Clement wouldn't have been slumping, would he be in the lineup normally against lefties, and McLaren said absolutely.

Last season in Triple A, Clement actually hit lefties better than righties. He hit .315 (40-for-127) against lefties with 13 doubles, 10 homers and 28 RBI, and .259 (85-for-328) with 22 doubles, 10 homers and 58 RBI against righthanders last season.

Obviously the sample size of at-bats differs, but I've watched Clement consistently rake lefties. One of the main reasons why is that he is willing to stay in on the ball. He doesn't bail out because his strength is really hitting the ball of the opposite field, particularly the left-center gap. When he's hitting well, Clement stays in and sprays the ball all over the field - obviously he's not doing that now.

And that leads us to the decision to pinch-hit for Clement with Willie Bloomquist. The decision belonged to bench coach Jim Riggleman, who assumed the duties after McLaren was tossed out of the game.

I don't care how bad Clement is hitting, I give him the chance to hit because he has a chance to hit the ball out of the park. Willie? Not so much.

It would be nice to have Greg Norton on the bench still, but he's too busy getting big hits for Atlanta.

* Jose Vidro is available only as a pinch-hitter tonight because of his back spasms.

* Lopez said he's comfortable with DHing having done it quite a bit in the Venezuelan Winter League.

10:10 -- It was Seattle's seventh loss in eight games and they fall behind Texas into last place in the American League West at 14-21.

“We didn’t have much run support, but (starter Erik Bedard) threw the ball well,” manager John McLaren said. “… It’s a grind right here. We’re not swinging the bats very well, and when we do it’s right at somebody. We’ve been challenged here. I really don’t have much to tell you that I haven’t told you before: We’re just going through a real tough stretch right now.”

McLaren said he was tossed in the second inning after what he described as a misunderstanding with home plate umpire Mark Wegner.

The Mariners played shorthanded as Richie Sexson left before the game to tend to a family matter. He is expected to be available Thursday. McLaren also disclosed that Jose Vidro has been unavailable for the past two nights due to back spasms.

“I pitched good, but it doesn’t really matter,” Bedard said. “We need a win, and that’s all that counts.”

9:45: We're headed to the ninth, still 2-0, Rangers.

9:35: The Mariners are into the Rangers' bullpen now, and no doubt they are happy to see it. Starter Vincente Padilla left having allowed two hits and no runs in seven innings with eight K's.

9:15: Arthur Rhodes takes over for Bedard in the top of the eighth. Bedard's night: seven innings, two runs, two earned runs, six hits, one walk, five strikeouts, one wild pitch, one home run allowed; 109 pitches, 72 for strikes.

9:10: Rangers, 2-0 though seven. The Mariners got their first two runners on in the bottom of the seventh, then the next three struck out. A half inning ago the fans were stretching. Now a lot of them are walking to the exits.

8:40 -- Now it's Rangers 2, Mariners 0, in Seattle's half of the sixth.

By the way, before the game, we got some time with Mariners president Chuck Armstrong. There were two primary topics: the falloff in attendance (tonight's is 17,173) and the team's slow start.

A couple of his comments:

On manager John McLaren:
“He’s doing a fine job. I like our staff. I like the manager. … I think Mac is doing a fine job. He’s got a good staff, and they give him good support. He has a log of conversation, and he’s providing good leadership to the guys.”

On attendance:
"I’m optimistic about attendance picking up when the weather improves and the team’s performacne inproves. But yeah, you see 15,000 here on a Tuesday night against a division rival, you’re a little disappointed."

8:20 -- Halfway through: Rangers 1, Mariners 0.

8 p.m. -- We have just received word that Texas shortstop Michael Young left the game in the first inning with an injury to his left hip flexor.

7:50 -- 0-0 after three. Texas two hits, Mariners one. No errors.

7:30 -- Manager John McLaren was just ejected from the game. Starting pitcher Erik Bedard had just walked Texas' Milton Bradley, so the guess is he was tossed for arguing balls and strikes. Well, the balls at least.

7:25 -- OK, belatedly, here's the M's lineup:
1. Ichiro, cf
2. Jose Lopez, 2b
3. Raul Ibanez, lf
4. Adrian Beltre, 3b
5. Jeff Clement, dh
6. Yunieski Betancourt, ss
7. Wladimir Balentien, rf
8. Jamie Burke, c
9. Miguel Cairo, 3

(Oddly, the Rangers also have an alteration to their original starting lineup, with Ramon Vasquez sliding in for Michael Young at shortstop and second in the order. No reason yet announced.)

By the way, here's manager John McLaren's explanation for moving Betancourt up from his earlier No. 9 spot in the order: “I knew he was comfortable in the ninth position, but I just wanted to try something. You can only sit pat so many times. I don’t like switching the lineup every single day, but if you see something’s not working – some guys together who just don’t look like they’re going to mesh – try something else.”

6:20 -- The Mariners just altered their previously announced starting lineup, moving Richie Sexson out -- due to what is being called a "personal family issue" -- and Miguel Cairo in. I never quite got around to posting that previous lineup, but I'll try to get the new one up soon.

2:30 p.m. -- We're opening up shop a little early today, simply stepping across the street after a Seattle Sounders even at Qwest. As we get going, it's drizzling in downtown Seattle, and the roof over Safeco is closed. A few Rangers are out hitting, running and shagging flies. A train whistle is blowing. Mariners clubhouse opens in about an hour, and I'll be back in a couple of hours with the batting order and quotes and -- less likely -- perhaps some actual clubhouse news. First pitch is at 7:10. The game is on FSN and, needless to say, plenty of good tickets remain.

Game thoughts tonight,

Here's a link I forgot to post, but Angels manager Mike Scioscia isn't happy with his team's offense. Um Mike? How would you like managing this offense? I think you're just being a little overcritical.

Another random question, but how creepy was that Ichiro look-a-like guy? It makes me wonder if we are actually interviewing him after games.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:40 -- The announced crowd of 15,818 was the smallest in SAfeco Field history, and 7 of the 10 smallest crowds in Safeco history have come this season. Any thoughts as to a reason why?

9:14 --- "PUT ME IN COACH, I'M READY TO PLAY TO-DAAY!!!!!" Oh my God, it's Miguel Cairo and he's sprinting onto the field with his glove in his hand.

8:28 -- Here's Miguel Batista's line, 2 1/3 innings, 6 runs, 3 hits, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts. HE threw 85 pitches, 45 were strikes. He really threw 45 strikes? That number seems a little high.

8:20 -- the most impressive thing I'll see all night was that home run by Josh Hamilton. That thing was crushed. I'll say this when Cha Seung Baek gives up hits, they aren't little bleeders and bloops.

8:17 -- wow, I must be a curse. This is just awful. At least you guys can change the channel, which I am sure you already have done. And yes Snydro, this is where I wish the Mariners had RA Dickey as well.

8:06 -- Miguel Batista has drained the life right out of this crowd of about 10,000 people.

7:41 -- My God, can somebody throw a strike. I can safely say there is no way this game will get over in less than 3 hours.

7:34 -- Wow 44 pitches in the first inning. He ain't making it to the fifth inning. Sorry DAve8557, those days are long gone. But I will say this. I thought the atmosphere at Yankee Stadium was pretty cool. There's a lot of energy in the crowd, and they seem to know their baseball.

7:26 -- Snydro, I wasn't checking out his calves. We were watching his legs when he walked in to see if he was favoring it or limping. But it's not surprising that he's got skinny legs, I mean the guy weighs like a buck fifty. And I do remember that episode of Entourage. Besides Sophia Bush, Emmanuelle Chriqui is also a reader of Mariners Insider.

Here's the lineups for tonight ...
Texas
Ian Kinsler 2B
Michael Young SS
Josh Hamilton CF
Milton Bradley DH
David Murphy RF
Brandon Boggs LF
Frank Catalanotto 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia C
Ramon Vasquez 3B
----------------
Sidney Ponson P

Mariners
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Richie Sexson 1B
Jeff Clement DH
Yuni Betancourt SS
Kenji Johjima C
Wlad Balentien RF

Well, I guess we'll find out if I am a jinx or the Texas Rangers are as bad as everybody assumed they would be this season. I'm up at Safeco watching Clement, Balentien, Johjima and Cairo take extra BP. It's Cairo's form of game action.

Here's Don's game story from last night. Thank you Don.

No word yet on Jarrod Washburn and the status of his calf. But if he were to miss a start, fellow lefty Ryan Feierabend is on basically the same work schedule as Washburn.

The Rainiers got a late win last night.

I'm sure you've probably heard about Bob Nightengale's story in today's USA TODAY about Ken Griffey Jr. eventually coming home to the Mariners. If you haven't, click here to read it. It's an interesting and somewhat expected story from all parties involved. I'm hoping to talk with Chuck Armstrong today about his comments in the story.

The question remains is this: What would you give up to get junior? I mean let's face it, he's 38-years-old, he doesn't hit or field like he once did. He certainly doesn't command a top flight prospect. Another thing to remember is this, the Reds have an option for one more year for Griffey, but they would have to pay $16 million for next season. I don't see them doing that, so he would then become a free agent and most likely sign with the Mariners anyway.

What would you do? Who would you be willing to give up?

UPDATE 5:11 -- Also in response to Bob Nightengale's story, the Cincy Enquirer had this story.

The also had this story as well.

We also tried to get Chuck Armstrong to talk about it, but he has owners meetings all day. However, he did tell the media director that the conversation was relatively innocent and he wasn't trying to plant any seeds for a possible move, because that is illegal.

Anyway, I re-read the Nightengale story and it's a good story, but really didn't we hear all this same stuff, last time he was here?

Here's some more links...

After 25 games here's what Buster Olney writes about all the team's issues, here's what he said about the Mariners issues and solutions...

SEATTLE MARINERS

Problem: They're not hitting.

Solution: They may ask Jose Vidro to go to Triple-A at some point, or perhaps cut him altogether, and they've tried to install Jeff Clement into their lineup as a designated hitter. As we sit here today, there is one very obvious solution that could serve as an upgrade for either the Detroit Tigers or the Mariners and their hitting problems: Barry Lamar Bonds, who is sitting at home by a silent phone. But the Mariners reportedly have no interest. If Wladimir Balentien can't establish himself in right field, you wonder if Seattle will pick up past threads of Griffey trade talks.

* Ervin Santana won again yesterday to move to 6-0 along with teammate Joe Saunders, making them the first pitchers in the same rotation to start 6-0 since John Burkett and some guy named Pedro Martinez.

UPDATE:
Jarrod Washburn said his calf would be okay, he says it's not as bad as when he pulled it last time. And he even didn't mind when I made fun of the fact that he barely had calves. I didn't say, "are those your legs, or are you riding a chicken," but he even acknowledged to have some skinny legs.

"There isn't a lot of muscle there, but just enough to pull," he said. "If I shaved them, they'd look pretty good."

The result snaps a five-game losing streak for the Mariners.

Jared Washburn left the game with calf stiffness. Manager John McLaren said he doesn't expect it to cost Washburn a start, and Washburn said he hopes that's right.

Washburn, by the way, said he tweaked the calf before the game and pitched six shutout innings with it. Then he hurt it worse on the final pitch of the sixth, and "like an idiot" tried to pitch through it in the seventh, when the Rangers got their only runs.

Closer J.J. Putz pitched the ninth, giving up a couple of hits -- and was one ball from brining the tying run to the plate -- but survived.

The third-place Mariners move a game ahead of the Rangers in the A.L. West standings.

A few quotes from the clubhouse:

McLaren on Washburn:
I saw him in New York, I think it was Friday, and I stopped by his locker and I stopped and I said, ‘Are you all right?’ He said, ‘I’m 1-4, Mac.’ He didn’t crack a smile or anything. Is said, ‘You’ve pitched better than 1-4.’ He said, ‘I’m still 1-4.’ And this is what he’s all about. He’s a great competitor and he demands a lot out of himself.

McLaren on Texas starter Kevin Millwood:We made Millwood throw some pitches tonight. We didn’t let him off the hook. We had some things going and we kept it going, which is what we’re striving to do.

Washburn on the run support:
It means a lot. It’s hard to win games if we don’t score. The guys did a good job tonight of being patient and waiting for a pitch to hit, and when they got that pitch they didn’t miss it.

Postgame notes from Mariners PR office:

RANGERS NOTES:
•
The Rangers lost their second game in a row but only their third in their last 8 games. The Rangers have also lost 9 out of their last 11 road games this season.
•
Kevin Millwood lasted just 3.0 innings giving up 9 hits, 7 runs, and 2 HR. The 7 runs are the most allowed this season by a Rangers starter.
•
The loss tonight gave Kevin Millwood his 10th consecutive road loss tying the Rangers club record with Joe McClain of the 1961-62 Senators. The streak dates back to Aug. 19, 2007 at MIN.
•
With today's loss to Jarrod Washburn, the Rangers are now 1-6 versus left-handed starters this season with their only win coming on April 10 vs. Baltimore.
•
Josh Rupe tossed 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit and 3 strikeouts tonight. It was his third straight appearance tossing 4.0 innings and his first appearance since April 22nd at Detroit.
•
Milton Bradley went 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI and is now hitting .357 (5x14) with 2 doubles, 2 runs and 2 RBI during the current road trip.

MARINERS NOTES:•
The Mariners snapped a season high 5 game losing streak with tonight's win and are now in sole possession of third place 6.5 games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West.
•
Allowing just 4 hits and 3 runs, Jarrod Washburn got his 20th win as a Mariner, first at Safeco Field since June 29, 2007, and first against the Rangers since June 22, 2005 with LAA. The win also marks his first since April 9 @ TB.
•
Jarrod Washburn received 7 runs of support tonight; it is the most since getting 7 on July 29, 2007 against OAK.
•
Jarrod Washburn left tonight’s game in the seventh inning with tightness in his right calf.
•
Raul Ibanez extended his season high hitting streak to 7 games by going 2-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI. He is now hitting .333 (10-for-30), 3 runs, 2 doubles, 3 RBI during the streak.
•
Ichiro extended his hitting streak to 5 games with a double to right field leading off the game and is now hitting .429 (9x21) during the five game hitting streak.
•
Wladimir Balentien went 2x3, with a home run, run scored and 3 RBI in tonight’s game. Since being recalled on April 30, he has hit two home runs and has 6 RBI in his six starts in right field.
•
The Mariners scored 7 runs tonight; it was only the second time in their last eight games that they have scored 3 or more runs. Seattle also hit two home runs (Sexson, Balentien) tonight. It was the teams’ first multi-homer game since April 24 against the Baltimore Orioles.
•
Tonight’s crowd of 16,637 was the smallest crowd at Safeco Field this season.

Jarrod Washburn gave up three straight hits to start the seventh inning, and then left the game with rightness in his right calf.

He went six innings, allowing three runs, three earned runs, four hits no walks, three strike outss, one hit batter.

Sean Green came in with a 7-2 lead, a Ranger on second, and no outs.

The Mariners got out of the inning with a 7-3 lead.

Attendance, btw, is 16,637.

The Rangers have opened the fourth inning wit righty Josh Rupe on the mound.

Starter Kevin Millwood heads to the showers to contemplate a very ugly pitching line: three innings, seven runs, seven earned runs, nine hits, one walk, two strike outs, two home runs allowed, 76 pitches thrown, 52 strikes.

Millwood came into the game with a 2-2 record and 3.86 ERA.

Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn has a one-hitter through three. He retired the first eight Rangers.

Seattle has has been right on Texas starter Kevin Millwood, scorings in each inning: 2, 1, 4. The fourth run came on a 414-foot, no-doubt-about-it Richie Sexson shot to straightaway center. It was his seventh of the season. Runs five, six and seven came on a 399-footer from Wladimir Balentien into the Rangers bullpen ... which is busy.

It's a cool night. Whispy clouds. Small crowd. The roof is open.

Manager John McLaren on the state of his team:
We’ve dug ourselves a hole here, let’s be honest about it. We’ve got to get going again, feel good about ourselves, swing the bats, swing at good pitches and doing the things we’re capable of doing. We’re trying to do too much and not working the count. Little things like that show up.

We’re not panicking by any means, but there is an urgency. There’s a point that we’ve got to go in the other direction. We’ve got to start putting some slashes in the left-hand column and getting some wins and just get on a roll the other way. We’re kind of treading water. We haven’t hit collectively as a team. Sometimes we have nine hits in a game, but they’re scattered and there’s nothing together. We’ve got to keep fighting.

Left fielder Wladimir Balentien on feeling more a part of the team this season:
Right now, I’ve got more opportunity to help the team than I had last year. I feel so great and excited to have the opportunity right now.

Utility player Mike Morse on his shoulder injury:The doc said my arm is probably going to be better than it was before.I think winter ball would help me a lot to get ready for next year.

My goal (this season) is to cheer these guys on and help the team win any way I can now.

I'm just out of the Mariners clubhouse.

No huge news apparently, but we got a brief chat with Mike Morse on the condition of his left shoulder separation. He admits he's disappointed about following such an encouraging spring with a lost season, but he also says he's upbeat by nature and is trying to look on the bright side. What passes for a bright side is his hope that he'll be able to start hitting again in four or five months, hopes to play winter ball and is confident he'll be ready to go next spring.

We also got a little time with manager John McLaren, who seemed to admit that there are only so many ideas a manager can try, and after that it's just a matter of sticking to the basic plan and hoping the players start producing. His finger stopped short of the panic button, but he admits that there is a growing urgency to start turning this thing around.

They'll get their next chance at 7:10 tonight. About 30,000 tickets remain available (25,000 or more are available for each game of this series) and the game (and series) is on FSN.

Here's the lineup they'll trot out there:

1. Ichiro, cf
2. Jose Lopez, 2b
3. Raul Ibanez, lf
4. Adrian Beltre
5. Richie Sexson, 1b
6. Jeff Clement, dh
7. Yuniesky Betancourt, ss
8. Kenji Johjima, c
9. Wladimir Balentien, rf

I also spoke a bit with Balentien about his first week up from the Rainiers, and I'll have some of his comments in the Tuesday paper.

The roof is open at Safeco Field, but there are cloudy skies above the stadium. And perhaps also in the Mariners' clubhouse ... I'll see about that in an hour or so.

At 7:10, the Mariners will begin a seven-game homestand with the first of four against the Texas Rangers. The American League West standings flags in left-center field show Angles, Athletics, Mariners and Rangers. However, the latter two are tied going into tonight's game, so this series will settle third and fourth place ... at least for a while.

The Chicago White Sox come in for three starting Friday.

The first five games of the homestand start at 7:10, and before concluding with a 1:10 game Sunday.

I wouldn't imagine tickets are going to be a problem for any of them, but I'll update that later.

Well, I’m sitting here at an “Evil Empire” coffee shop in New York, listening to people make big deals, about their so-called important jobs, and talking loudly into Bluetooth headphones so everybody in three-block radius can understand their overall importance to the national economy. Sure buddy you may be moving big on the market, but do you get to try and figure out why Richie Sexson can’t hit in Safeco Field, or why the Mariners can’t hit a guy named Darrell Rasner. Oh well, you gotta love New York sometimes.

I should have found a bar to write in. But then again, thinking about this Mariners team sometimes drives me to drink. I will say this though there is no shortage of beautiful women in Manhattan and it seems another one walks by every second. So there are positives.

And that’s what I’m trying to do with the Mariners is find some positives, I’m an optimistic person by nature, but this road trip didn’t make it easy for me. I guess the biggest positive for me heading into this series with the Rangers is this – The Mariners have to play better, because right now they can’t play much worse.

Or can they?

It’s tough imagine the Mariners can hit as weakly, field as poorly or receive more inconsistent pitching than they did this past road trip.

Manager John McLaren seems to think that a return to Safeco and a little home cooking is what the M’s need. But as Jose Vidro pointed out, the Mariners lost their last two series at home as well.

Before I get to the road trip grades, a few programming notes. I won’t be covering tonight or Wednesday night’s games. But I may be blogging some stuff though. Tonight I’ll be in the air for most of the game so no “game thoughts.” Don Ruiz will handle the game coverage. Not sure who is doing Wednesday’s game.

Alright here we go …

Hitting: F-
I can think of only a few good at-bats from the last six days. ,I don’t care if Adrian Beltre hit two home runs on the trip, one of them a game-winner, or that Ichiro had hits in almost every game. The team as a whole was awful, they scored more than three runs in the first game, and five of them didn’t come till the last inning of that game. The next five games they never scored more than three runs.

Want a disgusting stat? Ichiro stole six bases against the Yankees. Do you know how many runs he scored in the series? One. One damn run. That’s with the 2-3-4-5 hitters having changes to hit him in. Overall against New York, the Mariners got 19 hits in 102 plate appearances and with four walks (.194 team batting average) and scored four runs total. Perhaps because of the 19 hits, one was a double, one was a Beltre home run and that was it for extra base hits.

And with the exception of Chien-Mien Wang, it wasn’t like they were facing Cy Young and Roger Clemens. We’re talking an aging Mike Mussina, who’s fastball now runs up there at 85 miles per hour and some guy named Darrell Rasner.

Pitching: C-
Carlos Silva’s first start in Cleveland, Miguel Batista’s start and Erik Bedard’s start were all solid outings, and you know how many of those the Mariners won? One. One damn win. JJ’s meltdown cost Batista, while the Mariners’ defense cost Bedard two unearned runs and led to another. That and the Mariners never scored more than three runs in either of them.

Silva and Felix struggled in New York and Jarrod Washburn labored in Cleveland. One thing I think happens with pitchers, though they’ll never admit it, they take the mound knowing they’ll probably only two runs of support and it makes them get too fine. They try and get strikeouts, instead of pitching to contact. And when that happens, they run up their pitch count, fall behind in counts and generally get hit harder than they normally would.

The bullpen was ok on the trip, Arthur Rhodes still continues to progress and Brandon Morrow is getting better. The big question is JJ’s command issues and if they’ve been righted by this new throwing routine. When, and if, the Mariners ever get another save situation we’ll find out.

Defense: D
I really wanted to give an F simply for the errors that Betancourt and Lopez committed in Bedard’s start. They were simple plays and it just demonstrates the lack of focus that plagues them and doesn’t allow them to take the next step. Ask yourself this? Does Derek Jeter at Betancourt’s age, make that bad play on the backhand? No because Jeter busts his ass and gets in front and makes the play in front of him. Does Dan Uggla, Chase Utley or Dustin Pedroia take their eyes off of a throw down on a stolen base like Lopez. Not hardly. It was a sure out. And when you aren’t scoring runs, the last thing you can do is give free outs to the opponent.

But you know, the Mariners gold glove third baseman had two this series, including a horrible one against Cleveland on a routine double play throw. He has six errors this season. I know he’s got a hurt wrist and thumb on his glove hand, but a couple ghastly ones have been on throwing errors. Beltre and Joe Crede lead all third basemen in errors.

Management: B
Look I’m glad they realized the Wilkerson experiment was a glaring failure. And bringing up Balentien and Clement was the right thing. I still don’t know why they got rid of Norton and now he's headed to Atlanta. He’s a better bat off the bench than anybody they have. Miguel Cairo is a nice guy that can’t hit - and he’s getting paid 850,000 for getting in one game a week. That’s not quite as bad as eating the 3 million on Wilkerson’s salary, but hey, the Nintendo WII is selling well.

One thing I didn’t like is all the talk about Clement and Balentien jumpstarting the offense, which I admit we helped perpetuate. These two kids have a combined 40 games of major league experience. There’s bound to be some failure, to go with any success. But the Mariners need to stick by them. They called them up they have to let them get some serious at-bats and allow them to learn a little.

I think John McLaren’s tirade at his team was good and deserved. They were playing horribly and if nobody in that clubhouse is going to raise their voice, say something and hold people accountable then McLaren needed to. I could write 10,000 words on this, but I won’t (not yet anyway).

Overall: F
It’s now May, and the Mariners are tied with the Texas Rangers with the worst record in the American League 13-18. All that manure of “it’s only the first month” and “it’s a long season” needs to stop. Seattle is 6 ½ out and you just don’t make that up in two weeks because the Angels are not going to fall apart like the New York Mets did last year. The Mariners need to not only start winning games, but playing a decent brand of baseball that leads to wins in games they shouldn’t. Last year’s team had a way of pulling out wins they probably shouldn’t have, but that’s because they played better baseball than this year’s squad is right now. The time is now. They can’t afford to wait around any longer. As McLaren said: “It’s time to go, so dammit let’s go.”

The Mariners traded Greg Norton to the Braves today. The team release:

MARINERS TRADE INF GREG NORTON TO ATLANTA FOR PLAYER TO BE NAMED LATER

Norton was designated for assignment on April 30.

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that infielder Greg Norton has been traded to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Norton was designated for assignment on April 30 when Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien were recalled to the Major League roster. Seattle had 10 days to trade, release or assign Norton outright to the minors.

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).

For more information, please contact the Seattle Mariners baseball information department at (206) 346-4000. More information on Seattle’s roster is also available online at www.Mariners.com or www.losmarineros.com.</blockquote>

Good afternoon from the big ballpark in the Bronx.

Let's see if the Mariners can muster some offense today off Darrell Rasner, who was 1-4, with a 4.01 ERA in 2007.

It's too bad this guy wasn't suiting up still. There would be no offensive issues.

You watch that and you can't help but miss the Gar.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:

3:24 -- From Snydro: Divish, I've come to the conclusion that you're bad luck. Take a few days off, and let's see what happens.

Sounds like a plan to me. I will be taking Monday off since. I have no idea who's covering the game. They'll get the pleasure of writing about this mess.

3:14 -- Here's a pleasant thought, when the Mariners lose today, and if the Rangers win, Seattle will have sole possession of last place in the AL West.

3:12 -- The playing of YMCA needs to be banned at all stadiums for the rest of eternity.

We've got Ross Olehn-somebody coming in, perhaps the Mariners can get some runs off of him.

2:44 -- It's now 8-2, and I think victory for the Mariners has pretty much packed its bags early and headed for the airport. But if they can't win, they need to at least mount some offense as some sort of moral victory for the bruised psyches.

2:20 -- The Mariners miss out on a major opportunity there. Clement is pressing a little and trying to do too much. Both he and Balentien I think are letting the idea of them being sparks to this offense affect them a little.

2:04 -- Wow, Silva is getting banged around pretty good. It's 5-2, and the Mariners have never come back and won game in which they've trailed by more than two runs this season. And we have back-to-back home runs as Robinson Cano also went yard.

1:58 -- The Mariners aren't going to win this game 2-0, know how I know/. Because the Yankees just scored on three straight singles. Silva is not the type of guy to shut teams out, but he is the type to keep him team in games.

1:21 -- Josh Hamilton won the AL player of the month after racking up 32 RBIs in April. The Rangers got Hamilton in a trade for talented young pitcher Edison Volquez.

Here's my question, in the past offseason, would have traded Brandon Morrow for Hamilton? It would have been a similar deal.

1:15 --- I know some of you may not read Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com because it's takes the insider fee, but it's a must read for me. He had this interesting note yesterday.

PITCHERS WITH LOWEST PERCENTAGE OF WORKING INTO HITTERS COUNTS
PLAYER PERCENTAGE
Johnny Cueto, Reds 9.091 (13 of 143)
Carlos Silva, Mariners 10.714 (18 of 168)
Andy Sonnanstine, Rays 10.897 (17 of 156)
Roy Oswalt, Astros 11.180 (18 of 161)
Johan Santana, Mets 11.321 (18 of 159)
Roy Halladay, Blue Jays 12.042 (23 of 191)
Paul Byrd, Indians 12.057 (17 of 141)
Greg Maddux, Padres 12.102 (19 of 157)
Tim Hudson, Braves 12.230 (17 of 139)
Brett Tomko, Royals 12.698 (16 of 126)

1:12 -- My God, folks, the Mariners scored more than two runs before the seventh inning for the time in five games. Adrian Beltre with a monster home run to left. Johnny Damon didn't even budge when Beltre hit it.

Manager John McLaren talked with the media about his tirade last night. Here's my game story which leads with it. It's not something he particularly enjoyed or planned. But on his way up the tunnel to the clubhouse following yesterday's loss, something in his head, told him it was time.

Listen to it here.
I talked with Lee Elia about it, who's no stranger to rants. And he likened it to parenting. "If you don't get upset with your kid when he does something wrong, how's he going to know that you even care about him or what he does," Elia said. "Mac loves these guys and he told him that, but he had to air them out. Nobody likes doing it."

Including McLaren, who is generally a pretty gregarious guy.

Will it work? We'll see.

McLaren did change the lineup again.

First of all he gave Richie Sexson the day off. Just to keep him fresh. That means Jose Vidro will start at first base today, which could be interesting.

He also moved Yuni up in the order and Clement and Balentien down as both have expectedly struggled a little to adjust to major league pitching.

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

Yankees
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Matsui DH
Giambi 1B
Cabrera CF
Cano 2B
Ensberg 3B
Moeller C
----------
Rasner P

As we waited to go into the clubhouse following the Mariners 6-1 loss, the unmistakable sound of John McLaren's high-pitched tenor of anger could be heard through the thick clubhouse walls.

After not wanting to say something he regretted about his team to the media. He told his team directly, loudly and angrily instead.

You could see it building on the horizon and since the players weren't doing it, McLaren did it instead.

We couldn't hear the exact words, and the ones we did hear, couldn't be used in print. But it had something to do with their effort, their focus, their preparation and their attitudes, all of which need some improvement.

"Everything he said, he hit the nail on the head," said Raul Ibanez. "He’s absolutely right. It’s time for us to pick it up. And we're very well capable of picking it up."

I'm trying to finish up writing, and I'll post more later.

As I was glancing at today's lineups, I heard a little noise in the background.

And all of the sudden all the clubhouse tv's tuned to this station....

And I said, "That's Miguel Cairo's theme music." My God, he's starting todaaaayyy!!!!

That's right Cairo is starting for Jose Lopez at second base. No major reason other than Cairo supposedly matches up better with Mike Mussina.

Perhaps the best part about the Mariners' line-up is that Felix is starting.

To modify a line from the movie Beautiful Girls, when Felix pitches it's "Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow."

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

3:45 -- Yesterday, McLaren didn't speak to the media, I wonder how many of the players will today.

3:43 -- Clement with the hat trick today. Wlad and him are going to have their moments where they struggle. But they have to be a little patient with them.

3:02 --- Felix went 5 2/3 allowing six runs, 12 hits. He walked three and struck out three, and threw 105 pitches, 61 for strikes

2:56 --- Two run homer for Johnny Damon and now a single for Jeter. Damon has two doubles and a home run, while Jeter has a double and two singles. Felix is cooked. WE'll be seeing Cha Seung any time now.

2:38 -- Runners on first and second, and Cairo pops up meekly to right field.

Everybody!: "Put me in coach, I'm ready to plaaay todaaaay!!

2:32 -- Cha Seung Baek is warming up in the bullpen, the Mariners' problems are solved! Can someone explain how Mike Mussina has not thrown a pitch harder than 84 miles per hour, and has only given up one run.

2:21 -- This link about Trey Hillman is for you DAVE8557...

The Mariners had a little something going until Richie's little groundball back to Mussina.

2:08 -- the Marines are down 4-1. Which is about the odds I'd give on a comeback now. Felix is at 58 pitches, in the third inning.

2:03 -- Ok it's not 3-1 as a back-to-back doubles, a single by Matsui barely inside the bang and some sort of horrible throwing mistake by Raul.

And now a single by Cabrera, and an error for Ichiro allowing the runners to move up. That's Ichiro first error since Sept. 12 of 2007 and that was his only error of the season. And his 16th career error.

1:50 -- My God, the Mariners scored a run early in the game. I don't believe what I just saw. Ichiro scalded that pitch. And then he's steals second to get into scoring position ... setting up..

"Well, I spent some time in the the Mariners' Nine, watchin' it from the bench;
You know I still got paid, while everyone struucckk ouut!"

And Cairo grounds out to second.

1:45 -- Joh with a hit that went all of 40 feet, but it was a hit.

1:32 -- I'm not sure if Ichiro could have dove and caught that ball, but the point is moot because Ichiro does not dive. Ever. Mariners down 1-0.

1:19 --- "I got an unused glove, an unsure bat and brand new pair of shoes," --- Yep, Cairo's first at bat, a strikeout swinging. And he even argued a few of the calls with home plate umpire Paul Schreiber, maybe he was saying "We need to slow this down, I might not see the field again for another two weeks."

Alright, I didn't post any pregame stuff. I don't know what to write about. I wish I had an exact explanation for what is wrong with this team, or an exact solution as to how to fix it.

Look, the Mariners are flawed right now and it comes down to a matter of leadership, not only from McLaren, but from the players. We talked about the "glass bowl" theory. Somebody needs to step and be that guy. Do you think that any of this would have stood if Jay Buhner, Dan Wilson or Bret Boone was on this team? Probably not.

I honestly think that's part of the reason why McLaren closed his door to the media last night. As he admitted today, McLaren didn't want to say something about his team or his players he couldn't take back, but maybe he should have. But I also think he closed the door, thinking maybe it would send a message to the team that he's said enough and they need to say it to themselves. That didn't happen. It was quiet, and yes, sort of "listless" as you mentioned David.

Here's my game story, which talks about the scene in the clubhouse last night.

Last night was a bad game all the way around with the exception of Bedard. He'll never admit it, but Beltre is bothered by a sore thumb and wrist on his glove hand.

I will say this, I get tired of players saying, "It's only the first month and it's a long season." But on some level it's true, there are five months left to the season and a lot can change in that, baseball players compartmentalize this kind of stuff so much easier than fans and the media, who live and die with each and every game.

Even though it's only been a month, a lot of damage to a team's hopes, psyche and end of the year results can be damaged in that first in the month. The type of baseball the Mariners are playing, can't just be righted overnight. Or can it?

One thing that I forget sometimes is to take a closer look at the standings. So here they are....

AL West
Los Angeles 18-13
Oakland 18-13
Seattle 13-17
Texas 12-18

The Mariners are only 4 and half games back. That number is not good, but not horrible. As poorly as they've played, it's only 4 and half games, even though feels like it should be 40. But another week of this type of baseball, that deficit could grow to six or seven and the Mariners will never be able to overcome that.

What does it all mean? I still don't know. And I don't think any of the Mariners do either.

No time for a funny lead in that I can think of....

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:43 -- Snydro, I'm still processing my response to your comment, and also finishing my notebook, as well. But we've saddled the coaches with plenty of the blame, but they aren't the ones playing for these guys out there.

9:09 --- Kyle Farnsworth was booed when he came in the game replacing Wang. I don't know if it's because Yankee fans were upset that they took Wang out, or the fact that it was Farnsworth coming in. I think it's both.

While Yankee fans booed, I think I heard and audible cheer from the Mariners, who will be glad to see anybody but Wang.

8:40 -- you know how this game is already decided because Yankee fans are already doing the wave in the fifth inning. It's not like the Mariners have shown them anything to think otherwise.

8:15 --- Wow, now it's Burke. That was a tough pop up and the wind is blowing but he's a good defensive catcher and he can make that play. Sometimes errors can be contagious.

7:55 --- I don't try to be negative. But sometimes its tough when you watch this stuff unfolds. Here you are, it's Friday night at Yankee STadium, two of the premier starters in the AL are on the mound, and you're defense pulls a disappearing act and spots a reeling team three runs. This is a Yankees team without Posada, A-Rod and Cano not in the line-up. This was an opportunity to beat a good pitcher with your ace on the mound and you give them three free runs. A good team does not do this.

It's time for the onus to come off McLaren and go directly to the players at some point.

7:45 --- Look, I don't know what's going on with the Mariners defense, but this is ridiculous. These are mistakes that good teams don't make, and I guess that's why the Mariners are not a good team.

7:25 -- Nice play by Richie at first and the Bedard bare-hand grab. How often have we seen Richie dive and not even come close to a ball. This time he makes a nice play.

7:20 -- I don't think Raul is a horrible outfielder, but he does have his deficiencies, like getting to soft fly balls it seems to take him a while to get himself moving.

The run Jeter scored moved him into fourth all-time in runs scored in Yankee history -- the guy he passed? Um that would be Joe DiMaggio. Yeah, Jeter is good.

7:10 -- I realize errors are part of the game, but Yuni not getting down on that ball is just typical lack of focus. You don't see Jeter making that same mistake.

I'm going to try and post some more photos when I get the chance to, including some of the new ballpark as well.

UPDATE: Sorry about the unfinished post. I'm having some Internet issues, and we had Mac's pregame meeting.

* In that meeting we learned that they are changing up JJ Putz daily routine in an effort to help him find his fastball. Instead of throwing on the flat ground every other day, he'l throw every day during side work and he'll be throwing off the mound. The Mariners are hoping that will be enough to get his rhythm back.

We talked with Mel Stottlemyre about it and he said even Marinano Rivera went through stretches like this.

The weather is awful. It's cold, misty and looks like a serious downpour is coming. I'm getting tired of going to a city and telling I'm from the Seattle area and they say, "gee, you must have brought the weather with you." I often reply, actually it's a black cloud of doom and despair that has followed me before I ever moved to the Northwest.

I just saw Paul O'Neill and should have asked him about John Marzano whupping up on him back in the day.

McLaren also made it a point to tell us without us asking, that he thinks his players are trying too hard and trying to do too much. He used the oft-used phrase, "trying to hit a three-run homer with no one on base." He's right in both regards. His players are swinging at terrible pitches trying to hit home runs, and there is never anybody on base.

* I forgot to post this earlier, but Jeremy Reed had two more hits, including a home run last night for the Rainiers last night, and pushed his average up .385 with six doubles, four home runs and 18 RBI. Here's the Rainiers stats. R.A. Dickey is starting tonight. I think it's a little early to have daily watches for Reed or Dickey, but if I see another Cha Seung Baek outing like the other night, we might have to.

Elsewhere ....
* The Rangers dusted off Sidney Ponson and he responded with a good start. Now it's time for at least three bad ones.

* Apparently Rich Harden was happy with his rehab start, no word if he was injured getting on the team bus afterward.

* I forgot to post it the other day, but ESPN did something on Lee Elia's 25-year-old rant as the Cubs manager.

* Here's the transcript of the rant.

Here's the lineups for tonight's game ... Notice Jose Vidro is not in the line-up

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Clement DH
Sexson 1B
Balentien RF
Burke C
Betancourt SS
-------
Bedard P

Yankees
Cabrera CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Duncan 1B
Matsui LF
Giambi DH
Ensberg 3B
Molina C
Gonzalez 2B
--------
Wang P

Let's see it's 5 a.m. here, so that means it's 2 a.m. in the Northwest. No doubt some of you are just rolling in.

I'm flying out a 6 a.m. a time when most of you will still be asleep.

Of all the ways that the Mariners have found ways to lose games this season, this is a new one. As I wrote in my game story, J.J. is as close to a certainty that the Mariners have, and to see him struggle is like being kicked when you are already on the ground.

So what's the solution. McLaren mentioned the possibility of JJ throwing in non-save situations. But you always run the risk of using him there, and not having him for a save situation a few days later. Putz will do whatever McLaren, Mel Stottlemyre and Norm Charlton think is best. He just wants to find his comfort level again.

Of course he was frustrated after the game, but it seemed to me he was more perplexed as to why he can't throw his fastball for a strike when he wants to. For so long it seemed like it was second nature for him. You can it hear it in his voice.Take a listen.

From KurtisBallard: i know they're professionals, but how many more games can they lose like this before it takes a toll on their psyche and ruins the entire season?

I think they are a few more ghastly losses away from that, but at some point, something has to go right with this team. Doesn't it? I really thought Betancourt's wild pitch and Blake's error might be the trigger to something more. But this team is pretty fragile on some level. You have a catcher who's clearly not happy being benched for two games to clear his head. You have a DH who's hitting .200 and feels like it's been a good month (also in that story), and now you are asking two kids, who have a combined 30 games of major league experience to resurrect your offense. It seems like the psyche has taken hit.

With that being said, (there I go again, sounding like Mac) I think the team isn't lost yet. But a few more gut-punch losses and it could happen sooner than people imagine. I'm waiting for somebody on this team to say, "enough, dammit, it's time to get a little tougher, get mean, be accountable and play the damn game right, or get out." Jose Guillen would have done it last year, and with a look and tone of total insanity. Maybe there's no one like that on this team, but if Raul stood up and got a little vocal - which isn't his way - I think people would listen. He has that type of veteran cache.

Sometimes teams right themselves without it coming to that, but if you're the Mariners, can you really afford to take that chance?

A few other things....
* Wlad Balentien struck out three times in his first three at-bats. Don't be surprised if this happens again. For all the things he brings to an at-bat, the chance of striking out also comes with it with Wlad. It's kind of like taking an early flight like this, sure the airports not very busy, you get through security faster, but you're still getting up at 4 a.m., and if you're like me, not even going to bed at all.

* Miguel Batista pitched extremely well yesterday. I barely got to mention it with what was going on with JJ. But it was one of the better starts he's had this season, and it didn't take five hours for him to get three innings.

* The A's held their own against the Angels in the three game series, winning two, the latest being a 20-hit explosion. Did anyone see the highlight of Jack Cust dropping the fly ball in left. It was brutal and it led to five unearned runs, but he made up for it with a homer late.

* Here's the game story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It sounds like the Indians didn't get much enjoyment from the win.

Yes, I am running behind. It's becoming an every day problem. So let's just get started

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
10:10 -- From Moo: Ryan, is the issue with JJ just a matter of getting a few games in to get his timing back (i.e. should he have had a rehab in Tacoma), or is there a real problem?

I'm not sure how to answer that. He hasn't pitched a ton since returning so he probably isn't as sharp as he wants to be. Missing that much game time on the mound takes it toll. He says he totall healthy, the velocity isn't horrible, but his location is just a little off. I've never quite seen him like the last two games.

10:06 --- This is not good. JJ is all over hte place and now Sizemore is up with the bases loaded.

9:46 --- Richaaayyy!!! No. 300 in his career and 100 as a Mariner. And the Mariners have a lead.

9:26 -- The Indians, specifically CAsey Blake, just said, "here win teh game because we don't want to."

8:11 -- I don't know why team's continually try and run on Ichiro's arm. It makes no sense. A nice play by Clement, being patient and making sure he caught the ball cleanly off the bounce before making the tag.

7:43 -- Here's some mid-game linkage -- Check out how Clement and Balentien will affect fantasy leagues.

7:35 -- pretty boring so far. Miguel Batista's mission in life seems to make every game a three hour affair. But at least he isn't throwing over to first 14 times an inning.

I do think I figured out the secret he'd been talking about a few weeks ago. It's the arm placement when he throws. My boss, Paul Miller, noticed that Batista shortened up his throwing motion a little. It supposedly gives him more deception.

Not sure why Raul was stealing in the first inning. I think it was a missed sign of sort. It had to be.

Bill Bavasi's father, Buzzie, a long-time baseball exectutive, passed away earlier today in San Diego. Bill left Cleveland this afternoon for San Diego. Regardless of what you think of Bill or the job he's done with the Mariners, the loss of a parent is something we all can empthasize with.

In this Nov. 17, 1955 file photo, Brooklyn Dodgers pitchers Don Newcombe, left, and Johnny Podres, right, joke with club vice president E.J. " Buzzie" Bavasi for photographers in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Bavasi, who built Dodgers teams that won the World Series in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, died Thursday, May 1, 2008. He was 93.

Here's the press release from the Mariners.

LONGTIME BASEBALL EXECUTIVE BUZZIE BAVASI PASSES AWAY AT AGE 93

Two-Time Executive of the Year Won Four World Titles with Dodgers

SEATTLE, Wash. – Emil Joseph “Buzzie” Bavasi has passed away at the age of 93 years old in San Diego, CA, of natural causes after a short illness.

One of the game's most likable and respected figures, he earned a reputation of a hard-working, loyal, effective general manager and owner.

Bavasi spent 44 years in organized baseball including 34 in the Major Leagues. He got his start in 1939 as the traveling secretary and publicity director for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He served various roles in the Dodgers front office, before being promoted to the position of general manager before the 1951 season.

As the long-time general manager for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1951-68, his clubs won eight NL pennants and four World Championships in his 17 years at the helm. He built the Dodgers' only World Championship team in Brooklyn (1955), building clubs that included Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Don Newcomb, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Roy Campanella. He then led the Dodgers to three World Championships following their move to Los Angeles (1959, '63, '65).

Bavasi also played a key role in Jackie Robinson’s integration into Major League Baseball, the first African-American player to appear in the Major Leagues. Bavasi spent four years in the military during World War II, serving in the infantry as a machine gunner from 1943-46.

“He was like a father to me,” Don Zimmer said, “from the time I was 19 years old…all my life, really. I can’t describe how much he meant to me.”

Bavasi also served as part owner and team president of the San Diego Padres (1969-77), and executive vice president of the California Angels (1978-84). He was twice named executive of the year, once with the Dodgers (1959) and once in the minor leagues with Montreal (1948).

He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Evit, and four sons: Peter (and his wife, Judy), Chris (and his wife, Corinne), Bob (and his wife, Margaret) and Bill (and his wife, Tracy); nine grandchildren: Patrick, Cristina, Aimee, Amanda, Alexandra, Haley, Emily, Kyle and Katherine; and five great-grandchildren: Cooper, Lolly, Cole, Summer and Luke. Bill is the Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President and General Manager of Baseball Operations.

Funeral arrangements will be private to the family only. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.), 245 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10167 (212 931-7822) or Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation, 9665 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 801, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (310-385-4628, www.probaseballscouts.com).

Ok this was a monster post. I can't believe how long it took me to crank out all these answers. And all it did was leave me with more questions. Remember, I'm no expert, no scout, just a wordy sports writer with lots of free time.

Enjoy ...

From Wabubba: Who has replaced Wilkerson and Norton on the 40 man roster? I am assuming that Clement and Balentien were already on that list.

You would assume correctly WABUBBA… Clement and Balentien were already on there, and currently if you look at this link … you’ll count only 38 players…

Technically, though Wilkerson and Norton are still officially on the 40-man until the Mariners make a move with them i.e. trade, outright or designate for assignment. Until that becomes official they are still on there, even if they aren’t on that linked list.

As for who will be added, I talked with Jeff Evans, manager of baseball information with the Mariners, and he said there is no rule saying that the organization has to add somebody as soon as Wilkerson and Norton come off. If you remember, the Mariners were at 39 for almost all of spring training.

“You don’t have to be full,” Evans said. “You could have 35.”

And really there is no benefit or detraction for staying at 38.

From Gary Marshall via email:I have been A season ticket holder at the Rainer's since 2001, I am by no means a expert but Reed is twice the ball player that Balentien is and is hitting better right now with all the talk on the radio and in the paper is Reed the forgotten man he also has major league experience can you offer any clues as to why he is still in Tacoma?

Reed seems to be a lost man in the Mariners organization. I don’t know that he is twice the ball player that Wlad Balentien is, but I think he’s twice the ball player that Brad Wilkerson is.

Reed will be 27 on June 15. That’s far from ancient, but let’s face it he’s probably not going to show us anything more than he already has. Currently, he’s hitting .375 with six doubles, a triple, three home runs and 14 RBI, with an OPS of over 1.000. But the problem has never been his hitting at the Triple A level, but his hitting at the major league level, where he’s a career .253 hitter 112 strikeouts in 775 at-bats. But he talked about going back to being more a spray hitter this spring, and it seems to be working. Plus I think he’s finally 100 percent healthy for the first time in a few years. It’s not that he’s injury prone, he just gets dinged from playing hard.

Reed is good defensively and can play all three positions, and is a solid base runner, it all adds up to a solid fourth outfielder for a team. Do I think he could fit on this Mariners team? Yes, I’d gladly take him or Jimerson over Cairo. Still, somewhere along the way, Reed has seemed to fallen out of favor with the organization, perhaps it was his surly attitude for much of last season. If the Mariners were in need of an outfielder in a pinch, I really don’t know if they would call up him or Jimerson.

From Moo: Ryan, as another similar alternative, how long would it take the M's to stretch Morrow back out to be a starter? Could it be done in a couple weeks since he started during the winter? IF that was realistic, having Morrow as the #5 starte; Washburn; Dickey in the bullpen would seem to me to strengthen the entire staff (I'm assuming here that JJ comes back to form, that either Lowe or Green is capable of set up).

It’s interesting premise to think about. To stretch Morrow out now would take perhaps a month and a half of starting in Triple A to get him going. It’s not an impossible situation. But I think there would be some concern particularly after the dead arm issues he had earlier this spring. Also Mark Lowe hasn’t been particularly consistent in the pen. McLaren likes having the three power arms – Morrow, Lowe and JJ.

Washburn seems to get fatigued at about 90 pitches, perhaps it’s age, but also because it takes max-effort from him sometimes to be effective because he doesn’t have the overpowering stuff or the good out pitch. He’s still a competitor, but on certain nights you know and he knows it’s going to be a fight to get every single out. I think he'll come around a little.

I do know this, if Washburn were moved to long relief, he’d be getting paid 9.85 million a year for four innings of work every so often.

From Moo again: Regarding Sexson; Ryan is (Bryan) LaHair an MLB quality 1b?
I really don’t know because we’ve never seen him in a major league situation. LaHair seemed to be a guy with some potential coming into last season, but that all fell apart as he hit right around .200 for the first two months. He recovered to hit .275 with 12 home runs and 81 RBI, but it wasn’t the production the Mariners had in mind. He also struck out a 126 times in 552 at-bats, that’s not a good ratio at all. He didn't even get a September call-up.

I don’t know that he projects as an every-day major league first baseman because that’s a power position – not that the Mariners have consistently seen it from that spot in the past two seasons. But LaHair hasn’t proven he can provide that power consistently.

Still, I thought LaHair played well in the spring when he got his chances, he hit the ball hard and showed good athleticism around first base. It’s carried over into this season, he’s hitting .304 with eight doubles, six home runs and 21 RBI. He does have 19 strikeouts, but he also 12 walks and his OPS is at .977.

I really think he’ll get a September call-up this year and that might be an audition of sorts for him.

I still think the Mariners will make a play for a free agent hitter, either first base or outfield in the offseason, and possibly begin Raul transition to first next year.

From ACQB – aka my boy Aaron Chantler, Wilson High School offensive coordinator: I had a couple of quick questions for you about some rumors that I've been hearing about the M's. First of all, I keep hearing that resigning Kenji was the choice of the owner and that he kind of pushed it to happen. I believe that to be true, have you heard anything on that? I've also heard that with the signing, there might be a chance that they use Clement as trade bait. Lastly, I keep hearing Griffey's name coming up everywhere. Even Ken Rosenthal at Foxsports.com has a story on that today. While I love Junior, do you think he is a fit? I'd be ok with Junior in right, Wlad in left and Raul or Clement at 1B while the other is at DH.

Well, Aaron since you have so many questions… let’s start with the first one.

Yes, I do think the owners pushed to sign Johjima. They’re a Japan-based corporation and he’s a Japanese player with a very high level of popularity back home. We heard the same rumors around the stadium and they seem logical if not confirmed. It has to be the reason, because what other reason could it be.

As for Clement and his trade status, I really don’t see the Mariners parting with him at this point. They’ve invested a lot of time and effort into this kid and I doubt they will trade just as the investment is starting to pay off.

There has been a lot of talk about Griffey coming back to the Mariners. And I think it would be great for the fans and the Seattle. For the ball club? I’m not as convinced. If you could get Griffey for minimal prospects, then I’m all for it, but I wouldn’t be willing to give up Clement, Morrow, Triunfel, Adam Moore or any of your top prospects, for a guy that’s clearly on the decline. Remember this isn’t the Griffey from 1995, and it’s not even Griffey of 1999. This is a guy who’s on the downside of his career. But even on the downside he did post 30 home runs and 93 RBI last season. Could he help the Mariners? I think on some level, but you couldn’t rely on him completely because of his injury issues in the past. I don’t have a problem acquiring Junior, but don’t mortgage your future over it.

And now answers to my questions:

Why is Miguel Cairo on this team?
I’m not certain. McLaren said this the other day on why he kept Cairo over Norton: 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.”
OK that’s all well and good, but if you need a guy specifically for pinch running, why not go with Charlton Jimerson or Jeremy Reed, who are better base runners and provide better outfield defense that Willie Bloomquist.

If I were the manager, I’d have Bloomquist, Burke, Reed or Jimerson, and Vidro. That gives you Willie as your utility infield guy, you have a Burke as the third catcher, Reed or Jimerson to be your pinch runner, particularly for Raul late in games and Vidro as your pinch hitter.

When is Cha Seung Baek going to figure it out?
I don’t know. Every time I want to write him off he has a good outing. And every team, I think he might have started to find some consistency he throws out a lemon like yesterday. Some people question his toughness, his heart and his competitiveness. The kid has some talent, but talent will only get you so far in this league.

Why is Kenji Johjima struggling so much?
Pitch selection, and he can’t seem to hit on the road. All but two of his hits have been in Safeco this season. Teams are consistently pounding him on the hands with fastballs and he hasn’t been able to do much with them. Until he does, they’re going to keep doing it.

What is the identity of this team?
They don’t have one yet. And that could be a problem. But it’s a month to the season, perhaps the recent moves will move them closer to finding one. Still, they need to find one soon, it’s important. I don’t think the Angels have that problem.

I'm working on answering some of your questions and some of the one's I posed last night. We've gotten some good quality thought out answers along with some sarcastic, biting and funny ones. That's good we need both.

That being said (now I'm starting to talk like McLaren), I need to sneak in a small workout to kind of collect my thoughts a little. Geoff Baker of the Times and Dave Andriessen of the P-I and I went out after the game and discussed the team and baseball, hockey (Baker is Canadian and a Canadiens' fan), Nicole Zaloumis vs. Lisa Gangel in a cage match, the slow death of newspapers and etc over a few cocktails. So after my workout, I plan on cranking out a long lengthy post to answer those questions ....

But I will leave you with this.

Come on, you knew it was coming...

I keep hearing that music in my head, "The more I knoooowww, the less I understaaaannndddd!!!"

Remember it's three hours ahead here so....

Here's four things I don't understand....

Why is Miguel Cairo on this team?

When is Cha Seung Baek going to figure it out?

Why is Kenji Johjima struggling so much?

What is the identity of this team?

I have my ideas, and I will post the answers, along with the answers to some other questions that have been submitted, but feel free to answer a few of them yourselves. I'm interested to hear your responses.