Felix Hernandez was placed on the 15-day disabled list after the game Monday, a move that means the earliest he could start again would be July 9 in Oakland.

To take his spot on the Mariners roster, the team called up left-handed pitcher Cesar Jimenez from Tacoma. Jimenez will join the team tonight and almost certainly work out of the bullpen.

Hernandez hasn’t pitched since spraining his left ankle in a home-plate collision against the New York Mets, and now won’t make more than one more start before the beginning of the All-Star break July 14.

“His landing foot just isn’t ready, and when the doctors recommended Felix not throw again for a few days, we were getting into that 15-day zone any way,” manager Jim Riggleman said. “This way, Felix isn’t rushed and we get an arm to help us through the next week.”

A year ago, in the feel-good story of the season, the Seattle Mariners and their fans welcomed Ken Griffey Jr. home in as memorable an interleague series as Safeco Field ever hosted.

Today, the Cincinnati Reds are offering Junior’s services around the majors – and the Mariners have declined deep discussions about any possible trade for the future Hall of Famer.

Why?

Simple. The team is on pace to lose close to 100 games and has a payroll of about $118 million. Adding Griffey’s $12.5 salary this season would only increase that payroll – and that’s for a 38-year-old corner outfielder.

Worse, Junior is batting .234 with nine home runs and 34 RBI.

If the Mariners could, say, acquire Junior for Richie Sexson, they’d do the deal. But the Reds are dumping salary, not adding, and have zero interest in the Mariners first baseman.

Bottom line: Griffey has been offered and the Mariners have said ‘No, thanks.’

Down the line, the situation changes. Griffey has a club option for 2009 at $16.5 million and almost certainly will become a free agent. At that point, his interest in coming back to Seattle – and the team’s interest in him – could change.

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After determining all the pitchers unable to start Tuesday’s game, the Mariners decided to give lefty Ryan Rowland-Smith his first major league start – and told the rest of the Seattle bullpen to be ready.

“I’ve never pitched nine innings in my life,” the pitcher. “In my dreams, I can go five, six innings. Realistically, they’ll probably hold me to 50 pitches or so.”

Manager Jim Riggleman said Rowland-Smith would pitch as long as he got out5s, but admitted he didn’t know how long that might be.

“We’d like to get four, five innings, but if he throws a lot of pitches, or Toronto is right on the pitches he does throw, it might be two innings,” Riggleman said. “We figure we’ll use three or four pitchers, then see how we set up for Wednesday.

The dilemma came when Felix Hernandez sprained an ankle, and he’s still not ready to pitch. R.A. Dickey pitches tonight, Erik Bedard went Sunday and Miguel Batista isn’t available.

“It’s not a big deal, really, except to me,” Rowland-Smith said. “To me, getting a start is special, a chance to show what I can do in that role. Who knows, if I do well I might get another shot.”

In the meantime, tonight’s lineup:

Toronto
Eckstein, SS
Scutaro, 2B
Rios, RF
Wells, CF
Stairs, DH
Rolen, 3B
Overbay, 1B
Barajas, C
Wilkerson, LF
Halladay, RHP

Seattle
Ichiro, RF
Lopez, 2B
Ibanez, LF
Beltre, 3B
Reed, CF
Sexson, 1B
Clement, DH
Johjima, C
Bloomquist, SS
Dickey, RHP

Here's the line to Olney's blog on ESPN. To see the full item, you have to be an "insider" but you can still read the majority of it for free.

Basically, manager Jim Riggleman is making some tweaks to how the Mariners prepare in an attempt to shake them out of their first-half slump. He's having infielders take infield practice before batting practice, something most teams don't do.

Another change he's making is with defensive positioning. He's having outfielders position themselves more to the pitcher's tendencies.

To be fair, Riggleman says these are adjustments the team was contemplating while John McLaren was still manager. Maybe it's working, considering the team just did complete a three-game sweep of the Padres. Then again, it was just the Padres, the worst team in the NL.

It's 1 a.m. in San Diego and I've been meaning to get around posting these links all day, but my ADD and a late dinner prevented it. But let's get to it. This is something you can use all week because there's plenty to read up on...

* First let's get to the Mariners. Here's my game story from Sunday's win which completed the sweep of the Padres (who are absolutely terrible). In case you missed it, here's my gamer from the other day, which leads with Carlos Silva.

* Here's the notebook which talks about Ichiro's 5-for-5 performance.

* John McGrath wonders if the Mariners are getting stagnant because of the lack of turnover on the roster.

Johnny Mac also made his way over to Cheney Stadium to check on Mariners' prospect Michael Saunders

* The Rainiers ended up losing on Sunday.

* Rich Dorman continues to pitch well for the Rainiers.

* Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald has a story about Jeff Clement's progress being similar to Jason Varitek's.

* This story talks about Raul Ibanez possibly being traded to the New York. It mentions the Mets. But I thought the Yankees might be a better fit, especially with Hideki Matsui's injury issues.

* This story gets into the pros and cons for the Indians trading CC Sabathia.

Mine?
Pro: spend less on clubhouse meals
Con: lots of leftovers

*
Columnist Bill Livingston wrote about all the mistakes the Indians made in assembling the roster, yeah welcome to the club.

* _sightings_117624.htm">Here's another reason for me to add to my personal list of reasons why I can't stand Alex Rodriguez. I believe the list is up 4,255,335.

Here's the excerpt in question...

ALEX Rodriguez getting a touch-up on his "hilights" at the Frederic Fekkai salon, and drawing a crowd of gals, one of whom gushed, "He's much bigger in person. He's a doll"

I will now jam a pen in my eye. And yet he wonders why the average fan doesn't like him.

* Rick Telander has a column about Lou Piniella's ejection yesterday.

* Jose Guillen has some unkind words for the fans, but KC Star columnist Joe Posnanski explains why - they don't know he's playing hurt.

* Guillen wouldn't really apologize about his comments the next day.

* Posnanski, who's one of the best columnists in the country, also has a pretty good story on Royals closer Joakim Soria.

* George Sherrill lost his bid for his 27th save yesterday.

* Braves closer Rafael Soriano, who's been battling yet another injury, was sent home for personal reasons and nobody is sure why.

* >Greg Dobbs has found a home in Philly as a pinch-hitter with solid success.

* Here's a big story on the dying art of the knuckleball from SI com. It talks to Tim Wakefield and mentions R.A. Dickey.

* I know it hurts, but I feel like I should post Tim Lincecum links. Yes, he won again. Columnist Ray Ratto believes Bruce Bochy pulling Lincecum in the seventh was the right thing to do. I think I know someone who might disagree.

* The Boston Globe wrote a story about the hate of the "Pink Hat Nation" Anybody who went to the Sox-Mariners game at Safeco got to see it first hand.

* Everybody knows about the Angels no-hitting the Dodgers and losing. ESPN's Tim Kurkjian has some interesting tidbits about it.

* Here's my favorite columnist and former PI writer Bill Plaschke's column on it.

OK, I'm running a little behind. And I don't really have a good reason why. I am putting together a massive linkage post for later, kind of like the Sunday paper.

Seriously though, I doubt anybody's watching this game in Seattle. It's 90 degrees there and I'd be out on lake or the sound somewhere hanging out and working on my tan and a hangover.

So I'm putting the over-under on the number of people watching on 36.

Although it is Erik Bedard vs. Jake Peavy on the mound as well.

A few things. Felix is still not a go for next week. Manager Jim Riggleman said he may use a group of relievers in Tuesday's start. He doesn't have an exact plan, but both Ryan Rowland-Smith and Roy Corcoran will throw extensively, I'm sure Dickey will volunteer the day after his start to be out in the bullpen.

Because of that, Riggleman may be a little careful with his bullpen today. But it may be tough with Bedard on the mound.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
3:48 -- Clement with bomb off of Hoffman. So this will be the first three-game sweep by the Mariners all season.

3:15 -- These are the Mariners right? The same team that has lost 50 games? They put up a five spot in the seventh to break this game open.

2:53 -- If the over;/under for innings pitched for Bedard was 6 innings: the under is the big winner as Bedard throws 5 2/3 giving up one run on three hits, and throws 94 pitches. DAVE8557, control yourself, please.

Ichiro gets a season-high four hits and he'll probably another at-bat in this game.

2:34 -- Adrian Beltre with a two-run bomb to left. Perhaps Beltre's luck and confidence with runners in scoring position is going to change.

1:59 -- The Mariners have got themselves a lead on Peavy as Rauuuuulllll delivers an RBI single to score Ichiro. Of course, the rally is then crushed by Vidro's 4-6-3 double play, but oh well.

1:35 -- Really not much going on. Ichiro led off the game with a single and then got caught in a rundown. The Mariners haven't done much off of Peavy, while the Padres have two hits off of Bedard and nothing to show for it.

Here's today's lineups...

Clement is in there after a night game because he's a left-handed bat. Riggleman was asked about using certain catchers for certain pitchers ... like in the past with Burke and Bedard. He said they take into consideration whether a catcher and a pitcher have success together, but it wasn't going be the overwhelming factor. So no personal catcher for the Bedard.

No Richie again. Because of the left-handed bat thing.

MARINERS (30-50)
Ichiro CF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Jose Vidro 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jeremy Reed CF
Jeff Clement C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Erik Bedard LHP

PADRES (32-50)
Scott Hairston CF
Edgar Gonzalez 2B
Brian Giles RF
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
Chase Headley LF
Khalil Greene SS
Luke Carlin C
Jake Peavy RHP

A few things quickly from the pregame stuff.

* JJ Putz played catch off of flat ground, 30 throws to be exact.

"It was very, very elementary," Putz said. "It was a nice and easy game of catch. I just threw to Brian (Schweiger). It was like the first day of throwing on a program before spring training, like January in San Diego. I had no pain. It was good."

Manager Jim Riggleman isn't even thinking about getting Putz back until after the all-star break.

* Riggleman also slotted the rotation again, and has changed his mind about the certainty of Felix Hernandez. Erik Bedard will go tomorrow, R.A. Dickey on Monday, but Tuesday is considered to be "To Be Announced."

He didn't say anything about Wednesday, it could be Washburn. As for Hernandez or perhaps Miguel Batista, Riggleman was uncertain.

"I wish I could tell you more about Felix or even Batista, but I really don’t have any information," Riggleman said. "It’s basically when they come in every day and how they feel and react after that."

As for possibly placing either of them on the disabled list, Riggleman admitted it's a possibility and would have to make that decision by Wednesday.

"Tuesday is undecided but whoever we pitch, assuming it’s not somebody we bring up, it would be somebody on our current staff," Riggleman said. "Depending on how far that guy pitched and how far we went into the bullpen, we’ll decide if we need to DL somebody to make room to cover the innings we used on Tuesday and Wednesday and make sure we’re covered in the bullpen."

* Riggleman also talked about the future of Brandon Morrow. For the remainder of this season, it looks like Morrow will remain in the bullpen, particularly with issues that JJ Putz is having. But he isn't opposed to Morrow being a starter.

"I think he could be anything," he said. "He could be real good closer, he could be a great set-up man, he could be a great starter, he’s just got good stuff."

And he doesn't believe there is a clear-cut decision either.

"It’s good stuff to debate," he said. " There’s going to be, 'oh no, why would you ever move him into the rotation,' and others say 'you gotta have him in the rotation why wouldn’t you.'"

Riggleman did toss out a small caveat when it comes to Morrow starting.

"The thing is with those guys, they’re so good that when they start they end up throwing a lot of pitches because the hitters take a lot of pitches because they are over-matched and when they do hit it they foul it off, you miss with a couple pitches, the umpire misses a couple and next thing you know you’re looking at 100 pitches in five innings."

* The Boone was at Petco Park today. We talked with him for about five minutes, and he seemed to be in still terrific shape. I bet he still might have better range defensively than Lopez.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
8:13 -- It appears that Carlos Silva is channeling his inner Pascual Perez or his inner Big Punisher with his huge gold ropes.

7:40 -- Well the Mariners get some runs as Beltre comes up with a double to drive home Lopez and Jeremy Reed follows with another double over Brian Giles head in right. I thought it might be three doubles, but Jeff Clement's hard hit ball to left was just a little off the end of the bat.

7:24 -- the Mariners blow an opportunity, Clement pops up to shallow left and Reed commits another base-running mistake.

7:10 -- Cha Sizzle right through the order in the first with a pair of strikeouts.

* Here's my game story that leads with Jarrod Washburn collecting his first win.

* Here's the game story that leads with the Cha Sizzle facing his former teammates. It also has Felix updates in there.

* The Rainiers lost last night, But if you aren't doing anything in Tacoma this evening - I can't believe I just wrote that - you should go Cheney. Rich Dorman is starting for the Rainiers, while Angels prospect Nick Adenhart is going for Salt Lake.

* The Boston Herald has this story about Boston's Theo Epstein wanting to create a player development machine. And it looks like he has done that with his two assistants Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer as GM candidates perhaps in Seattle.

I talked with Boston's AL West scout today at the gym and he mentioned the same thing. He also had some interesting observations about the Ms in general.

* Here's another story on Puyallup native and Bellarmine grad Jon Lester and his success.

* Hideki Matsui is on the DL, and there is a possibility of knee surgery. Paging Mr. Ibanez?

LINEUPS
MARINERS
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Jose Vidro 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jeremy Reed CF
Jeff Clement C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Carlos Silva P

PADRES
Jody Gerut CF
Edgar Gonzalez 2B
Brian Giles RF
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
Chase Headley LF
Khalil Greene SS
Michael Barrett C
Cha Seung Bake P

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

9:22 -- WEll, it's now a 4-2 game because Chase Headley just hit a line-drive homer that got just high enough off the ground to clear the wall at 336. The Mariners have 11 hits and six walks and only four runs to show for it. But they also have a chance to break the club record of 16 runner left on base in a nine inning game. They're at 14 right now. The AL record is 20.

8:44 -- Sorry for the delay, I was having some internet issues, namely the wireless here crashed. And I thought it was something with the blog software instead. The Mariners have actually drove in some of those base runners they had been stranding, getting three in the third, but it's only 3-0 and they have 10 hits.

7:55 -- The Mariners have now stranded eight runners on base in three innings. Mojo is definitely risin.

7:34 -- Ichiro sneaks a base hit through three guys. Randy Wolf is all over the place with his command. Maybe his middle name is "Miguel"

7:21 -- R.A. Dickey is wearing the old school stirrups pulled up high, it looks - awesome.

7:18 -- That was pathetic. Bases loaded, one out, two strikeouts, no runs - Mariner's baseball the Mojo's Risin.

LINEUPS
MARINERS
Ichiro RF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
Bloomquist CF
Washburn P

PADRES
Jody Gerut CF
Edgar Gonzalez 2B
Brian Giles RF
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
Chase Headley LF
Khalil Greene SS
Michael Barrett C
Randy Wolf P

It's retro night tonight, so the both teams will be wearing throwback uniforms from 1978, which means will look something like this ....

Nothing like Tuxedo baby blue and yellow. That's a lot of blue on some of these guys. Richie looks like a 6-7 stick of Xtra mint gum.

While the Padres will look something like this ...

Um, those colors are urine and manure.

I also saw and talked to this guy for a little while ...

Yep that's Cha Seung Baek or Cha Sizzle as the voice of the Rainiers' Mike Curto used to call him. Not a big talker, Cha Seung said everything's going good. He likes being a starter and is happy in San Diego.

With injuries to Chris Young and Shawn Estes, Baek is in the rotation, manager Bud Black said whether or not Baek remains there when the other pitchers get healthy will all be based on how he performs.

* In other news, we talked with Jim Riggleman about a few things, one of them being Miguel Batista and his place in the rotation. Apparently Riggleman and trainer Rick Griffin weren't Batista's back issues during his last start.

"I really wasn't aware of it, the trainer wasn't aware of it," Riggelman said. "I think he was something there and was trying to gut it out and pitch. I appreciate the effort, but probably serve him and the team better if he gets it treated then trying to pitch through it."

When and if Batista joins the rotation remains to be seen.

"We're not going to let some bad appearance not allow him to start, but his health and how far he is able to go in games will have something to say about it, and the availability of Dickey to pitch in that slot would also have something to say about it."

Riggleman, Batista and Mel Stottlemyre were to meet after today's batting practice to discuss his situation.

* Erik Bedard threw his side session and looks on track to throw on Sunday. I watched a little bit and he threw with his normal motion, I couldn't tell how hard he was throwing.

* Felix is not wearing the boot. He has his ankle tape, and I heard him telling Stottlemyre "I want to pitch!" So I don't think he's keen about having his start pushed back, but Riggleman is hoping either Tuesday or Wednesday against the Blue Jays in Safeco.

* JJ Putz will play catch for the first time on Saturday. Nothing major just catch. Riggleman doesn't know that Putz will be back immediately after the all-star break.

Obviously, like the Mariners I took yesterday off. Well, at least from the blog.

* I did write an off-day story about Willie Bloomquist.

I wasn't completely happy with it nor are the guys over at USS Mariner. To be fair, I shouldn't have characterized them as "captaining" the anti-Bloomquist faction. It was a mistake. They don't universally hate Willie, they just have issues with the idea of him being more than a bench player, which is understandable and logical.

* Also in the blogdome, Lookout Landing had an interesting post on Willie and Yuni from a few days back.

UPDATE: Here's what Jayson Stark had to say in his daily "3 strikes feature."

STRIKE TWO -- THE COLD CUTS AWARD: This probably isn't the perfect time to hand this prestigious Cold Cuts non-trophy to Mariners utility whiz Willie Bloomquist, seeing as how he's in the midst of a nine-game hitting streak -- his longest in three years.

But then loyal reader Rob Daniels checked in with the Willie Bloomquist note of the year. Not that the competition was real feverish in that department, but here it comes anyway: Bloomquist has made it to home plate 90 times this year. What he still hasn't done in those 90 trips is hit an extra-base hit. Not a one.

In fact, to find footage of his last extra-base hit, you'd have to dig through the highlight reel all the way back to last Sept. 12 (a double against Oakland). So he's up to 56 straight games and 143 at-bats without one of those glamorous XBHs.

I could tell you that Lance Berkman has 58 extra-base hits since Bloomquist's last extra-base hit. But thanks to the amazing research of Rob Daniels, I can also tell you that this is the most consecutive games any active non-pitcher has ever gone without an XBH, the most games by any non-pitcher (active or otherwise) since Scott Pose ripped off 87 in a row in 1999-2000 and the third most consecutive XBH-less at-bats in the last 10 seasons (trailing only Juan Pierre's 186 in 2000 and Pose's 151). Off in the distance is the gold standard for non-XBH hitters -- Wayne Tolleson's 210 XBH-free at-bats for the Yankees in 1987-88, the longest streak of the last 24 seasons. So don't touch that cursor.

* AUDIO ALERT: I went on the Elise at Night show on Wednesday night after the Batista blow out. You can listen to that interview here.

* UPDATE: Wlad Balentien's bat is starting to get back on track in Tacoma.

* The Futures game rosters were announced today. The only Mariners prospect selected was Phillippe Aumont. Here's the U.S. Roster. And here's the World Roster.

* Here's a story on Yuni meeting up with an old friend.

* This story in Vanity Fair by Michael Lewis (author of moneyball) looks at Cuban baseball and players defecting from the country.

From Buster Olney's blog on ESPN.com

With all of that in mind, I e-mailed 25 players, scouts and executives this week asking for a response to one simple question: Who are the five most dominant starting pitchers in the game right now? I tabulated the number of times anyone was mentioned on a ballot (and counted the dimpled and hanging chads).

The results:

No. 5: Edinson Volquez, Cincinnati Reds (eight votes) -- He mixes a mid-90s fastball with a changeup that seems to disappear. He has 110 strikeouts in 99.1 innings this year, with a 2.08 ERA.

No. 4: Rich Harden, Oakland Athletics (nine votes): In his start against the Phillies on Thursday, he consistently threw in the 93-94 mph range in all eight innings he worked, and Philadelphia seemed to have no chance when he used his changeup -- the off-speed pitch he prefers now, since ditching his splitter. A no-hitter seemed within the realm of possibility, writes Susan Slusser. Harden has 83 punchouts in 67 innings.

No. 3: Josh Beckett, Boston Red Sox (11 votes): He has struck out 82 hitters in 72 2/3 postseason innings, and this year -- in which he has not necessarily been at his best -- he has 97 strikeouts in 94 innings.

No. 2: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants (14 votes): He has been in the big leagues for about a year and has made an extraordinary first impression, racking up 103 strikeouts in 102.2 innings this season.

No. 1: Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners (16 votes). He has pitched well this season and early in his career, but there is a still a sense that he has much more to offer as he gains consistency. He has 95 strikeouts in 107.2 innings, with a 2.83 ERA.

Two Mariners' players make Peter Gammons top 10 disappointments thus far this season.

What players have most disappointed you?

1. Andruw Jones, Dodgers: He doesn't need to see numbers or weight charts. He needs to get healthy and get his swing back. Right-center, Andruw.

2. Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, Tigers: Maybe the contract put too much pressure on Cabrera. There may be a lot of things wrong, but a .309 lifetime hitter with a career OPS of .918 shouldn't be where he is. As for Willis, can he regain his delivery?

3. Rickie Weeks, Brewers: He's too good a player to be hitting .217 and getting on base at a .329 clip.
4. Roy Oswalt, Astros: His June ERA was under 4.00, so perhaps that's a start. He was 49-27, 3.03 the three previous seasons, so what does this 6-8, 4.77 mean? And will he want out of what has been described as a "toxic" team situation?

5. Erik Bedard, Mariners: I actually got two votes for Johan Santana in the disappointment category; he's 7-6, 2.93 (with 12 quality starts) for a sub-.500 team. There were people last winter who wrote that Bedard was a better pickup than Santana. Bedard, 29, has four wins, bringing his career total to 44, 55 fewer than Jon Garland, who is six months younger than Bedard. Don't be surprised if Bedard is traded, likely to a comfy small market where he can put up big numbers.

6. Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies: He was a mess mechanically, then got hurt. Fine. He is one heckuva player.

7. Robinson Cano, Yankees: His at-bats have been inconsistent, and he's not a .320/35 HR guy. Yet.

8. Vernon Wells, Blue Jays: Injuries and inconsistencies have plagued his first half. Those seven homers will take off, and that .757 OPS -- less than Mark Ellis -- should be over .900.

9. Kenji Johjima, Mariners: Maybe he's taken too much of the blame in the collapse of a team with high expectations, but why ownership forced this signing and made Jeff Clement a DH is beyond anyone's explanation.

10. Brett Myers, Phillies: Where is the velocity? The Phillies need Myers to be himself, which isn't a 3-9 guy with a 5-plus ERA and 23 homers allowed in 99 2/3 innings. They may not be able to trade for anyone as good as the old Brett Myers.

* We don't normally link to the competition, but Jim Moore had a humorous column in the P-I the other day.

TRADE TALK

* Here's some more trade talk surrounding the Phillies.

* The Baltimore Orioles are looking for a shortstop. Maybe Seattle can trade them Yuni and get back two of the five players the Mariners they gave up for Bedard.

* Former Mariner property Jorge Campillo pitched well for the Braves the other day.

From ESPN.com's Jayson Stark's "Rumblings and Grumblings"

• Trio bravo: For weeks, the Braves have focused on adding starting pitching. But in recent days, they've shifted their M.O. to adding a bat, who would almost certainly land in left field. Clubs that have spoken with the Braves report that they're targeting only guys who could represent another "certified threat" in their lineup. So given the dearth of that sort of creature, three to keep your eye on are Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady.

• Junior Griffey rumor of the week: According to one baseball man who has spoken with both the Reds' and Mariners' brass, the Reds were talking to former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi about a deal that could have sent Griffey to Seattle after Griffey's 600th home run. But the Mariners have shown no interest in rekindling those talks since Bavasi lost his job. So if you were a betting man, bet on Junior to finish the season right where he started it -- in Cincinnati.

• The Bedard Watch: Much as the Yankees need pitching, we're hearing they've all but decided Erik Bedard's personality issues would make him a no-go in their always-serene clubhouse. But apparently, the Phillies haven't reached that same conclusion -- not yet, at least. Either that, or it was just a coincidence that their director of professional scouting, Chuck LaMar, showed up in Atlanta last weekend for just one game of a Braves-Mariners series -- the game Bedard started.

Not much going on here, pretty quiet clubhouse. JJ talked about getting to see the last seven or eight songs of Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden. I said Richie went to the concert last night, but he didn't go.

It doesn't look as though Felix will start on Sunday.

"We’re not counting on Felix for Sunday," manager Jim Riggleman said.

Riggleman hopes that Erik Bedard might start on Sunday instead. He was supposed to throw today in the bullpen so I'm sure they'll let us know after the game. If not R.A. Dickey will get the start.

The matchups set up like this so far for San Diego.
Friday - LH Jarrod Washburn (2-7, 5.52) at LH Randy Wolf (5-6, 4.09)
Saturday - RH Carlos Silva (3-9, 5.92) at RH Cha Seung Baek (1-2, 5.11)
Sunday - TBA at RH RH Jake Peavy (5-4, 2.88)

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:04 -- I forgot to mention that Claudio Vargas was designated for assignment after getting owned by R.A. Dickey.

8:09 -- Well, thankfully, finally Miguel Batista was lifted after giving up a three-run bomb to Jose Reyes and then walking the next hitter. We've been playing for an hour and its only the third inning. There are going to be some drunk Mets fans at this games. And some drunk Mariners fans, who wasted an hour out of their lives watching this mess.

7:44 -- I'm guessing yesterday's day off for David Wright helped a little. He hits his second homer of the game.

And the chances of the Ms sweeping this series grow smaller.

7:28 -- Beltre with an unreal play right there, but he doesn't get an out. I thought replays showed that he might have got him, but they called him safe and now Batista is in some serious trouble.

7:25 -- Well, Batista already gets his first visit from Mel Stottlemyre and it's only the first inning. So far he walked the lead-off hitter Jose Reyes and watched him score, and then he served up a solo home run to David Wright. And it's still getting worse. He walked Beltran and Carlos Delgado.

LINEUPS
Mariners
Ichiro RF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jeremy Reed CF
Richie Sexson 1B
Jeff Clement C
Willie Bloomquist SS
Miguel Batista RHP

Mets
Jose Reyes SS
Luis Castillo 2B
David Wright 3B
Carlos Beltran CF
Carlos Delgado 1B
Fernando Tatis RF
Marlon Anderon LF
Brian Schneider C
John Maine RHP

I've been meaning to be better about posting daily link, particularly in the morning. And the late nights at the stadium, the later nights in New York, just haven't allowed it.

But that ends today. It's a new day, the Mariners are going for a three-game sweep of a team, which hasn't happened in months, so it's time to get some linkage rolling.

* Here's my game story that leads with R.A. Dickey calling Tim Wakefield for some advice.

* Here's the game story from the New York Daily News.

* Here's my notebook that leads with Felix's boot.

* John McGrath writes a little more about Felix's grand slam. And nominates him for pinch-hitting duty.

* Andy Baldwin had a great start for the the Rainiers.

* SI's Jon Heyman has a long column that talks about player moves in Seattle in particular Ichiro.

One thing I don't agree with is this portion....

His negatives are that he appears at times to be playing at half speed and to have more interest in stylin' than anything of substance.

Nor is he very good tone at setting the tone. Leading off Monday night's game against the Mets at Shea Stadium, he jogged to first on a popup. He did the same later in the game. The Mariners' two straight victories in New York notwithstanding, Ichiro may dragging this team down, if that's even possible, with his superstar-first attitude.

Peter Gammons mentioned the Mariners in his blog a few days ago. It's for ESPN Insider but here's a passage of interest.

Then there's Seattle. Oh, Chuck Armstrong is always out front, always one of the game's best and brightest. When things go wrong in Seattle, he and the Mariners' general managers and managers have to take the heat with a clear mandate to keep ownership out of the accountability spotlight.

Yes, Bill Bavasi made mistakes. He put together a Mariners lineup that shows it has no clue about how to hit, evidenced by an abysmal .306 team on-base percentage; Ichiro Suzuki, Kenji Johjima, Jose Lopez, Adrian Beltre and Yuniesky Betancourt were an incredible 5-for-44 on 3-1 counts when McLaren got fired. The clubhouse mix is, to be honest, terrible. And with $55 million owed to the 8-23 combination of Jarrod Washburn, Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista after this season, they may have to trade Erik Bedard, who is 1½ years from free agency.
But it was ownership that did the Johjima extension, making a mess of the entire Jeff Clement investment, as well as troubling pitchers and coaches.

Folks in Seattle pine for Chris Antonetti, but that's not going to happen. David Forst will move up in Oakland, in time. But if the Mariners can hire Rick Hahn, Jed Hoyer, Ben Cherington, Peter Woodfork, Mike Hill, Jerry DiPoto, Tony LaCava or Mike Chernoff and let him work with Armstrong without the club of Howard Lincoln, the Mariners will be a great place to work and win and have the financial success that has followed Lincoln all his life. While there are denials, Kevin Towers' name will not go away for some time; a lot of other GMs think he could go there, and no one should ever dismiss Brian Cashman if he decided to move.

Also from ESPN, Jayson Stark has a few interesting tidbits about Felix's homer the other day.

If it did, how would we explain how Felix Hernandez could hit a grand slam off Johan Santana, huh? No way that could possibly happen. But it did. Right there at Shea Stadium on Monday night. Consider the odds:

• According to baseball-reference.com, Santana has faced 5,658 position players in his career. Only one of those real, live, professional hitters (Michael Young, on Sept. 5, 2003) had ever hit a grand slam against him.

• Among the many, many players who have never hit a home run off Santana, you'll find this group: Ken Griffey Jr., Ryan Howard, Jermaine Dye, Chipper Jones, Mike Lowell, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou and Mike Piazza. They've combined for zero homers in 143 plate appearances against this guy. That's now one fewer than Felix Hernandez. Then there was Hernandez. He'd come to home plate eight times in his career before Monday. He'd only put two balls in play (1 for 8, with 6 K's). Before that swing of the bat, no player on either team -- the Mets or Mariners -- had hit a grand slam this season, in 4,739 trips to home plate. And, of course, no American League pitcher had hit a grand slam in the history of interleague play -- in nearly 3,800 adventures in the old batter's box.

And then Felix Hernandez, of all people, hit a grand slam off Johan Santana, of all people? How the heck did that happen?

* Here's a story on a Mariners prospect named Mumba Rivera.

* FSN Mariners analyst Bill Kreuger did a Q & A with the Wenatchee World.

* Former Mariner and current SF Giant Omar Vizquel was greeted with a heroes welcome in his return to Cleveland. Terry Pluto writes about Vizquel being overlooked in his greatnees.

Obviously, he should be a hall of famer, but is he a first-ballot hall of famer?

* Did you guys see the ump get hit with the shattered bat last night? The Maple bat issue has become a problem. I think all of the Mariners swing maple bats.

* The Phillies need bullpen and pitching help. Hmmmm The Braves are also looking for outfield help. Hmmm.

* Yahoo's Tim Brown has a column on Mike Scioscia.

Finally, I was going to post this other day. But getting to see Chipper Jones up close was a bit of a thrill for me. I don't know why, but I always liked the way he played. It was kind of disappointing that he missed a good portion of the series with Mariners.

Sports Illustrated ran this story a few weeks ago about him and his quest to hit .400.

I loved this passage ..

One weekend in Pittsburgh last month Jones found himself in a minifunk: 0 for 2 in the Friday-night game against the Pirates , 0 for 4 the next night. His average had fallen to .400, and his swing felt out of sorts, especially when he was batting righty. A Sunday matinee awaited the team. For Jones , and many ballplayers, a 1 p.m. game is like a school day starting at five in the morning. Still, there was no way he could go straight back to the hotel on that Saturday night, not with that horrid 0-for-6 taste marinating in his mouth. He went to the PNC Park visiting-team weight room.

"Fultzy," Jones said, popping his head through the door. "When you get done in here, can you give me some extra work?" Frank Fultz, Atlanta 's strength and conditioning coach, also moonlights as the club's lefthanded batting-practice pitcher.

They went to the indoor visiting-team batting cage at PNC. Braves hitting coach Terry Pendleton , who takes his cues for Chipper from Larry, stood behind the netting. There was little talk. On different swings Jones was thinking about his hands, his hips, his father. He took about 60 cuts and finally said, "I'm good—thanks." On a Saturday night, on the road, after a loss, while batting .400 and with a contract that will pay him more than $12 million this season, Chipper Jones was taking extra BP. He's been batting nearly .450 ever since.

Let's see where to begin.

* A good start from R.A. Dickey, seven innings, no runs, six hits, two walks and five strikeouts.

Dickey credited a talk he had with Tim Wakefield on the phone late Monday night.

I called Wakefield and he called me back and we were able to talk about that. He was able to look at an outing on the computer and he gave me a couple suggestions and I was able to take them into the game and it was good. It’s helpful to have a guy like that who knows what I’m going through.

Dickey also got a hit off Claudio Vargas. It was his second career hit. Interestingly enough, his first hit came off of none other than Claudio Vargas. So basically he own Vargas.

"Both seeing-eye groundballs," Dickey said.

* For the Mariners it was their first back-to-back road wins since April 16-17. It was also their biggest margin of victory this season.

* Richie Sexson's double late in the game was his first extra base-hit since May 24th against the Yankees. He drove in three runs tonight and hit the ball hard.

“A couple of coaches and I were talking during batting practice and it seemed like the last couple of days he has swung the bat well in BP. I’m not a big believer in how that translates to the game, but even in BP he was getting the ball airborn the last couple of days, getting some backspin and carry on the ball. I think we saw that a little bit tonight. Got some distance on the balls.” - said manager Jim Riggleman.

We never got a chance to talk to Richie because he got out there fast to go the Pearl Jam concert.

Kenji Johjima had a big game, getting three hits, including a two-run homer and driving in a three runs.

* It was 21st shutout the Mariners have tossed in interleague play which is the most in the major leagues.

It's a gorgeous summer night here at Shea. But I will say it now, I can see why they're tearing this place down. It's antiquated and old, and basically a dump. The new stadium in the distance looks pretty sweet.

Anyway, Ryan Rowland-Smith won't be available tonight. But Jarrod Washburn, who was supposed to have a throw-day today, volunteered for bullpen duty. So he's there if needed.

There's a relatively decent breeze blowing so that should make Dickey's knuckleball move a little more. It could be an adventure for Joh...

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:53 -- I will say this. Richie has hit the ball pretty hard tonight. I won't say anything more on the subject.

9:35 -- Willie Ballgame!!! with a nice catch running into the wall. Carlos Delgado is getting booed Sexson style here.
t
8:50 -- BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! that's the sound of Shea Stadium right now.

8:48 -- We've got ourselves a blowout here. And for once the Mariners aren't on the receiving end of it. Ichiro with an RBI single and Raul follows with a two-run single to push the lead to 9-0. This has to be the largest lead for the Mariners this season.

8:23 -- RAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLL! It's 6-0 and Oliver Perez is getting knocked around Horacio Ramirez style.

8:11 -- Apparently things aren't going so well with home plate umpire Brian Runge. First of all he did the old trick of acting like he brushing off home plate to say something to Carlos Beltran, who was upset with a called strike. Jerry Manuel knew what was going on and they got into a rather heated discussion. Then Runge bumped Manuel and tossed him out. I've never seen that before.

Then Beltran got tossed as well. IT's the only time the Mets fans have cheered all game.

7:51 -- Joh-san with a two-run homer to left. And more boos for the Mets.... Somebody remind me which team has the worst record in baseball?

7:34 -- It's the first round of boos for the Mets following that inning....

7:32 -- That was a great slide by Willie to avoid the tag at the plate. They ruled that a hit for Lopez and an error on the throw. Strange. But oh well, I guess its good for Lopez's batting average.

7:18 -- Richie with a sac fly to left to get a run home. He now trails Felix by one RBI for RBIs this month. Richie hit that ball extremely hard.

LINEUPS

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Jose Lopez 2B
Raul Ibanez LF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Richie Sexson 1B
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Kenji Johjima C
Willie Bloomquist CF
---------------
R.A. Dickey P

METS
Jose Reyes SS
Luis Castillo 2B
Carlos Beltran CF
Carlos Delgado 1B
Trot Nixon LF
Fernando Tatis 3B
Brian Schneider C
Endy Chavez RF
-----------------
Oliver Perez P

We didn't get to talk to Felix about his ankle or his shiny blue and white walking boot that he's wearing. He limped past a couple of times and didn't want to talk.

The boot looks something like this....

According to manager Jim Riggleman and trainer Rick Griffin, Felix still believes he's going to start Sunday.

But Riggleman didn't sound quite as certain.

"He thinks he'll pitch Sunday, but I don't know that he will," Riggleman said. "I'm going to be a little more conservative than (that). If we get him back a couple days after Sunday I'll be happy."

As for the boot ...

"We're going to keep him in the boot till we get to San Diego for the flight so we don't get any swelling," Griffin said. "He had minimal swelling."

It's something that's seems to be common for sprained ankles.

"It stabilizes his ankle so that he can't move it and it stabilizes the ligament so it's not moving around and helps control the swelling," Griffin said.

Of course Felix didn't want to wear it.

"I told him I just saw a guy on another team wear one for two days and play on the third day," Griffin said. "These guys don't want to wear this stuff, like most other people, but in this case it's the best thing for him."

Griffin said that another doctor will look at the ankle tonight just as precaution.

According to Manager Jim Riggleman, the x-rays taken on Felix Hernandez's left ankle were negative.

He had wrapped up in the clubhouse and stubbornly said he wouldn't miss his next start. Riggleman wouldn't go that far saying that it may get pushed back. The good news is that they're not even thinking about the disabled list.

"The x-rays were negative, it's a slight sprain. We hope we can get him back out there as soon as possible and he’s already saying he’s not going to miss a start. So, you know, (trainer) Rick Griffin is pretty encouraged. Felix may miss a couple of days off his next start. No DL. We’re not thinking DL at all. With the x-ray being negative and an off-day coming up, we have a chance to move his next start way toward the other end. The DL is not something we are even thinking about right now."

But Riggleman also cautioned that they need to see how it looks in the coming days. We've all had sprained ankles that end up being worse that we thought. So the Mariners will keep a close eye on it. There's no reason to rush him back - other than our personal enjoyment of watching him pitch.

Here's a few Felix quotes...

On how he felt after the play at the plate?
"You know I’m not going to come out if it’s not too bad. But it was bad."

On whether he'll make his next start?
"I’m going to pitch next time. For sure. I’ll be there. Now I’m fine. I’m going to be ready to throw my next outing."

On his approach?
"Just swing. I closed my eyes anyway."

On getting the bunt sign in his next at-bat after hitting a grand slam.
"I got to do it. Come on. My job was to put down bunt. 'You hit a homer? Tough luck.'"

What was he thinking when he was rounding the bases?
"I was happy we got four runs. That's all I needed was four runs."

On being the first Mariner pitcher to hit a home run in franchise history?
That's good.

On being the first American League pitcher to hit a grand slam since 1971?
That's good too.

OTHER NOTES:
* The last AL pitcher to hit a grand slam was Cleveland's Steve Dunning, May 11, 1971 off of Diego Segui of Oakland. You remember Diego Segui, the only player to play the Seattle Pilots and Seattle Mariners.

* C.C. Sabathia is the only other AL pitcher to hit a homer in interleague play this year, and Felix's was the 14th ever in interleague play. The previous 13 HR were either solo or 2-run homers).

* The last grand slam by a pitcher in either league was then-Florida Marlin Dontrelle Willis on July 7, 2006, who hit one off the Mets' Jose Lima.

* Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre also hit a grand slam in his career also against the Mets, but his was an inside the parker at Yankee Stadium on July 20, 1965.

GOOD

BAD

Worse

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

If you can't excited about this pitching match-up then well you don't like baseball. If you remember John McLaren challenged Felix to be the best pitcher from Venezuela, and Santana is probably right now the best. But I think we could all agree Felix is gaining ground.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
8:43 -- the official word is sprained left ankle for Felix. I'm sure he'll be getting x-rays. I'll have more immediately after the game.

8:27 -- Replays show it's something with the left leg, but we haven't heard if it was his knee, foot or ankle. You just hope it is anything to serious.

8:16 -- That was a wild pitch, the replay showed Beltran sliding into Felix's leg and he looks to be in some pain. What's even a bigger joke is that Mets fans were actually cheering as Felix was limping around. Totally classless. And not unexpected. They've been booing David Wright for the last few innings.

Now they only offer a modicum of cheering with Felix up and moving and some people actually booing that he's moving. I love New York.

Felix just tried to throw a pitch and he was in severe pain as he tried to throw.... now they are applauding Felix as he's being helped off the field. It's too late for me, Mets fans are worthless. I'll let you know as soon as we hear something.

8:04 -- With that one swing Felix now has more RBIs than Burke (3) and is tied with Bloomquist (4), Clement (4) and two away from catching Reed (6)

8:00 -- Well, there goes the no-hitter, I'm blaming you Larry Stone for jinxing it, saying "Has any pitcher ever had a no-hitter and a grand slam in the same night?"

Felix is getting booed in his second at-bat. And it looks like they're having him bunt, didn't they see what he did last at-bat (sarcasm alert!).

7:38 -- That is also the first grand slam for the Mariners this season as well. The last salami for the Ms was on August 11, 2007 against Chicago by Yuni...

7:32 --- I can't believe Felix just hit a GRAND SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS THE FIRST HOME RUN BY A PITCHERS IN MARINERS IN HISTORY. Um, and yes USS Mariner is right, that is one more extra base-hit than Bloomquist. I think their server might overload. It went 390 feet. All of those runs are unearned because of the Wright error.

7:29 --- Clement with a nice swing on that Santana offering. The Mariners have three hits off him already, and Raul hit one hard. Willie reaches on an error by David Wright to load the bases.

7:20 --- Felix is throwing haaard. I think he's pretty pumped up for this match-up he didn't even want to talk about it yesterday.

7:17 --- Um, probably not the best decision to try and stretch that single into double by Lopey, he was out by about 10 feet. Trot Nixon still has some ability left despite the years of hard playing.

7:10 --- Johan's warm-up music is "Smooth" by Carlos Santana. Raise your hand if that song annoys you.... darn it, baseball only.

7:05 --- The cast of Monty Python's Spamalot sang the National Anthem.

6:50 --- The cast of the broadway show Grease just wrapped up singing most of the songs from the show. Yeah, there's nothing like having those songs stuck in your head..... oh baseball only, must focus.

Here's Morrow throwing - and no I couldn't get much further away.

First things first, as speculated Erik Bedard won't make his start on Wednesday. But Miguel Batista will be held till Wednesday so he could get in a throw day today.

So it will be..

Tuesday
R.A. Dickey (1-3 5.57 ERA) vs. LH Oliver Perez (5-4, 5.06 ERA)
Wednesday
RH Miguel Batista (3-9 6.26 ERA) vs. RHP John Maine (7-5, 3.78 ERA)

* Brandon Morrow is here and that blurry picture above is of him throwing before the game. He will not be available tonight. But is expected to pitch tomorrow.

* Dan Wilson is here again working the game for FSN. I saw him talking with Joh for quite a while. I'm sure you can guess what about.

* Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is at the game. He took early batting practice with some of the Mariners and shagged flies. Pearl Jam is in concert at Madison Square Garden on Monday and Tuesday. I'm sure a few players will be catching their shows after the game.

We actually talked a little music and books with Raul Ibanez and Jarrod Washburn. Ibanez, who brings his guitar on road trips, talked about how fantastic of a guitar player Bernie Wiliams is, and how good Ben Broussard is as a musician and performer .

Washburn and Raul also wanted to talk about Cormac McCarthy's latest book "The Road" which is fantastic and Washburn recommended to Raul.

I think at this point, they're looking for something to talk about other than baseball. And sometimes its good to have questions that aren't always about baseball.

Here's today's lineups...

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Betancourt SS
Clement C
Bloomquist CF
------------
Hernandez P

Mets
Jose Reyes SS
Luis Castillo 2B
David Wright 3B
Carlos Beltran CF
Carlos Delgado 1B
Trot Nixon LF
Nelson Castro C
Endy Chavez RF
---------
Johan Santana P

Well that was pretty much sucktastic ...

A few things ...
Because R.A. Dickey pitched two innings today, he probably won't start on Tuesday. Instead Miguel Batista will move back in the rotation and take that start.

But Dickey could pitch on Wednesday. Because right now it doesn't appear that Erik Bedard will be recovered from back spasms to make his scheduled start.

“We’re going to be real tentative about that,” Manager Jim Riggleman said of Bedard’s injury. “We want to get him back pitching real soon, but I don’t know that Wednesday’s realistic.

Positives

* I've never quite seen a line-up like that before.

* The Mariners didn't get shut-out. Woo-Hoo!!

* Jeff Clement was 2-for-3 with a double, a two-run homer and a hit by pitch. You can tell there is just something different and more relaxed about him.

* Yuniesky Betancourt extended his games without a walk streak to 19. He only has six games more to reach his season-high streak of 25 games that was snapped with a nasty walk on May 30th against Detroit.

* I'm getting the hell out of Atlanta.

* Erik Bedard said hi to me in the clubhouse, a new first for me or most of hte beat writers, not bad at game 70 something.

* I got to see a guy with the first name of Gregor, and guys with the last name of Jurrjens and Gotay play. I'm stilly miffed about missing out on Jo-Jo Reyes.

* I got to see someone hit three homers in one game. I actually saw Mark Teixeira hit a home run that hit just under the bottom row of lights on light stand in left-center of Cheney Stadium when he was a junior in college playing for a junior TEAM USA squad. On that team was Bobby Crosby, Xavier Nady, Dewon Brazelton, Josh Karp, Jon Switzer, Jake Gautreau, Ryan Budde and R.A. Dickey. We actually talked about that homer the other day.

* Best of all: Felix vs. Johan Santana on Monday at Shea Stadium.

NEGATIVES

* I've never quite seen a line-up like that before.

* With the loss, Silva now has a nine-game losing streak, which is the longest in the majore leagues.

* Ichiro went 0-for-5 snapping a 31-game interleague hitting streak. It was second to the
record streak of 37 games held by Matt Lawton, who got some of those hits - very few I'm guessing - while with the Mariners.

* The three homers allowed by Silva was the most he allowed since July 8 of last year when he was with the Twins.

I really don't know what to think of this lineup. But at this point, does it really matter? They haven't hit with the other guys in the lineup either. It's not as if the Braves are throwing out a murder's row either.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
3:05 -- Is anybody still watching? I'll give you a few reasons to turn it off.

Tim Hudson is 101-2 when given a lead of three or more runs and he's once won 76 consecutive decisions in that situation from 8/23/00 to to 8/20/07.

Need more...

Hudson is 116-5 in starts in which he has received run support of four runs or more while he was still in the game, and he is 120-22 in which his team has scored four or more runs.

Oh, and the Mariners have never come back and won a game when they've trailed by three or more runs this season.

2:33 -- Teixeira's second homer of the game, a solo blast to deep right-center.... and two pitches later, Brian McCann takes a ball over the 400 foot mark in center. And Norton follows with a hard single through the right side past a diving Bloomquist. Silva always seems to have that one blow-up inning, this has all the makings of it.

2:15 -- Jose Vidro just fouled a ball right off his face, he reached out for a ball and fouled into the dirt and it bounced up and hit him in the cheek area. But he's going to finish the at-bat.

Bloomquist went first to third on Raul's single - a nice piece of base running there.

2:12 -- Let's see since it took the better part of 10 minute wait before this stellar blog software would let me post again -- What happened?

Carlos Silva gave up a solo homer to Mark Teixeira that ricocheted off right-field foul pole and that Ichiro caught.

Brian McCann singled after that, but it mattered little as Willie Bloomquist turned a nice double play, going to his left to get a ball and making a nice pivot. Say what you want about Willie, and there is plenty to be said, there is no way Lopez even comes close to getting that ball.

2:00 -- Not much going on so far. Hudson is all over the place and has walked two batters and been behind in several counts, of course that doesn't stop Yuni from blindly hacking at a pitch that probably would have hit him.

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Bloomquist 2B
Ibanez LF
Vidro 1B
Reed CF
Betancourt SS
Clement C
Cairo 3B
----------
Silva P -- "

Braves
Gregor Blanco CF
Omar Infante SS
Kelly Johnson 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Greg Norton LF
Ruben Gotay 3B
Brandon Jones RF
--------
Tim Hudson P

Adrian Beltre's sore left index finger is still bothering him. It hurts to grip a bat. So he wasn't taking out extra batting practice. Riggleman also gave Jose Lopez the day off ... But Riggleman also said it's a matter of keeping guys on the bench from getting rusty from sitting too long.

This will be the 29th time that Vidro has started a game at clean-up in his career, according the Mariners media relations. He's got 27 hits in 90 at-bats.

So here it is...

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Bloomquist 2B
Ibanez LF
Vidro 1B
Reed CF
Betancourt SS
Clement C
Cairo 3B
----------
Silva P -- Silva probably looked at the lineup and said, "Nice joke guys, where's the real lineup?"

Braves
Gregor Blanco CF
Omar Infante SS
Kelly Johnson 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Greg Norton RF
Ruben Gotay 3B
Brandon Jones LF
--------
Tim Hudson P

Ok, so I was having some computer issues - probably operator based - but anyways, here's what's going on....

* Morrow is not here still. He will join the team in New York, Riggleman said. He probably won't be ready to throw till Tuesday, unless something drastic changes.

* Bedard supposedly felt better today. I didn't see him in the clubhouse. But Riggleman said they're playing it day-to-day.

* Beltre was a late scratch from the lineup tonight with a bruised left index finger. Miguel Cairo took his place and is batting second.

* Greg Norton is batting third for the Braves. I talked with him earlier today. He's happy with where he's at, but not with the way he's been hitting as of late, but he's still hitting .280 against lefties this season. He did strikeout in his first at-bat.

The Mariners have a 3-1 lead thanks to some shoddy defensive play by Omar Infante, who's the back-up. He's committed two errors in the first inning.

The Braves are now starting to put something together off of Washburn. They got one run on a Teixeira single and are threatening.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
10:16 -- Greg Freakin' Norton. Unbelievable. You almost knew at some point during this series he would come back to bite the Mariners. It just seemed too obvious.

10:03 -- We have a Vidro sighting. Um no, Jose, the plate is over there.

9:43 -- took a little break there, but I have to say, "Nice slide Richie, that was pretty funny. Sad on some level but funny."

8:22 -- GREG NORTON!! Wow that was a nice catch. The guy isn't exactly known for his defense by any means, but that was pretty good.

7:48 -- Ichiro takes offense to a Mark Wegner call of him swinging on a check swing. Wegner, some of you may remember, that tossed Mac out of the game on May 7th for arguing balls and strikes.

7:40 -- Washburn gets out of the inning, but throws 33 pitches. Like last night, the bullpen could be throwing a lot of innings. Ryan Rowland-Smith is not available, but everybody else along with RA Dickey is.

We didn't get a chance to talk with Ichiro pre-game. He was going through extensive pregame ritual and putting some time in the indoor batting cages. It's well known that he and McLaren were very close. So we obviously wanted to get his thoughts on Mac getting fired, along with Mac's accusation of jealousy in the clubhouse. As usual, he was quite interesting.

What were your thoughts when you found out Mac was fired?

There's really no words to express how I was feeling. My relationship with Mac started in 1999 when I came to visit spring training with the Mariners. Since then he's been really good to me. I came here in 2001 to play in the big leuages and we spent some amazing seasons together, and even after he left for Tampa Bay, he still treated me the same way he always has.

He's a special person to me. Before each game up till now this season, I would always see his face and then go into the game, for me to not see that face today it made me very sad. It was a odd feeling to not have him around. I have to face reality. We still have more than a half season left. I know because of that we still need to look ahead and look forward. But even with that, when I first heard, I couldn't be normal self.

Does McLaren deserve a chance to manage somewhere else again?
I definitely want to see him manage again. the reason the way this team is the way it is, is our fault, not the manager's fault. In a way, he kind of became a martyr for the situation. Our record expresses not the managerial skill of him, but the skill of us as players. It's our fault. For him to prove his managerial skills it was probably going to start showing from now on, for him to not have a chance to show that is disappointing to me.

Some people that have watched the team would say that it's the skippers fault but I disagree with that outlook. I would definitely like to seem him manage again someday, not only in the United States, but with his personality he's the kind of guy who would be a good manager in Japan also.

What are your thoughts on McLaren's comments about friction and jealousy in the clubhouse?
If Mac said so I would believe it to be true. Because up to now, his job was to protect the players and maybe he wouldn't say some things that were on his mind. Now given the opportunity to speak his mind, he gave his honest opinion, so I believe it to be true.

So does he see any of it himself?

There's many things that I feel and there's many things that I notice. I'm not going to go in to detail what those things are. But I enjoy observing, and I enjoy feeling things from those observations. That's just who I am. That's my personality. And I see a lot of things being who I am.

Huh?
I'm not going to give specific answers to your question. I'm saying, I do see many things. I have noticed many things. I feel many things.

Do you think other players are jealous of you?
I don't know, but I would like to be the kind of player that other people would be jealous of. What i can also tell you is that jealous are men are the worst things out there. Jealous guys are worse than jealous women.

---------------------------------------------------------

Also Erik Bedard was fairly engaging after the game discussing his back spasms. Some people joked it was due to the medication. He said he hurt it on the 3-2 pitch that Ruben Gotay singled on. He then threw five more pitches and a couple pick-off moves to get out of the inning.

Here's an excerpt from my game story ...

“The closer he got to the dugout you could tell the more pain he was in,” Riggleman said. “By the time we brought him in here it wasn’t good at all.”
It didn’t get much better once he tried to leave the dugout to the clubhouse.
“Oh man, I couldn’t even make it up the ramp by myself,” Bedard said. “They had to help me up it.”
This is something new for Bedard, who joins reliever Brandon Morrow as someone afflicted with the same problem.
“When people told me they had back spasms, I had no idea what they were talking about, now I do,” he said.
Bedard said he felt okay as long he was standing, but sitting down wasn’t even an option.
“It’s going to feel great (today) I’m sure,” he said.
And that’s the biggest concern is how he feels today. That will play largely into whether he can make his next start or not. Because he has never dealt with the injury before, Bedard had no idea about a timetable.
“Some guys it’s three or four days, and some guys it’s a week,” he said. “I don’t know.”

This was too good to wait till tomorrow. Anyway, Larry LaRue wrote the story from today's conference call with John McLaren. But he also talked to a few coaches, who had some rather tough comments about certain members of the team and their efforts.

We've all heard how hard the players say they're working, but this seems to paint a different picture.

Here's an example:

“You’ve got players in that clubhouse who should be team leaders – guys like Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre, Erik Bedard, even Ichiro – who care only about themselves,” one coach said. “When your best players are hitting 50-60 points below their career averages and won’t take extra batting practice, what message does that send?

“You had kids at the park six hours before a game to work with (former hitting coach) Jeff Pentland one-on-one in the cage, and you had Beltre, who’d never do it. Pretty soon, the younger guys weren’t doing it, either.”

There's a few other decent quotes concerning tonight's starter Erik Bedard as well.

Here's the story...

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/mariners/story/394177.html

We're running a little late here. I got three stories to write so let's get to it.

8:52 -- I'm trying to describe the double play that just happened. I can only come up with one word - craptastic. That's a reason why managers get fired. And yet that was purely Yuni's boneheaded mistake.

8:29 -- Bedard is apparently hurt, he was seen grabbing his back in the last innings, so Roy Corcoran is in the game. Not exactly good for the Mariners if they're trying to showcase him to trade him.

8:08 -- Bedard with a sharp single up the middle. I just heard a fan scream out "he can be our designated hitter." The hit makes him 3-for-12 for his career.

7:47 -- Beltre hits a shot deep to left off of former Marniner Jorge Campillo. It looks like a homer for certain, until Omar Infante makes a leaping grab over the wall. It's been that type of year.

7:27 -- the national anthem was sung quite well, by Jamie Nash, but it also took the better part of 11 minutes. Let's just say young Jamie took her time and made sure she got full range in on every note. I think in that time Bedard already made it half of his allotted 100 pitches.

LINEUPS
MARINERS
Ichiro RF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Clement C
Betancourt SS
Bloomquist CF
Bedard P

BRAVES
Gregor Blanco CF
Yunel Escobar SS
Chipper Jones 3B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Omar Infante LF
Brian McCAnn C
Jeff Francouer RF
Ruben Gotay 2B
Jorge Campillo P

Brandon Morrow's locker was conspicuously empty except for a forlorn Mariners hat hanging on a hook. The Mariners hard-throwing reliever and interim closer was still in Seattle battling back spasms.

According to trainer Rick Griffin, the injury could have come from just laying wrong or fatigue.

However the spasms were bad enough that they didn't want Morrow making a cross country flight.

"The worst thing you can do for back spasms is to sit," Griffin said. "so for him to sit four and half to five hours on a plane would be ill-advised."

Manager Jim Riggleman said that Miguel Batista could handle some of the closing duties with everybody else moving up.

Riggleman said that Morrow "really is day-to-day" in his return.

Richie Sexson was the first Mariner player to step up and face the media pregame today. He was engaging and honest, which he has always been when you get him for an interview. He had a few interesting comments, including ...

Here's the rest...

What are your thoughts on the managerial change?
We’re all disappointed. There’s obviously a lot of stuff going on right now. As players you kind of feel responsible for people getting fired whtehr it’s the gm or the manager because we didn’t perform. Ultimately the axe has to come down on somebody, it’s too bad it had to be him.

Mac had your back the whole way, did that make extra difficult.
Yeah, but we all have our own backs, nobody is going to bad mouth anybody. Even though he had our back we still feel bad it happened to him.

Is there a feeling of no explanation of what’s gone wrong this season?
It’s well documented that were all working hard and we’re all tyring our best out there. And we’re not working any harder or any less than we always have, we’re just not winning games. We’re just not meshing and it’s not coming together.

How much should fall on McLaren’s shoulders?
It’s more us than him. He makes the lineup and puts us out there. It’s our job to play well and we’re not doing that.

Do you expect to be with this team when the road trip ends?
I don’t know. I’m just going to play. I really can’t worry about that and I’m not going to worry about that. I know if things don’t work out here, there’s a lot of other teams out there. I know I can still play the game. I’m not worried about never playing again. It doesn’t concern me.

Would a change of scenery help you like McLaren suggested?
It’s no secret that it’s kind of a tough environment for me around there. I think you got 30 to 40,000 people that just as soon see me in the electric chair than play first base. It’s no secret.

Is it to good to get on the road?
It’s good for all us. I think everybody feels a little tense when we’re at home. There’s a little bit of a negative feel there- which there should be. We’re playing poorly. Nobody is going to be with that, especially the fans. They have every right to be disappointed in us.

In a year’s time seen one manager quit, another manager fired, it’s has to have an effect doesn’t it?
I’ve been playing 10 or 11 years and I’ve gone through 10 or 11 managers. I don’t know. Future managers maybe they don’t want me on their team, bad luck or something.

We got a good one though. Riggs is going to be great. We’re going once again try our best with him. Sometimes a change can be good. Unfortunately people have to go for a change to happen.

As a player don’t look to see how’s managing the club, it doesn’t matter who manages the team you have to play.

What are the difference between McLaren and Riggleman?
Mac is a little more intense. Riggs is never going to get too loud. Whether he’s talking to you when you’re doing well or doing poorly, he’s going to have the same voice all the time, It might just be different wording.

On Mac's comments about jealousy?
I haven’t heard anything about that. I haven’t seen that or heard that. Maybe he has little more one-on-one with players. I don’t’ see that side of it.

Everybody’s disappointed with how we played.

Where do you go from here?
We’re going to play hard. Nobody’s going to quit. You play till they take the jersey off our backs and till we try to get it back to .500. That’s our goal. It’s going to be hard. We’re all going to have to play well to do that.

Every team whether you’re winning or losing has to have a goal, that’s kind of our goal. We gotta get winning again.

How is the new open stance going?
It’s ok. It’s ongoing process. I’m losing some power with it. There’s positives to it too. I’m on top of the ball more, which means I’m not getting the ball in the air as much. That’s why there’s more singles and a lot less extra base hits. But hopefully I can find a happy medium in there where I can start getting the ball airborn.

Can there be power from that stance?
Yeah, it just takes time. But I like it, it feels good. I think there’s a lot of positives there. I just have to get the balls airborne.

About being booed and his future in Seattle?
I hadn’t even thought about that. The thing about fans if you play well, they’re going to love you.

You deserve everything you get. They have no reason to be happy. Nobody’s mad at the fans. That’s just the way it is. We haven’t played the way were supposed to play and that’s what you get. We deserve everything we get from them.

On whether he was going to even be making this trip?
I was getting a lot of random calls about articles being written about it. Nobody told me, so I packed my bag and got on the plane. I know I’ll continue to play somewhere else if things don’t work out here.

Has he gone through anything like this with the rumors about his future.
I’ve been through the trade stuff, but never just the flat let somebody go. I’ve never gone through that.

Just got off the conference call with John McLaren. As usual, he was candid and honest and emotional.

Most of the stuff was pretty standard and I'll get to them later.

Unlike Bill Bavasi, who took a few shots at Erik Bedard on his way out, McLaren didn't do that. But he did mention that the clubhouse wasn't a functioning Utopia.

"I think there is a little tension, friction in there and a little jealousy. That's for those guys to work out on their own. We tried to and we weren't very successful. I think the players have to do it on their own."

Not to deter criticism from myself, but to make this team better - this is only reason I say it - if they can get in that room and work some issues out I think they'd be better off. I care about all of those guys. I think they're good people. Sometimes we get caught up in our own world and this is a team sport.

I think there is some issues in there, if they can take care of them. They'll be a lot closer to going where they want to go than they are now.

Do these issues affect the overall performance?

I don’t think so. I just think maybe there was times when we weren’t hitting and pitching well. It got really tough hitting at one point. I think we got a little divided pitchers against the hitters. There was tension tried too hard.

If I could put my finger on one thing, I think some of hitters tried too har d and when they do that they swing at more bad pitches than they normally do. We're a free swinging club to start with.

I'm not calling anybody out, I'm putting something on the table I just want them to know. There is an issue there.

Will these issues hold the team back overall?

Whenever you see a good team, these things are overlooked, when you’re losing they have an effect. Basically, most of the players are good guys, there's some issues in the clubhouse, if they could iron out, talk out some things, they'd be better off. maybe they’ve tried, but in private meetings.

I got some feedback about this, we tried to some things behind the scenes, but it's something the staff can’t do on their own."

McLaren was also asked about if Richie Sexson needed a change of scenery with a new team to find success.

He’s another one that tries so hard and it kind of works against him. I like Richie a lot. It’s hard to put a finger on what happened, in spring training he worked hard, he's playing hard and really bearing down in the field, he just needs to hit a relaxed stage, I don’t know if he’s able to do that with everybody looking at him and all the speculation. It makes you wonder if a fresh start some place if wouldn’t be better for him.

Good morning from sunny and humid Atlanta. We're coming to you live poolside. I'd post pics but believe me you don't want see any pictures.

A few things, there will be a conference call with John McLaren at 11 a.m. PST and 2 p.m. here, so I will be listening to that and posting some comments from that.

Today will officially be the first day we can speak with Jim Riggleman. So I'll also get that up as soon as possible. Along with some player reactions -- I can pretty much guess the quotes. "It wasn't Mac's fault, we needed to play better."

Perhaps that should be the Mariners slogan this year: Mariners baseball: It wasn't (insert name here) fault. We're responsible for him losing his job.\

The Lookout Landing is actually having a contest about this... click here to submit yours.

We haven't done the links for awhile for a number of reasons: 1. My inability to get out of bed. 2. My inability to go to bed before 3 a.m. and most importantly 3. What do links about other teams matter when the Mariners are out of it 17 1/2 games.

But with all the changes, we'll try and bring about some changes here.

Here's my story today about the firing of John McLaren.

John McGrath wrote that McLaren was a good man that got crushed by a bad team.

Outfield prospect Michael Saunders joined the Triple A Tacoma the other day, and he's already helped them to a couple of wins.

And since it is Erik Bedard Day.... WOO-HOO!!!

I thought this link was appropriate. I think this might gave Dave8557 a heart attack. Anyway it's about former big game pitcher Jack Morris and his disdain with pitch counts.

ESPN's Jayson Stark has a list of possible candidates for GMs and Managers. ANd he also mentions the Phillies showing interest in Washburn and now Erik Bedard. Peter Gammons also mentioned the other day that the Cubs wanted to be notified if Bedard was available. I would imagine that interest is ramped up with Carlos Zambrano's injury issues.

ERik Bedard + Lou Piniella = Must see TV.

Can you imagine? I think it might be something like this.

But I'm thinking Lou might call McLaren and say, "Hey, what do you think about this Bedard guy?"

And Mac would respond: "Um, well, he isn't the anti-christ, but he might be. At least after 100 pitches anyway.

Here's a quick note from Arizona about three D-back execs who might be on Seattle's GM list.

Jose Guillen is still hitting. He leads the AL in doubles.

On a lighter note, It's the 20th Anniversary of Bull Durham -- one of the greatest baseball movies ever made. Sports Illustrated is doing a commemoration. Here's Austin Murphy's piece about it.

To be fair, I really didn't know who he was either. I think I recall John McLaren mentioning him during spring, but accidentally calling him Juan Castro. Anyway, he'll be taking over the hitting coach duties as Lee Elia goes to bench coach. Elia will supposedly still oversee Castro.

One quick question.... DOES IT REALLY MATTER? At this point, the Mariners don't need a hitting coach, they need an exorcist, a couple live chickens and a few one-way plane tickets for some players. Look at the numbers -- thanks to baseball-reference.com

Anyway here's Mr. Castro's bio provided by the Ms.

Another day, another member of the Mariners finds themselves now in search of work.

Was it the move, I or others were expecting? No. We all thought that the 6-foot-8 first baseman would be released or designated for assignment today. If you think about the situation, it would have seemed logical – do it today as the team is on a cross country flight and Sexson can take his stuff from Safeco in relative anonymity.

But instead the Mariners chose to fire John McLaren today, and Sexson and his slugging percentage of .360 and .220 batting average got on the plane for Atlanta. I hope he didn’t pack to heavy because it should be a short trip. After being booed like Shaun Alexander yesterday, is there anyway the Mariners can allow Sexson to come back to Safeco after this road trip is over with?

The firing of McLaren wasn’t really a surprise other than the timing. I really thought it would come mid-road trip or just after. I really figured the bigger issues are keeping Sexson and Vidro on the team, not the man forced to pencil them into the daily lineup.

Was McLaren the greatest tactical manager in baseball? No.

Did he have the most managerial cache? No

But was he the sole problem for the Mariners issue? No.

This team’s roster is flawed in terms of its construction, chemistry and overall scope. There is no vision for this team or its future and that cannot be blamed on McLaren.

“All managers are subject to the performance of the players,” Pelekoudas said.

Apparently though the players, aren’t subject to the performance of the players.

To be fair, McLaren was good man, a humble man and a man who waited a long time to get to this level in baseball. And now it’s gone, largely because he put his trust and faith into a bunch of veterans that he lauded and built up all offseason. And they failed him spectacularly.

Perhaps McLaren was far too optimistic. I think boasting that Richie Sexson would win comeback player of the year award is the perfect example. But he believed in his players, or at least he wanted to, and I’m not sure the same could be said for the rest of the people in that clubhouse, including the players themselves.

So now, he’s gone and the Mariners move on with Jim Riggleman as the interim manager, Lee Elia moves to bench coach and Jose Castro is the hitting coach with Elia overseeing him.

"John worked extremely hard, but our team continued to underperform compared to our expectations of them," interim general manager Lee Pelekoudas said in a statement. "With 90 games left on our schedule, we owe it to ourselves and our fans to do everything we can to win as many games as possible."

OK, how about beyond those 90 games? If they are willing to do everything, then Sexson must be sent packing along with Vidro, who has an option for next year if he reaches a certain number of plate appearances.

Will Riggleman make this team better? It’s doubtful. He isn’t a hard-ass like Larry Bowa, and he isn’t a players’ guy like McLaren. He’s a middle of the road guy that’s relatively quiet and believes in old school philosophies. But he could be Lou Piniella, Casey Stengal, Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa and Leo Durocher all rolled into one, and I don’t think it would matter with this team.

Basically Riggleman is keeping the seat warm for 90 games. The Mariners have to wait to hire a GM first and allow him to make his choice for manager. At least that seems logical, so maybe the Mariners won’t do that.

Although the Mariners are only saying Jim Riggleman is the manager for the remainder of the season, he is being considered the team's 13th full-time manager. Only one of his predecessors has managed a winning career record with the team.

* Interim

The Mariners fired John McLaren this morning, replacing him with bench coach Jim Riggleman. The team release:

SEATTLE MARINERS MANAGER JOHN McLAREN RELIEVED OF HIS DUTIES

Bench Coach Jim Riggleman Promoted to Manager for Remainder of 2008 Campaign

SEATTLE, Wash. – Seattle Mariners Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Lee Pelekoudas announced today that John McLaren has been relieved of his duties as manager. Pelekoudas met with McLaren this morning and informed him of the decision.

“John worked extremely hard, but our team continued to under perform compared to our expectations of them,” Pelekoudas said. “With 90 games left on our schedule, we owe it to ourselves and our fans to do everything we can to win as many games as possible. At the same time, as we move towards the trade deadline and decisions have to be made on the futures of the players on our ballclub, I wanted to see if a different voice could make a difference in their performance.”

Jim Riggleman, who was on the Mariners staff as the bench coach, has been named manager for the remainder of the 2008 season. He is the 13th full-time manager in Mariners history.

“Jim is an experienced baseball man with broad experience as both a Major League manager and coach. He is intimately familiar with our club and I believe he will do a fine job,” Pelekoudas said.

Riggleman, 55, has extensive Major League experience. He was the manager of the Chicago Cubs from 1995-1999, including winning the NL Wild Card in 1998 with a 90-73 record. Riggleman began his managerial career with the San Diego Padres, taking over for the final 12 games of the 1992 season and managing the club in 1993 and 1994. Overall, he has managed over 1,000 games in the Majors, compiling a career mark of 486-598 (.448). Riggleman also has nine seasons of minor league managerial experience (1982-1992) during which he had a 558-554 (.502) career mark.

Riggleman was a coach in the Majors with St. Louis (for Whitey Herzog) in 1989 and 1990 and for Cleveland in 2000. He spent the past three seasons (2005-2007) as the St. Louis Cardinals minor league field coordinator, overseeing instruction in the Cardinals minor league system, before being named Seattle’s bench coach. He began his coaching career in the Cardinals minor league system in 1981, and worked as a manager in their system until being named the team’s Director of Player Development in June, 1988.

McLaren, 56, was named manager of the Mariners on July 2, 2007, when Mike Hargrove stepped down. He posted a 43-41 mark over the remainder of the 2007 season, and had led the club to a 25-47 start this year. McLaren also had 11 seasons as a coach with the Mariners.

“We want to thank John for his service to the Mariners,” Pelekoudas added. “He has dedicated many years of his baseball career to help build baseball in Seattle. We appreciate all of his hard work and wish him all the best in the future.”

The Mariners have just announced two changes to their coming schedule.

The July 19 home game against Cleveland will not be carried as part of FOX's national TV package, and is not scheduled for any other TV broadcast. The game will be on KOMO 1000-AM radio as usual.

Meanwhile, the start time of the New York Yankees' Sept. 6 visit to Safeco has been shifted from 6:10 p.m. to 7: 10 p.m.

The team's full schedule and broadcast information is available at www.mariners.com.

Final: Florida 8, Seattle 3.

McLaren's take:
“Dickey had a tough time with his release point. He pitched out of a couple of jams, but it finally caught up to him – the pitch count got him. It’s a whole new ballgame when you have to go to the bullpen that early. ... We had a lot of hits. We just couldn’t put some big innings together.”

Dickey's take:
“I had a good knuckleball, I just didn’t have a very good release point with it. It was moving good. I just couldn’t keep it in the strike zone enough where they really had to commit to swinging at it all the time. That’s a tough thing, but I had a pretty good knuckleball. Outside of that ball that Jacobs hit out, they didn’t really cover it very well.”

Florida starter Ryan Tucker was making his third Major League start since his June 8 promotion from the Double-A Southern League. He picked up his second Major League win and his first quality start, allowing seven hits over six innings before handing a 7-2 lead to his bullpen. He needed fewer pitches over six innings than Dickey threw in 3.2.

The Mariners out-hit the Marlins, 13-11. But Adrian Beltre’s fourth inning double was the only extra-base hit.

Jose Lopez was moved up to the No. 3 spot in the order, and went 0-for-5. Richie Sexson was moved down to the seven hole, went 1-for-4 and drew boos for a sixth-inning strike out with two aboard. Jeff Clement went 0-for-2 with two walks in his first start since being recalled from the Rainiers. Jose Vidro got three hits while snapping an 0-for-14 streak. Raul Ibanez extended his season-high hitting streak to nine games and is batting .351 during the streak.

Seattle pitchers struck out 11 Marlins, marking the third straight game of 10 or more strike outs. That's their longest such streak since September 2002.

The Mariners lost the series, 1-2, and concluded the homestand 1-5. They are 25-47 on the season.

On Friday they'll begin a nine-game road trip playing without the designated hitter in the National League cities of Atlanta, New York and San Diego.

RUNNING:
Top of the ninth: Marlins 7, Mariners 3.

8:30: Tonight's attendance is 24,163.

Through three and a half: Marlins up, 5-1. Dickey's ugly line: 3 2/3 innings, five runs, all earned, six hits, four walks, four K's, one wild pitch, 97 pitches, 56 strikes.

Top of the fourth: R.A. Dickey's stay was short. He is headed to the showers with two out in the fourth, trailing 3-1 with Fish on first and second.

8 p.m. -- The Mariners have just announced a pair of changes to their schedule. See the new post above.

Bottom of the second: Tied 1-1. The Marlins are doing a nice job of laying off Dickey's knuckleball, and for now it's mostly fluttering out of the strike zone. That's a bad sign for the home team. But by the same token, the Mariners hitters seemed right on Ryan Tucker's pitches last inning, sending even a couple of the outs deep toward the fences. There might be some runs scored tonight.

7:10: Fair crowd all things considered. And an unusual number of fans seem to be spread out in the right-field area of the upper deck, taking advantage of the remaining sun on what is a surprisingly -- disappointingly -- cool night.

Play ball.

4:40: The Mariners' lineup has been posted for the final game of this homestand:

1. Ichiro, rf
2. Vidro, dh
3. Lopez, 2b
4. Ibanez, lf
5. Beltre, 3b
6. Clement, c
7. Sexson, 1b
8. Reed, cf
9. Betancourt, ss

That will be the last Mariners' lineup for a while that has a DH rather than a "P" in the batting order. After tonight, the Mariners head to Atlanta, Shea and San Diego, where National League rules will rule.

Manager John McLaren said he isn't excited about having his pitchers swing, bunt and run the bases, but that's the way things are.

As far as this lineup, McLaren explained that the recent organizational shakeup has nothing to do with Ichiro being back in right field. McLaren said it was something he had been thinking about since last season. McLaren said Ichiro is the best right fielder in baseball and it's "where he belongs." McLaren said that he would have made the move whether Ichiro wanted to make the move or not -- although Ichiro clearly welcomed the return. "As soon as I said it, his face lit up," McLaren said. "As soon as I saw his eyes, I knew it was right."

He also said he doesn't want his players thinking about the organizational changes or what it might mean as the trade deadline approaches. He said player moves are always discussed, whether the team is in first or last, and that players' shouldn't worry about what they can't control, whether they're in first or last.

They were all topics during my on-line chat today.

Here's the transcript from it

I think we'll do it every Wednesday. But I'm open to suggestions.

Good morning ...

I'll be doing a live chat today from 1 to 2 p.m.

So feel free to log on and ask your questions whether it ranges from: Why Bill Bavasi was fired? (though I think we know the answer to that), How will Jeff Clement be used? What the five most interesting things Erik Bedard has ever said to are or whatever you feel like asking,

Just log on to www.thenewstribune.com ....

Here's the direct link

Let's get to it ...........

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

9:44 -- Morrow on in the ninth, throwing filthy gas.

9:20 -- Felix leaves after 7 1/3, allowing four runs, three earned, six hits and nine strikeouts. Not a bad night for the King. Oh and he threw 107 pitches.

8:50 -- Felix runs into his first trouble of the game giving up back-to-back singles to start off. That's followed by two more singles from Ramirez and Hermida to score a run and a sac fly from Jorge Cantu to cut the lead to 5-3, but Felix battles back striking out Mike Jacobs and Dan Uggla looking.

He gave the typical Felix scream after the last strikeout. I know much has been made over his emotion sometimes getting the best of him. But you can tell the kid wants to win. And I respect that.

8:32 -- The Ms tack on a another run on a terrible throw by pitcher Logan Kinsing who was trying to turn a double play.

8:20 -- No problem for Felix in the fifth, two more Ks. That's seven.

8:14 -- the Mariners tack on a few more runs as Ichiro comes up with a sac fly following a nice Yuni sac bunt and Lopez picks up his second RBI double of the game.

8:02 -- Olsen has settled down and the Mariners haven't done much off of him, but the Marlins are doing even less off of Felix, who's struck out the side in the fourth, and looked dominating doing so.

7:33 -- Uggla just crushed that Felix pitch over the bullpen in left. Crushed it.

7:27 -- Richie doesn't get booed upon introduction and he doesn't get booed after popping up to first.

7:25 -- There must be some slight mistake the Mariners are hitting the ball. And they're hitting it hard. Ichiro laces a single to right off of Olsen. Lopez follows up with a hard double to left to score Ichiro.

Funny sequence as Jose Vidro attempts a bunt, which is what most No.3 hitters do. That doesn't work so he meekly strikes out.

Then Beltre somehow gets a hit with runner in scoring position, singling to left. Lopez doesn't score on the play, but he does on Raul's RBI single to right.

LINEUPS
MARLINS
Hanley Ramirez SS -- He almost decapitated me with a foul ball last night.
Jeremy Hermida RF -- He's hitting .333 with runners in scoring position. He'd be a God in Seattle.
Jorge Cantu 1B -- Wow a first baseman with double digit home runs and a lot of RBIs, a novel concept.
Mike Jacobs DH -- If you add Vidro's and Sexson's home runs (5+9 = 14), Jacobs still has more with 16.
Dan Uggla 2B -- Right now, he's a better, more productive player than anybody on the Mariners team.
Luis Gonzalez LF -- The Mariners were actually looking at him, but instead took Brad Wilkerson.
Wes Helms 3B -- He has four homers and 20 RBI in limited playing time, the Mariners call that starters' numbers
Matt Treanor C -- I got nothing here. Really nothing.
Alfredo Amezaga CF -- He's hitting .264 from the left side and .184 from the right.
-------------
Scott Olsen P -- Will he be the next talented young pitcher that will stick it to the Ms?

MARINERS
Ichiro RF -- He's back in his normal position, now it's time to hit.
Lopez 2B -- Lopey's starting to cool a little, hopefully this doesn't follow tradition.
Vidro DH -- Another four plate appearances closer to his option. They should have like a counter in the dugout and stop him when he gets to one.
Beltre 3B -- He's hitting .177 in his last 43 games.
Ibanez LF -- Still working harder than anyone.
Sexson 1B -- Boooooo!!!. Ok that's not fair. He had two hits last night - both singles. The last time he homered gas was like 3.50 a gallon.
Johjima C -- He has a five game hitting streak, but his average is still under .250
Bloomquist CF -- Back to back starts for Willie? When was the last time that happened?
Betancourt SS -- Yuni has made some unbelievable plays in the field as of late.
----------
Hernandez P -- players fall him Fee-Fee in the clubhouse. I feel like you should know these things.

It seems as though Jamie Burke's personal pitcher has further fallen out of favor with the Mariners. And now he will have to pitch, whoever manager John McLaren decides.

With the call-up last night of Jeff Clement, McLaren made it clear today in his pregame meeting that Clement is up, and will play and will do that catching, not DHing.

"Last time we tried him as DH and it was awfully difficult situation for a young kid, so we're going to catch him quite a bit," McLaren said.

Exactly how much is quite a bit?

"We're going to catch him a lot," McLaren said.

So a lot could be three out of five days?

"That and more," McLaren said.

Hmmmmm.

And so what is going to happen with the regular starting catcher Kenji Johjima? Well, he was seen taking ground balls at first yesterday. Johjima said he was extremely uncomfortable at the position, though he played it a few games in Japan when he had a sore shoulder.

"We're going to DH him and catch him some," McLaren said.

So if that's the case what does that mean for the Bedard and Burke combination?

McLaren briefly chuckled to himself and said this ...

"We don’t have any combinations anymore," he said abruptly with some irritation. "OK? Combinations are done. I’m tired of combinations. We’re just going to put the best team we think can win. That’s that. Never had many combinations that worked, so were not into combinations anymore."

Maybe if Bedard isn't willing to go more than 100 pitches, then McLaren isn't willing to give him the catcher he prefers to throw to. It's a little tough love.

Check out this picture of Carlos Silva. I don't think I want to be on the receiving end of this glare.

There was so much information that came out of yesterday's press conference that there was no way to get it all into my story yesterday.

So here's my story about the firing. At the end of the story, Larry and I went through some of his transactions and came up with the five worst of his career. See if you agree or disagree with them.

Here they are ...

Dubious deals from the Bavasi era

Dec. 17, 2003

The deal: Signed free agent infielder Scott Spiezio to a three-year contract with a club option for 2007.

The skinny: Spiezio was the first of many questionable free-agent signings, all fitting the same mold – older player trying to maintain his established big league numbers, and most never did. The list is long, headed by Spiezio, Jarrod Washburn, Carl Everett, Matt Lawton, Rich Aurilia, Pokey Reese, Chris Reitsma.

Jan 8, 2004

The deal: Shortstop Carlos Guillen was traded to Detroit for infielders Ramon Santiago and Juan Gonzalez.

The skinny: Nicknamed “Glass” in Seattle. In Detroit, they just call Guillen “All-Star.” Not even trading for the other Juan Gonzalez in his prime could have made this trade not seemed lopsided.

Dec. 15, 2004

The deal: Signed free agent first baseman Richie Sexson to four-year contract.

The skinny: The one player who seems to represent underachievement in a Mariners uniform, at least in the eyes of the fans. When the team needed him most, he simply wilted.

Dec. 7, 2006

The deal: Acquired lefty Horacio Ramirez from the Atlanta Braves for reliever Rafael Soriano.

The skinny: At the time, the trade seemed bad on paper, and it proved even worse on the field. Even with all his injuries, Soriano pitching as a reliever still got more outs than Ramirez did in all of his starts.

Feb. 8, 2008

The deal: Acquired left-hander Erik Bedard from Baltimore for outfielder Adam Jones, reliever George Sherrill and three minor leaguers – right-handers Chris Tillman and Kam Mickolio and left-hander Tony Butler.

The skinny: Bavasi gave up five players for the pitcher he thought could help him win, and in the end it may have been the move that finally got him fired. Now the Mariners might get two players for Bedard in a trade.

Here's John McGrath's column welcoming interim GM Lee Pelekoudas into this mess along with a few people who could also be considering for the job.

Here's Larry LaRue's game story from yesterday's loss.

I will say that Carlos Silva's ejection was a joke. The umpire made the wrong call, he was called on it, and his first reaction was to toss a guy. Weak.

Our intern, Stephen Chen, got to spend his first day on the job helping cover a firing. It was a quick baptism into this business. He filed this notebook on Ichiro changing to right field on a permanent basis.

So I'm working on a post for later about Bedard centering around a few of Bavasi's comments.

We asked him about Bedard and his unwillingness to go past 100 pitches...

"You have to ask him and I know that's no fun. And he's going to have a stupid answer for you can count on it. He's going to have some dumb-ass answer."

"He's either gassed because he's laboring. He's protecting himself because he knows even he sticks around and is mediocre he gets another 2 million bucks lopped onto his salary."

"Why doesn't he go longer? It's a real pointed question. But you need to ask him. And good luck with that."

The Mariners have just announced that they are recalling Jeff Clement from Tacoma, and they are sending Wladimir Balentien back to Tacoma.

This move was easy to see coming since Ichiro had been moved back to right field leaving Balentien without a position to play. But because of his inconsistent hitting and numerous strikeouts, Balentien had already seen his playing time decrease significantly and go to Jeremy Reed. Balentien's average had fallen to .196 (21-for-107) with four home runs and nine RBI, but he hadn't record an extra basehit in more than two weeks.

Clement faltered in a call-up earlier this season, hitting just. 167 (8- for-48) with only two doubles and triple. He was optioned back to Tacoma on May 18th.

Since returning to the Rainiers on May 19, Jeff Clement has hit safely in 18 of 23 games.
During this stretch is batting .303 (27x89) with 19 runs scored, 9 doubles, 9 home runs and 23 RBI.

He's hitting .337 with 17 doubles, 14 homers, 43 RBI, 35 walks. He was leading the Pacific Coast League in on-base percentage at .457 and slugging percentage at .680

We have a full crew up at the field today. I'm writing the Bavasi firing story, Larry is here covering the game, and our intern - Stephen Chen - who's working his first day got rushed into service and is handling the game notes.

I'm trying to get through quite a bit of interviews and such ... And I'm a little rusty from having three days off from working.

So let's get to it....

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

8:55 -- If somebody didn't get the hmmmms, it means that hmm, I think Clement will be called up tomorrow.

8:25 -- Well, an interesting situation just happened. First base umpire Bill Weilke clearly made a poor call on a play at first base. Carlos Silva who could see clearly that the call was wrong, jumped up and down a few times flung his arms at Weilke, who quickly ejected Silva. Manager John McLaren came out to argue to no avail, and SIlva has been ejected, it forced the Mariners to bring in Ryan Rowland-Smith.

8:09 -- The Mariners scratch a run across on a sac fly Kenji Johijima. Richie Sexson has two hits on the night.

7:52 -- HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Thanks to my ubiquitous clandestine informant (Lean on Me). It appears that Jeff Clement has been scratched from his start with the Rainiers tonight, it happened about 10 minutes before game time.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

7:19 -- An interesting start for "El Boofalo" Carlos Silva. Three consecutive singles, a walk and a sac fly lead to two runs, but he's able to get out without that much more. Mariners down 2-0.

LINEUPS
MARLINS
Hanley Ramirez SS
Jeremy Hermida RF
Jorge Cantu 1B
Mike Jacobs DH
Dan Uggla 2B
Luis Gonzalez LF
Wes Helms 3B
Cody Ross CF
Matt Treanor C
-------------
Andrew Miller P

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

Here's the audio from today's press conference...

Chuck Armstrong and Howard Lincoln

Lee Pelekoudas

Bill Bavasi

Besides the firing of Bill Bavasi and all that accompanied that. Manager John McLaren chose today as the day he would move Ichiro back to right field.

"I've been thinking about this for awhile," McLaren said. "I just want to him get that zest and smile back."

McLaren said that when he closes his eyes and thinks of Ichiro it's of "No. 51 out in right field and making plays."

And this move isn't temporary according to McLaren, it's permanent.

According to McLaren, Ichiro was fine with the switch, believing he's equally adept at both positions.

Besides moving Ichiro in the field, McLaren has also pondered moving Ichiro to third in the batting order. It's not something totally unique. Lou Piniella made a similar move in 2001.

Ichiro, who's very set in his routine, told McLaren that he's receptive "to any change that helps the ball club win."

Willie Bloomquist will start in place of Ichiro today, but Jeremy Reed, who was the opening day starting centerfielder in 2005 for the Ms, will move over there, and Wladimir Balentien will also see some time in center.

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

Not too long ago, I decided to chronicle all of Bill Bavasi's moves as the Seattle Mariners GM. It's a long list – and some would same not an impressive one at that – but here it is; all of the major transactions since he became the Mariners’ seventh general manager on Nov. 7, 2003.

=> Read more!

This just came over from the Mariners:

Seattle Mariners Chief Executive Officer Howard Lincoln today announced that Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations & General Manager Bill Bavasi had been relieved of his duties with the club.

Vice President/Associate General Manager Lee Pelekoudas will take over as the interim General Manager, effective immediately. He is the eighth General Manager in club history.

"Change is in order," Lincoln said. "We have determined new leadership is needed in the GM position. With a new leader will come a new plan and a new approach. A search will begin immediately for a permanent GM, and Lee will be a candidate for the position."

Bavasi was in his fifth season as the head of the Mariners baseball operations after being named to that position on Nov. 7, 2003, when he took over for Pat Gillick. Prior to joining the Mariners, Bill was the Director of Player Development of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And from 1994-1999 he was the general manager of the California/Anaheim Angels.

"Speaking on behalf of our ownership and the entire Mariners organization, we have enormous respect for Bill, and appreciate his service to the franchise."

Pelekoudas, now in his 29th season with the Mariners, was named Vice President, Associate General Manager on November 1, 2005. He started with the Mariners as Director of Team Travel in 1980, and moved into the area of baseball administration in October of 1987. Lee was promoted to Sr. Director of Baseball Administration in April of 1995 and to VP of Baseball Administration in September, 1997.

Lincoln said, "Chuck and I have confidence in Lee Pelekoudas, who has been with the Mariners for many years and who is a respected baseball executive."

Pelekoudas has been responsible for the coordination of player contract negotiations, tracking Major League player movement, managing the club's player transactions within the MLB administrative rules and the Major League payroll. He has also been extensively involved in discussions and decisions on the make-up of the Major League roster.

Lee was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 23rd round of the of the 1969 June draft, but elected to attend Arizona State University, where he was a three-year letterwinning pitcher (1970-72). He graduated from ASU in 1973 with a degree in journalism. He worked in private business for four years prior to joining the PCL Portland Beavers in 1978.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Tonight – RHP Silva (3-7, 5.79) vs. LHP A. Miller (4-5, 5.22), 7:10 p.m.

Tuesday – RHP Hernandez (5-5, 2.81) vs. LHP Olsen (4-3, 3.27), 7:10 p.m.

Wednesday – RHP Dickey (1-2, 4.71) vs. RHP Tucker (1-1, 5.40), 7:10 p.m.

SCOUTING REPORT
The surprising Florida Marlins come to town for the first time sporting a 37-32 record and holding second place in the National League East.

=> Read more!

For every bad baseball team, there’s a breaking point beyond which even the most supportive ownership group cannot preach patience and understanding.

For the Seattle Mariners, that point is likely today – the last day of a three-game series with the Washington Nationals.

Put simply, if the worst team in the National League completes a three-game series sweep in Safeco Field this afternoon, people are going to lose their jobs before the home stand ends Wednesday.

Players like Richie Sexson, manager John McLaren, even general manager Bill Bavasi aren’t just vulnerable, they’re likely to be held accountable for an underachieving team.

The Mariners haven’t merely lost the first two games of this series, they’ve been outplayed by a Nationals team made up of rejects and retreads.

It’s mid-June, and Seattle doesn’t have a .300 hitter or a six-game winner. The Mariners can’t find a consistent No. 3 hitter or a shortstop who can bunt, and in ‘ace’ Erik Bedard the Mariners have a man who won’t throw more than 100 pitches in a game.

The highest-rated position prospect on their roster – outfielder Wladimir Balentien – is batting .196.

As important to ownership, there’s an entire summer remaining to this season, and the thought of empty stands and unsold concessions is no small incentive to show fans that patience is not infinite.

If the Mariners lose today, expect change. How deep that goes depends largely on who makes the decision.

Less than 24 hours after making a 1 2/3-inning start, R.A. Dickey remained in the Seattle Mariners rotation – and was a volunteer in their bullpen.

“I’m available tonight,” Dickey said before Saturday’s game. “You pitch as poorly as I did (Friday), you want to get back out there as soon as possible.”

The sentiment is understandable, but is it practical. Apparently, it is.

“I’ve brought starting pitchers back the day after a short start – against the same team – and inevitably they’ve pitched better that second day,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said. “With a knuckle ball pitcher, it’s probably not a stretch to pitch them between starts.

“That pitch isn’t as hard on the arm as some others.”

Stottlemyre said Dickey could pitch in consecutive days, and on the second and third day between starts.

“The fourth day, you’d have to say ‘No,’ so you wouldn’t disrupt his scheduled start,” he said.

Dickey said one of the values of his knuckle ball is that it allows him the versatility to pitch often in most any role.

“I could give us three, four innings and come back the next night,” Dickey said.

Manager John McLaren laughed when asked if Dickey was available Saturday.

“If you ask him, he’s always available,” McLaren said. “He’s always ready to pitch.”

J.J. Putz can remember the last time he felt comepletely healthy this season – opening day.

What he’s not as certain of is when he’ll be that way again, and in the interim, the Seattle Mariners will scramble their late-inning relief group yet again.

“I’ve never been on the disabled list in my life, now I’ve been on it twice this year,” said Putz, who was place on the 15-day DL with inflammation in his right elbow. “First it was my rib cage, then I tore the fingernail off a finger, now this.”

When Putz went down in April, the Mariners tried closing by committee, giving everyone from Mark Lowe to Eric O’Flaherty to Sean Green save opportunities.

And now?

Now, manager John McLaren will use either Brandon Morrow or veteran Miguel Batista, who’s been moved from the starting rotation for at least two starts. Batista has closed games before.

So has Morrow – once.

“I got thrown into it (Wednesday) when J.J. had to leave the game, so I didn’t a half inning to sit and think about it,” Morrow said. “That was probably best for the first time. The ninth inning definitely has a different feel to it.”

Putz, who learned from teammate Eddie Guardado, was asked if he had any advice for Morrow – a right-hander in his second big-league season who has hit 100 mph on the radar gun this year.

“Yes, don’t change a thing,” Putz said.

Morrow admits it’s all a bit new to him.

“If you’d asked me on draft day what my future was, I’d have said in the minor leagues as a starting pitcher, working my way up through the system,” Morrow said. “Now I’m a closer? No, that never would have crossed my mind.”

So what’s his plan for save situations?

“I don’t want to run in from the bullpen, get out of breath,” he said. “I want to keep my heart rate down, just throw strikes.”

As for Putz, his immediate future is even less certain. He won’t throw until Monday, then be re-evaluated by team doctors who’ll come up with a plan.

“I rushed back the first time, because I couldn’t stand not pitching,” Putz said. “When you’re on the 15-day DL, you don’t want to take more than 15 days. This time, I’ll try to do what they say.”

McLaren has one goal with Putz – to get him back at his best.

“Last year, J.J. spoiled everyone by being automatic,” McLaren said. “No one has been more frustrated this season than J.J. He’s been hurt. The priority now is to get him back 100 per cent healthy, whatever it takes.”

This announcement just came through from the Mariners:

The Seattle Mariners have placed closer J.J. Putz on the 15-day disabled list with a hyperextended pitching elbow.

Putz already has missed 18 games with a rib cage injury and also has had knee and finger pain. The right-hander was removed from Wednesday’s win at Toronto in the ninth inning after shaking his arm following a pitch.

Putz had an MRI exam Thursday. The 31-year-old has a 5.21 ERA with 17 walks and three blown saves in 20 games this season.

Right-handed pitcher Roy Corcoran was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma to take Putz's spot on the roster. Corcoran will be in uniform and available for tonight’s game vs. the Washington Nationals.

Corcoran, 28, was 0-0 with a 1.69 ERA in eight relief appearances (10 2/3 innings) with Seattle earlier this season.

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Tonight – RHP Dickey (1-1, 2.67) vs. vs. RHP Hill (0-3, 4.35), 7:10 p.m.
Saturday – LHP Bedard (4-4, 4.26) vs. TBA, 7:10 p.m.
Sunday – LHP Washburn (2-7, 6.09) vs. RHP Redding (6-3, 4.29), 1:10 p.m.

SCOUTING REPORT
The Mariners completed a 3-3 roadtrip on Wednesday, had a day off on Thursday and now get to face the struggling Washington Nationals? Things must be looking up.

The Nationals, who have made only one trip to Seattle back in 2005, kick off a string of 15 consecutive games against National League teams. At 26-42 and in last place in the NL East, the Nats have two more wins than Mariners but have not been playing well lately. Washington has lost 10 of its last 12.

=> Read more!

Mariners closer J.J. Putz, who had to be removed from Wednesday's game with an apparent elbow injury, had an MRI today. Here's the release from the Mariners about Putz's injury:

J.J. Putz underwent an MRI exam today, and was examined by the Mariners Medical Director, Dr. Edward Khalfayan. Dr. Khalfayan issued the following diagnoses:

Putz hyper extended his right elbow in Wednesday's game, resulting in triceps tendon inflammation and an irritated ulnar nerve. The exam showed NO damage to the ulnar collateral ligament or the flexor bundle in his right elbow.

Putz will NOT throw over the weekend, and will be re-evaluated on Monday.

Well, I’m sitting here at “restaurant” in the Toronto airport where people enraptured by the soccer game that’s on right now, I think it’s Croatia and Germany. I’ll be the first to admit it – I don’t get soccer. I don’t really like soccer. I don’t like the drama queens that flop and then are carried off on a stretcher only to return three minutes later. And I don’t really like “socceristas” who preach to me about the beauty and intelligence of the game and that I must be some oafish, dunce not to like it. To which I reply, “you sir are a communist, soccer is the downfall of American Society as we know it.” That usually doesn’t elicit another response.

Miguel Cairo gave me a long lecture about what a great game soccer is and how fit you have to be to play it (which is true). The double play twins are always watching it on television. Dare I say that Jose Lopez needs to get some footwork and conditioning drills from some soccer players to improve his limited range at second – oops, I just did.

As boring as the Mariners games can be, and believe me they have, here's a daily website we look at during games, usually when Miguel Batista is throwing to first every three seconds.

I still find baseball far more exciting than soccer. Some might disagree, and they would of course be wrong.

Here’s some links quickly …

Here's my game story which leads with the JJ injury.

My game notebook leads with Felix's strong performance. He picked up his 500th career strikeout. Also in there it talks about Ichiro's key steals which were the 300 and 301st as a Mariner

Let’s get to some other business ...

A PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I will not be covering any of the Nationals series. Larry LaRue will be handling a good portion of it. My flight out of Toronto will take be back to “God’s Country” or Montana, so I can get my car from Havre. My Ford f-150 pick-up is not too friendly with gas and going to be benched like Sexson was for a while.

I don’t how much blogging Larry will do, but he’ll do some. And who knows I may even chime in some.

I’ll try and grade the road trip on my flight from Toronto to the SLC.

Snydro, Jennifer Garner was my favorite long before Sophia. I have the DVD collections of Alias Season 1 and Season 2 to prove it. She has very hot girl-next-door qualities, but she went and met this uber-douche and so a change had to be made. Basically when I'm looking at metaphors for all that is wrong with the world, I can point to Ben Affleck's status, the popularity of people who were on "The Real World" and Gil Meche making $55 million for the Royals or the fact that Barry Bonds having more home runs than Ken Griffey Jr.

Take a look at this though and tell me if I’m wrong.

From fittmmp:

Ryan - The reason behind this switch has to be the injury to JJ Putz. My guess is Batista moves to the bullpen to set up for Brandon Morrow. Key question now is what do your sources tell you about recalling Jeff Clement to take Putz' spot on the roster if he indeed goes on the DL. And, do you know if Clement caught Dickey regularly in Tacoma? If so he could catch the knuckleballer tomorrow night since Johjima doesn't handle that pitch well at all. That would leave Johjima without much to do this weekend since Burke is Bedard's caddy!

Good point fittmmp ... But Dickey could have just as easily stayed in the bullpen and been valuable. As often as I’ve told people or written that Dickey should be given a chance to start, I can see his inherent value in the bullpen. You can use him every day, and almost every situation. It’s just nice having a guy down there like that to call on.

But your comment, leads me to this question:
How comfortable would you be having Batista come in a close game right now as the set-up guy

Even with the decent showing the other day, Batista's command seems to be an issue. That being said, Lowe hasn't been much better either.

If Putz is DL'd, I would think they have to bring up another reliever just to be on the safe side. Maybe Potatoes O’Flaherty or Jon Huber. Like it or not, Mariners fans, but Joh isn't going anywhere. Maybe people can stop by Nintento Wii's in protest.

Clement will get his chance soon. I’d say within the next two weeks. Since we’re on the subject, let’s hit it….

JEFF CLEMENT WATCH 2008 – the sequel.

I think in honor of Dave8557, we need some theme music for the Clement watch.

I open to suggestions ... but remember Jeff's a fairly wholesome midwest guy, I was thinking a little

Here’s the story from “The Voice” Mike Curto, who’s with the team.

The Mariners have announced another change to this weekend's rotation. R.A. Dickey will get the start on Friday instead of Miguel Batista.

So the match-ups for the weekend series with the Nationals will now be...
FRI - 7:10 p.m. - RH R.A Dickey (1-1, 2.67 ERA) vs. RH Shawn Hill (0-3, 4.35)
SAT - 7:10 p.m. - LH Erik Bedard (4-4, 4.26) vs. TBA
SUN - 1:10 p.m. - LH Jarrod Washburn (2-7, 6.09) vs. RH Tim Redding (6-3, 4.29)

I'm not sure what to make of this. Batista has certainly pitched poorly enough to be bumped from the rotation. And Dickey has certainly pitched well enough to earn a shot at starting. He got his first win in relief the other day throwing two shutout innings. He's allowed just one run in his last 18 innings pitched. On thing to remember is that Batista also threw an inning of relief on Monday, which changed his throw schedule for the week and could have played a factor.

Mariners closer J.J. Putz has soreness in his right elbow. That's pretty much all we know about why Putz had to come out of the ninth inning.

UPDATE: I'm going regret this... but here's my appearance with Ian Furness on KJR where I somehow manage to compare Freddie Prinze Jr. I'm an idiot.

Manager John McLaren noticed Putz shaking his arm on a few different occasions and finally went out there with a trainer and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre to check on him.

"He was honest with us and said it was barking," McLaren said.

McLaren said this is the first problem Putz has had with the elbow.

"You should ask him, but I haven't had any indications from Mel or Norm, and J.J. hasn't said anything about it," McLaren said.

Putz declined to talk with the media. He did relay through the Mariners media relations that he doesn't what the problem is and he hasn't had this before.

Putz said he'd be able to discuss more on Friday. Putz missed about a month earlier this season with soreness in his ribs.

It's kids day here at the Rogers Centre. That means roughly 25,000 screaming kids. It's like a constant din of screams, most likely sugar induced. Cotton Candy sales will be high today.

I'm not saying I dislike kids. But I'm not saying I like them either. It's so annoying I've got the iPod rolling right now ... a little Eminem for Snydro -- It's "Shake That ***" which Ichiro would play in the clubhouse last season after every game.

Since I forgot to do it yesterday, we'll do it right away. Put your hands together for everybody's favorite running segment ....

JEFF CLEMENT WATCH 2008\
Two days worth of goodness, especially with my boy and voice of the Rainiers Mike Curto covering the games for the paper.

On Monday, Clement hit his fourth homer in four games, giving him 14 on the season and eight since he was demoted by the Mariners

On Tuesday, Clement's homer streak came to an end, but he still went 1-for-3 with a double.

So as of this morning, Clement is hitting .364 with 17 doubles, 14 homers, 43 RBI, 33 walks, an OBP of .484, a slugging of .747 and an OPS of 1.231, in comparison if you add the OPS of Richie Sexson .610 and Jose Vidro .663, you get 1.273.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

3:09 -- Ok there appears to be something wrong with JJ's arm. He was shaking it a couple different times after throwing pitches. They went out and checked on him and signaled for Morrow.

The youngster has come in dealing - He struck out Wells, with a 97 mile per hour fastball and also struck out Matt Stairs. And Raul makes a nice catch against the wall off an Overbay shot to end the game.

2:55 -- Since this an away game, JJ doesn't get his entrance music, so we'll play it for him.

2:53 -- Raul delivers a big hit, driving in Ichiro to give the M's a 2-1 lead. BJ Ryan looks to have been ejected after Raul got the hit.

2:48 -- Ichiro has taken matters into his own hands stealing second and third and taking advantage BJ Ryan's very slow and lumbering delivery.

2:40 -- Willie with the golden sombrero for four strikeouts in one game.

2:07 -- OK the Mariners just tied the game. But I don't know how good they feel about it. Let's see, they get back-to-back singles from Reed and Sexson to open the inning. So they decide to have Johjima try for his second sac bunt of the series and the second of his Mariners career. But that doesn't work out so well. He pops the bunt up to the catcher, who then fires to short to get Jeremy Reed, who had gotten too far off base. And even if Reed had been closer, he could have got Richie, who was caught even farther off first.

So with Richie at first Betancourt steps up and delivers a triple to the gap. With Betancourt on third with two outs, the Blue Jays obviously walk Ichiro to get to Bloomquist, who doesn't strike out, but just pops up to second to end the inning.

1:57 -- Felix just worked out of a big jam. Inglett, who I've never heard of before now, doubled again this time to left giving the Jays runners on second and third with one out, but Felix struck out Wells and got Matt Stairs to ground out to end the inning.

1:48 -- I'm going to be on KJR with Ian Furness at about 1:20 Seattle time. So if you want, you can tune in or click on here and listen to me sound like an idiot, instead of just reading my thoughtless ramblings.

1:42 -- Shaun Marcum now has nine strikeouts through six innings. Three of those strikeouts belong to Willie, who's batting in the No. 2 spot. Because of that, Willie can go from the hat trick (three Ks in one game) to the golden sombrero (four Ks) to possibly the platinum sombrero (the elusive 5 Ks in one game).

Jeremy Reed made a costly mistake trying to pick up Joe Inglett's double to right too quickly and having it slide under his glove. That allowed Inglett to advance to third and later score on grounder to second.

1:16 -- A real barnburner, not that many of you are watching. Anyway, Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum has struck out seven hitters in four innings and finally allowing his first hit a to Jose Vidro in the fourth.

Felix has been almost as good, allowing just one hit and a walk, while striking out two.

Here's today's lineups ...
MARINERS
Ichiro CF
Bloomquist 3B
Vidro DH
Ibanez LF
Lopez 2B
Reed RF
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
------------
Hernandez P

Blue Jays
Eckstein SS
Inglett 2B
Wells CF
Stairs DH
Overbay 1B
Mench LF
Wilkerson RF
Scutaro 3B
Thigpen C
----------
Marcum P

Adrian Beltre won't be in the starting line-up today. Manager John McLaren has given him a day off and some much needed rest. Beltre, who rarely sits, has been "beat up a little bit" McLaren said.

McLaren had originally planned to DH Ichiro today, but with Beltre out, McLaren decided against it, saying there was too much going on to do that.

Willie Bloomquist will start in place of Beltre. There isn't any one thing bothering Beltre per se, but he's been playing all season with a torn ligament in his thumb on his glove hand that he actually suffered last season, but never got it surgically repaired. The pain is a nuisance for him and it can worsen through hard play in the field.

With a win today, the Mariners could finish the road trip .500, it's far from anything to do cartwheels over, but at this point minor victories are something.

"I think it would be big," McLaren said. "It would be a nice step forward."

Let's do some linkaging (Is that a word? It is now).

* I knew Dustin McGowan was pretty talented, but he was pretty filthy yesterday. He hit 99 on the stadium gun in the ninth inning.

* Apparently one of the factors to Brandon Morrow's most recent shoulder issue could be how he's sleeping at night.

* News Tribune columnist John McGrath weighs in on the firing of Jeff Pentland in always unique way.

* UPDATES IN PROGRESS..

Here's today's lineups ...
MARINERS
Ichiro CF
Bloomquist 3B
Vidro DH
Ibanez LF
Lopez 2B
Reed RF
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
------------
Hernandez P

Blue Jays
Eckstein SS
Inglett 2B
Wells CF
Stairs DH
Overbay 1B
Mench LF
Wilkerson RF
Scutaro 3B
Thigpen C
----------
Marcum P

Little behind, but not bad. Had to switch my wireless connection. Much like my cell phone, my Verizon air card is roaming. So the TNT will be getting hit for about eight hours worth of roaming yesterday.

Burke is in the lineup today. Joh will start tomorrow because he hits Shaun Marcum well.

GAME UPDATES START HERE:
9:00 -- I kind of got the feeling that nobody was watching. Morrow is in the game right now. So we'll see how the shoulder is. He talked about it earlier being sore because of possibly sleeping on it wrong. He said he sleeps on his stomach with arms under his pillow and that sometimes can lead to it. But he also admitted hes really being throwing with high leverage in the last few weeks and that also had to play a role.

8:33 --- The Blue Jays go up 3-1 on an RBI single by Scott Rolen to right field. It was yet another groundball just out of the reach of a diving Jose Lopez. I know we talk about Raul's lack of range in left, but Lopez doesn't have much more at second. How many times this year has he had groundballs get by "just out of his reach" that a more athletic second baseman at leasts knocks down and prevents a run from scoring.

I know Lopey has been good with the bat, but he's got to find a way to knock that down.

And I have no idea why Silva was standing out in front of home plate and cut the ball off. He should have been behind home backing up the throw. Who does he think he is? Derek Jeter.

I honestly think he was a little POed at Lopez for not getting to that ball.

8:17 -- Oh my God, Brad Wilkerson just hit a home run. I looked at Baker and a few others in the area, and said two pitches before: "Wilkerson is going to hit a home run." Unreal. I'm sure Bavasi is loving that in the gm's box.

8:01 -- Jeremy Reed makes up for his miscue last night with a solo home run to right to tie the game.

7:59 -- Toronto's Matt Stairs has the old Stone Cold Steve Austin theme as his walk-up music, while the pride of Centralia Lyle Overbay has Pearl Jam's Jeremy or Evenflow as his walk-up music. That's far more interesting than this game right now.

7:32 -- 1-0 Toronto leads after Vernon Wells just takes Silva deep to center.

7:10-- Ichiro gets a lead-off single and never makes it second base. The hitters don't move him and he doesn't move himself. Mariners baseball: Mojo Risin'

Here's the lineups...

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

Blue Jays
Rios RF
Stairs DH
Rolen 3B
Wells CF
Overbay 1B
Barajas C
Wilkerson RF
Inglett 2B
Eckstein SS
----------
McGowan _ -

Just got this from the Mariners, here's the rotation for the upcoming Nationals series.

Friday - Miguel Batista
Saturday - Erik Bedard
Sunday - Jarrod Washburn

Not much going on here at the stadium. I watched some early BP from my hotel room

It was the usual suspects Reed, Balentien, Cairo, Burke, Bloomquist and they were joined by Raul Ibanez.

Ibanez was very clear yesterday that the players should hold themselves accountable for Pentland's firing.

I know we've made fun of Miguel Cairo on this blog, and I have questioned his even being on the roster, but I have to admit that he's growing on me a little. The guy has pretty good sense of what his strengths and limitations are. He basically won the game for the Mariners last night with his ability to handle the bat and make plays in the field.

Does that mean I think they need to have both Cairo and Bloomquist on the roster at the same time?

NO

Also my notebook mentions the fact that Brandon Morrow has a sore shoulder and was unavailable the past few days, including last night.

This recent health issue with Morrow, which is also similar to the problem he had during the spring, makes me wonder how Morrow will hold up physically as a starter. I know that as a reliever getting up and down and pitching back-to-back days and going all out for one inning at a time takes its toll.

But 100 pitches in one outing takes its toll in a different way. Can Morrow eventually be that guy that gives you 200 innings in a season as a starter. Obviously if he joins the rotation next year, that probably wouldn't happen in his first season.

You also have to wonder if Morrow's lighter physical frame - 185 pounds at most times - could cause the problems that the Mariners feared would befall Tim Lincecum when they passed him over for Morrow. Morrow has admitted that with his diabetes and also his high metabolism its hard for him put and keep weight on. And the kid eats a lot.

I don't know these are things you wonder at night with a glass of crown royal in your hand.

From DP95:

Thank you, Delta Airlines, for sparing us from having to read more about this. ;D

Welcome to the blog DP95, your smart aleck ways will fit in nicely, plus I like that you offer some differing opinions from a few others, nothing better than some debate.

Speaking of debate, Jeremy Reed was pulled from the game last night because of his ghastly base running mistake - you can read about it in more detail in the notebook linked above.

But it leads me to this question ..

After watching Betancourt clearly play a careless, unfocused and terrible game at short and the plate last night, shouldn't McLaren bench him similarly to prove the same point?

I'm a little behind, but not too bad. Obviously the Pentland news changed my day a little. But also the fact that after I arrived from my 6 a.m. flight from Boston, my bags did not. Besides my extra few visits through the Canadian customs (definitely some racial profiling), I spent a little while with lost luggage lady, who was very nice and somewhat helpful.

I just got off the phone with Delta and the bags have been located, so I won't be covering a game in cargo shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops for tomorrow. Today? Well it's casual work Monday.

Also I want to wish my sister a happy birthday, I think she's 30, but today's her birthday and it was my mom's on June 7th. With mine being on June 3rd, it's like a second Christmas. Anyway besides the handful of you crazed Mariner fans that read, my family also provides the other source of my readership.

Anyway let's get to it.....

GAME UPDATES START HERE:

In honor of Cairo...

10:29 -- The Mariners find a way out of it to hang on.

10:25 -- JJ is still struggling to spot the fastball. He just doesn't pitch regularly enough to be sharp with the pitch. Facing one guy yesterday, doesn't cut it.

10:22 -- PUT ME IN COACH I'M READY TO PLAY, TODAAAAYYY!!!

10:14 -- It's time to cue some different music - that circus music. Cause that's what it's turning into. Balentien drops a sinking liner from Vernon Wells, who then moves up to second on JJ Putz's wild pitch. So the tying run is on second nobody out. And a single from Rod Barajas to bring up everybody's favorite former Mariner Brad Wilkerson.

JJ threw three very good fastballs to Wilkerson but home plate umpire Bob Davidson called them all balls, I guess he's consistent. JJ let out a word you shouldn't say after the last pitch missed.

10:11 -- I want everybody up on their feet singing: "PUT ME IN COACH, I'M READY TO PLAY, TODAAAAAYYY!!!!!!" That's right Miguel Cairo comes up with the squeeze bunt to score Willie Bloomquist from third. Mariners' baseball the Mojo's Risin'

Also the Mariners owe a debt of thanks to Jason Windsor, who couldn't throw a strike to three batters, all three of whom aren't afraid to take a hack at a pitch. He walks the bases loaded and leaves the mess for somebody else.

And since I didn't get to it earlier: it's not time for ....

JEFF CLEMENT WATCH 2008

Yes, he went yard again.

From Grant Clark's story in today's News Tribune...

It’s gotten to the point where every time Jeff Clement steps to the plate, you think he’s going to knock one out of Cheney Stadium.

Since the Seattle Mariners sent the catcher back to the Tacoma Rainiers, he’s turned opposing pitchers in the Pacific Coast League into piñatas.

Clement powered the Rainiers to their third consecutive victory by smacking his 13th home run, helping Tacoma to a 10-7 win over Fresno on Sunday before a crowd of 6,078.

Clement went 2-for-4 with a double and a homer, to raise his average to a PCL best .370 and his PCL best slugging of .747. Coupled with his .492 On-base percentage thanks to 33 walks, he has an OPS of 1.238. You could combine three Mariners and not equal that.

He now has 16 doubles, 13 homers and 41 RBI.

9:53 -- I have a ton of reasons why Dickey should be in the bullpen, but something like tonight where he can come and in throw without any worry as to his rest is so big for the bullpen. Can you explain to me why it took so long to get him up here?

9:39 -- Well, that was the Mariners best chance to get a run, but Yuni pulls out one of those half-hearted swings at a pitch out of the zone that results in a grounder to short -- Who's seen that happen this season? And then Vidro swings at the first pitch and grounds out to short.

Oh and this interesting note from Mariners baseball information guru Jeff Evans, Kenji's sac bunt to move Cairo into scoring position was the first of his career with the Mariners. I will now jump out of the press box.

9:20 -- The official scorer calls that a hit for Vernon Wells, even though Yuni almost fell on his butt trying to field and then fired wildly to Richie to allow a gimpy Vernon Wells to make it to first. 2-2 game.

Personally, I was of the mindset that they should walk Wells with an open base at first and then take their chances with Barajas, who has no business batting that high in the order. But what do I know, I'm wearing cargo shorts.

9:05 -- The Mariners have 10 hits and two runs to show for it.

Mark Lowe with a solid outing, two batters faced - a walk and a single and nobody out.

8:28 --- Snydro you're preaching to the choir about this blog software being screwy. I have to wait like five minutes in between posts. And with my loss of short term memory from year's of bartending that's not good.

And Raul just drops a ball in left field, a routine ball. I can hear the sound of Mariners fans typing up yet another complaint about why Raul is out there in left.

I wish I had an answer for you.

8:15 --- The lead is trimmed to 2-1 as Lyle Overbay doubles to right and Kevin Mench scores all the way from first on the play with a little help from Richie's relay throw that bounced a half-dozen times from just past first base.

8:02 -- With Joh's single in the third, the Mariners now have seven hits in three innings. Look I know firing Pentland was supposed to help, but it couldn't have happened this fast.

7:21 --- Some guy named Griffey hit his 600th home run, I think he used to play for the Mariners. You can read it here.

7:11 -- Jose Vidro with a two-run homer? Maybe my jet lag is getting to me.

LINEUPS
Mariners
Ichiro CF -- Still hasn't gotten over .300 yet; is it time to be concerned?
Vidro DH -- Probably the best spot in the lineup for him, most people feel he should be put in other places.
Ibanez LF -- Still efficient. Still hitting.
Beltre 3B -- Admitted today he was embarrassed by his avg with runners in scoring position.
Lopez 2B -- You gotta hit him here. He's the only one consistently hitting the ball hard.
Reed RF -- He has had some good at-bats but not much to show for it.
Sexson 1B -- Game four of the open stance.
Johjima C -- He just turned 32 the other day. Wait I'm a year older than him? I don't have any gray hairs, but then again I don't catch Washburn once a week.
Betancourt SS -- Can you imagine Elia trying to explain the strikezone to him? I'd pay to see it.
---------
Washburn P

Blue Jays
Alexi Rios RF -- He's turned into a pretty good player.
Matt Stairs DH -- He needs to grow the mullet out more.
Scott Rolen 3b -- Caution, he's breakable.
Vernon Wells CF -- Wells makes a lot of money for a guy who hasn't done much.
Rod Barajas C -- They have this guy hitting fifth?
Kevin Mench LF -- What? Where's Brad Wilkerson?
Lyle Overbay 1B -- The pride of Centralia, Washington
Marco Scutaro 2B -- Polo?
David Eckstein SS -- Can't help but like him. He's gritty and I'm taller than him too.
--------------
Jesse Litsch P -- Another one of the talented young pitchers the Jays have on staff.

Perhaps Raul Ibanez said it best, when he admitted that they knew something like a firing was coming. When you're playing this badly, somebody loses their job eventually. This time it was Jeff Pentland. So the shock to most of the players was pretty minimal.

"This is not Jeff Pentland's fault," Ibanez said. "It's our fault, it's the players. It's a tough thing when you know if you would have done more you could have helped save his job."

It's true Pentland was the same guy that helped coach the Mariners to the third highest batting average in the American League last season. This season the team has floundered with one of the worst batting averages in the league.

"Every hitter has to hold themselves accountable and I know I hold myself accountable about him losing his job," Ibanez said.

Manager Bill Bavasi met with the media and said that the decision to make the change came about "recently" but that having Elia already around as a special assistant didn't make the process any easier or quicker.

"We had other options in mind as well," Bavasi said.

Bavasi's reasoning for making the change was pretty simple.

"It's all about results," he said. "We felt this group has underperformed for a long period of time."

So what can the change result in?

"We hope to hit," he said. "That is the bottom line. Getting beyond the bottom line, a lot of good work done by Jeff can be done by Lee using different voice and a different approach."

Elia's voice is definitely a little different than the quiet and reserved Pentland.

"I think my personality is a little different," Elia said.

While many people are quick to remember his famous postgame rant as manager of the Chicago Cubs, Elia isn't that guy, but he's still a tough baseball man.

"There's two scenarios, if you love your children there's are going to be times say things to them that might seem a little aggressive because you love them," Elia said. "And the other one, there is nobody in the world I love more than my wife and four or five days out of every month I really can't stand her. I think those are the kind of things they have to understand about me."

Elia put it simply when addressing the problems of the Mariners hitters.

"Sometimes that plate looks real big to these guys," Elia said. "We need to mentally take the bigness of the plate and lock into one area. If you lock into one area, you let those other ones go."

It's something that Pentland preached to little avail. Elia's basic message is the same, but his approach to achieving that message and his methods to get there could be different.

"Sometimes you make an omelet in a baggy and put in boiling water and it comes out just as juicy as if it was fried," he said.

Hitting coach Jeff Pentland got his pink slip today because of the failure of the Mariners offense. Do you think this firing will help turn the Mariners around or are more moves needed?

Should the Mariners continue firing coaches? Should the firings go higher up the ladder? What of the players? Who goes ... who stays? Tell us what you think should happen next.

I just got this from the Seattle Mariners media e-mail. GM Bill Bavasi has relieved hitting coach Jeff Pentland of his duties. Special assistant Lee Elia, who was with the team in Boston, will take over.

Hmm. Well, Pentland was a nice guy, and it's not like he drastically changed his philosophies that had the Mariners with one of the top team batting averages in baseball last season. As for this season, the team wasn't hitting, but maybe it goes back to that old saying of making chicken salad out of something else.

Nobody took it more painfully watching Betancourt, Lopez and Johjima hack at every pitch served up more than Pentland. He can teach till he's blue in the face, but if the players don't put in the extra work, commit to the changes and execute them - it means little.

Here's the press release.

MARINERS RELIEVE JEFF PENTLAND OF HITTING COACH DUTIES
Special Assistant Lee Elia will take over as Mariners Hitting Coach.

TORONTO -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that hitting coach Jeff Pentland has been relieved of his duties with the club. Special Assistant Lee Elia will immediately take over as the Mariners hitting coach on the current road trip in Toronto.

"Jeff has an excellent and proven track record, and those of us who have worked with him are well aware he knows hitting." said Bavasi. "Unfortunately, we have consistently, and for an extended period, underperformed at the plate and we are hopeful that a different voice might help the situation."

Pentland, 61, was in his third full season as the Mariners hitting coach. This season, Seattle has struggled to live up to its offensive expectations, ranking 13th in the American League in batting (.248) and slugging percentage (.377), and last in on-base percentage (.305). During Pentland’s first two seasons as the Mariners hitting coach, Seattle raised its team batting average at least 15 points from the previous season (.256 - .272 in 2006 & .272 - .287 in 2007).

Elia, 70, takes over after spending spring training and the first part of the season as a special assistant to manager John McLaren. Elia is in his 47th season in professional baseball and his 23rd as a coach or manager in the Major Leagues. This is his eighth season with the Mariners, serving as the hitting coach from 1993-97 and as the Major League field & coaching consultant in 2001-02.

One thing I’ve learned in my first year of covering the Mariners beat is that contrary to some belief there is no great personal rivalry amongst Seattle-area baseball beat writers. Sure we compete with each for stories, inside tips and blog readers, but we’re all dealing with the same difficulties as far as player access, travel, deadlines and shrinking budgets.

And the one thing that brings us all together is the team we cover. Part of my favorite aspects of my day is the pre-game media meal. Sure there’s the obvious reason of all you can eat food, which is why you don’t see many skinny sportswriters. But I like the meals because often at home or on the road, the large group of us sit around the table and have plenty of discussions while eating.

Sometimes they’re about sports and relevant like the other day’s discussion about the passing of Jim McKay, sometimes they’re strange and inane like me trying to explain to MLB.com’s Jim Street who Lauren Conrad of the “The Hills” is.

But because of the variety of ages, backgrounds and interests and because of the amount of time we spend most of our days doing, the conversation usually surround the team were covering – those hapless Seattle Mariners.

We talk about the same things you fans do. Why Richie isn’t hitting? Why Batista can’t throw strikes? Why Bedard seems to only respond with “I don’t know?” Why the Mariners are so bad? Is John McLaren going to get fired? Should Bill Bavasi take more of the blame? You know that kind of stuff. Maybe we don’t discuss it in the same way or with the same passion as a fan, but we talk about it.

And this rambling anecdote leads me to this: one of our more popular conversations recently has been whether or not the Mariners should trade No. 1 starter Erik Bedard.

Three months ago such talk would have resulted in a drug test for whoever uttered such nonsense.

Yesterday at Fenway before Bedard made his 11th start of the season the subject came up again. And there was nary a single person at our table in the dining room that didn’t think that trading Bedard in the near future was a good idea. I know it’s something Baker’s mentioned in his blog before, and I have hinted at a time or two. Yesterday’s performance at Fenway, didn’t do much to dissuade such thoughts. I know it was hot, but Burke caught the entire game and didn't ask to come out. It's a 1-1 game, and he has 99 pitches and doesn't put up much of a fight when they want to pull him. Felix or Silva would have fought to stay in.

Today, our columnist John McGrath offers up his reasoning for trading Bedard. And he even has a destination for him – Philadelphia.

=> Read more!

It's 98 degrees here, with like 90 percent humidity. Weather.com says it feels like its 102 degrees here. There are certain benefits - women in sundresses, and certain downfalls - fat dudes pitting out and women in sundresses.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
4:20 -- Mariners still can't seem to scratch across the tying run. And now Papelbon is in to short the door.

What are the odds of a Mariner comeback?

3:33 -- Well, Sean Green comes in for Bedard who makes it five innings, and promptly gives up a solo homer to JD Drew.

3:23 -- In two at-bats against Bedard, Pedroia has forced Bedard to throw 19 pitches, it takes a week's worth of at bats for Yuni to see 19 pitches.

2:48 -- Bedard gets out of the inning only allowing the one run, but he did throw 40 pitches in the inning, which means he won't be going much past the sixth. And I can hear Dave8557 throwing things right now in a fit of rage.

2:37 -- Bedard should have gotten a called third strike on Pedroia. That pitch was right there. And instead he walks him to bring up the hottest hitter on the Red Sox. But then again, it's CB Bucknor behind the plate, so you never really know what's going on with him. In 2003, he was voted as the worst umpire in baseball by a SI survey of players. There's even an on-line petition you can sign to have him fired.

And Bedard hits drew on the front forearm to tie the game. And that brings

And strike 3 to Manny, great curve on a 3-2 count by Bedard.

2:12 -- Not much going on here, so I guess now's a perfect time for ..............

JEFF CLEMENT WATCH 2008!!!

From Grant Clark's story in today's Trib ...

Clement’s first-inning home run in the opener, a three-run blast which sailed over the right-field wall and landed across the street a mere 20 yards shy of the Foss High tennis courts, helped the Rainiers to a five-run inning.

2:04 -- Mariners scratch across a run on a fielder's choice to take a 1-0 lead.

Clement is now hitting .366 with 12 homers and 38 RBI.

Bedard has looked pretty sharp thus far. Other than that, not much going on.

Today's lineup
Mariners
Ichiro CF -- He has a chance to put his average over .300 for only the fifth day this season.
Lopez DH -- McLaren thinks he's the Mariners most legitimate all-star candidate. Ichiro will be their only all-star.
Ibanez LF -- Next weeks is father's day, I wonder if Bavasi will give him a first baseman's glove as a gift.
Beltre 3B -- He has 13 homers and only 28 RBI, I wonder if its an indictment of his inability to hit with runners in scoring position, or the Mariners lack of runners on when hits homers. It's like the chicken and the egg.
Reed RF -- Reed was the forgotten man a year ago, now he bats higher in the order than Sexson.
Sexson 1B -- They keep rolling him out there hoping he does something to increase his trade value. He
Betancourt SS -- Four walks in a season, you've got to be kidding me.
Burke C -- Not a day where I would enjoy wearing catchers' gear.
Bloomquist 2B -- Um, excuse me, Willie the field is that way.
----------
Bedard P -- Bedard is French-Canadian word for Jamie Burke's personal pitcher.

Red Sox
Lugo SS -- he won't be winning any gold gloves this season.
Pedroia 2B -- Scrappy little hustler, R.A. Dickey likened him to little gnat at the plate.
Drew RF -- Could you imagine how good Drew would be if he actually liked baseball.
Ramirez DH -- Manny's head has to be hot right now with all those dreads.
Lowell 3B -- remember when people in Florida thought his career was over.
Youkilis 1B -- look out he's throwing his helmet, unlike Sexson it isn't at a pitcher.
Varitek C -- I'm not saying anything bad about Tek mainly because I'm afraid of him.
Crisp CF -- Apparently sometimes he gets the Jose Guillen crazy eyes.
Moss LF -- I wonder if his brother Randy will catch 20 touchdowns with the Patriots this season
----
Masterson P --- Not related to Bat Masterson, at least not that I know of.

M's second-round pick Dennis Raben

First of all, I can't believe how early some of you guys are up. Now be honest, how many are you up to watch the Mariners game?

A few quick things ... DP95, I welcome the comments as always. A quick reference point, many things I write on here are going have plenty of sarcasm in them. I'm kind of a smart ass, not as big as Snydro, but comparable.

One thing I've come to realize - if you take yourself too seriously, then people take you less seriously. So we try and have some fun on the blog from time to time because right now as an M's fan, I would think you guys are looking for more fun where you can find it.

So don't always take certain things like Bedard not wanting to pitch in Canada literally.

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

* Here's the notebook that leads with knuckleball pitcher vs. knuckleball pitcher.

I know many of you want to know when and if Dickey might be replacing Batista or Washburn in the rotation. I wouldn't say too soon.

"Lot of things to be said," McLaren said. "I mean, Miggy won 16 games for us last year and we want him to get back on track. Washburn has battled his way through it. It’s so easy to take somebody out (of the rotation) and stuff, but we’re just sticking with everybody right now and see what happens."

That doesn't sound like a man wanting to make a change.

Also last night, Mariners 2nd round draft pick Dennis Raben walked six times in one game for the Miami Hurricanes. He went 0-for-0 with six walks, two runs scored and stole a base. It tied an NCAA individual record.

Conversely, Yuni Betancourt has drawn four walks the entire season.

Speaking of Mr. Bedard, or Capt. Personality or Pepe Le Silence as I've heard him called by fans. Here's an interesting story from the upcoming ESPN the magazine. They had several of Bedard's former teammates and current teammates ask questions and get responses since he doesn't like answering questions from the media.

I think I'll have Ryan Rowland-Smith ask my postgame questions today.

Here's a column from Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun about Bedard getting booed last week at Safeco.

Today's lineup
Mariners
Ichiro CF
Lopez DH
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Reed RF
Sexson 1B
Betancourt SS
Burke C
Bloomquist 2B
----------
Bedard P

Red Sox
Lugo SS
Pedroia 2B
Drew RF
Ramirez DH
Lowell 3B
Youkilis 1B
Varitek C
Crisp CF
Moss LF

Not much to report before the game. Pretty quiet, talked to Mac and Vidro about hitting a knuckleballer and there is no consensus of opinion on what is the best approach. Vidro says you just can't try and do too much with it - just hit it where it's pitched.

Mac said some guys pick out the heaviest bat in the rack and use that.

R.A. Dickey said he would be open to throwing batting practice before the game for hitter to get a look, and he's even offered to throw individually to some players, but this being the Mariners, those players of course refused.

Mac said they had Billy Hatcher pitch knuckles during BP to prepare for Wakefield and all it did was frustrate the hitters before the game even started.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
6:22 -- Not a good outing for Mark Lowe at all, and its frustrating since he seemed to have just turned the corner in his return.

6:03 -- The blog software is officially more inept than the Mariners, who are en route to being the firs team in baseball with 40 losses.

I actually wrote a couple funny lines earlier, but they have disappeared into the TNT ether never to return, and I simply don't have the desire or the ambition to go back and write them again. Thanks b2evolution, you operate with such monumental mediocrity that I will now refer to use as Mariner software until either the team changes or the software changes.

5:09 -- The Red Sox take the lead as a walk to Brandon Moss came back to bite Batista on a double from Alex Cora that Raul fumbled, kicked and then fumbled again allowing Moss to score from first. A double from Coco Crisp scored Cora.

Here's something to make you feel good -- George Sherrill has 21 saves, the Mariners have 22 wins.

4:38 -- The Mariners tie the game on Raul Ibanez's ground rule double to short right field that scored Betancourt and Ichiro.

I don't think Richie will be getting three hits today.

4:27 -- It appears that Pasco's Jeremy Bonderman will miss the rest of the season with a blood clot in his arm.

4:14 -- WEll, Manny just deposited one in the street. He crushed a two-run shot off of Batista. Really, Ramirez should have never probably gotten up. JD Drew's triple to left-center was probably a ball that Ichiro comes up with, if he lays out, but we all know Ichiro doesn't dive. I will say this Ichiro was shading Drew to pull and that ball was hit extremely hard, but it was a ball that hit his glove, and I'm sure Ichiro will say he should have caught it.

4:07 -- Well, the Mariners get runners first and second with nobody out and Ibanez strikes out looking, Beltre strikes out swinging and Vidro grounds out to short for no runs. Mariners baseball -- the Mojo's Risin'

Let's do some linkage ...
* Here's my game story from today's paper.

* Here's my game notebook which leads with John McLaren's apology for the language he used in Wednesday's blow-up.

* A kid from the Stadium high got drafted. Here's a story on local Puget Sound players that got drafted.

* John Lackey led the Angels to a win over the A's last night.

*It looks like Kelvim Escobar is making progress in his return.

* The Rangers got rid of Sidney Ponson for basically being a jackass.

* Here's columnist Jim Reaves take on the Ponson situation.

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

Red Sox
Coco Crisp CF
Julio Lugo SS
JD Drew RF
Manny Ramirez DH
Sean Casey 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Brandon Moss LF
Kevin Cash C
Alex Cora 2B
--------------
Tim Wakefield P

My fourth win in 28 games. I just don't know where to begin.

I just want to thank all the little people I stepped on to get here.

As John McLaren likes to say, I'm starting to feel good about myself. And like Richie Sexson, I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes with an exorcist, a catholic priest, a shaman, a pyschic off of South Tacoma Way. And I really think that work is going to pay off into some wins for me to cover.

As nice as the Mariners' win was, and I don't want to put dark clouds on their sunshine, the Red Sox didn't have Ellsbury, Ortiz or Manny in the line-up. That's a big difference in comparison to having Sean Casey, Brandon Moss and CoCo Crisp out there.

Here's a few other notes...

Felix has now pitched 15 scoreless innings in is career at Fenway Park. It's the second loss career scoreless streak at Fenway, John Smoltz has the record at 20 and 2/3 inning.

Richie Sexson went 3-for-4 to raise his average .213. It was the first game this season in which Sexson has had three hits.

With Bedard's shutout last week, the Mariners have now shut-out the Red Sox in back-to-back games.

The win snapped Boston's 13-game home winning streak.

The Mariners are now 8-20 on the road this season.

The crowd of 37,757 was Boston's 418th consecutive shutout.

Rd/overall    PLAYER               POS.    B/T    SCHOOL

42/1272        Randy Molina      1B        L/R    Stanford

43/1302        Mike Kindel          CF        L/L    Springboro HS

44/1332        Donnie Job          2B        L/R    Elon

45/1360        Andrew Kittredge RHP  R/R    Ferris HS

46/1387        Alvin Rittman        CF      R/R   Germantown HS

47/1414        Richard O'Donald  RHP R/R  Dickson HS

48/1441       Dale Mauldin        RHP    R/R   Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo

49/1468       Joshua Rodriguez  C      S/R    South Mountain CC

50/1495       Walker Kelly           LHP   L/L    Arlington Heights HS

The skies are cloudy and gray and a light mist has been falling off and on, and I'm thousands of miles away from the Puget Sound.

MLB has announced its jurisprudence for yesterday's tiff between the Red Sox and Rays. Coco Crisp was suspended seven games -- apparently if he would have thrown his helmet it would be only six games - he is of course is appealing and will be in the line-up tonight.

Puyallup native and Bellarmine grad Jon Lester got a five-gamer and is starting it tonight. Sean Casey got three games and won't start serving for till next week.

For the Rays, James Shields got six games, Jonny Gomes got give games, Edwin Jackson got five games, Carl Crawford four games and Aki Iwamura got three games.

None of the suspensions affect the Red Sox lineup tonight - but it is a little different because of injuries to David Ortiz and most recently Jacoby Ellsbury and Manny Ramirez.

Manny is not in the lineup (which RA Dickey said, "doesn't hurt my feelings any to see that) but I think he might be available to pinch hit.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE

All times EST since that's what my watch is set to.

9:35 -- From Snydro:
Is this really Divish? I don't know who else it would be.
Are you really in Beantown? Oh yes, I sipped on the Sam Adams last night to prove it.
Did you eat a bad crab-cake and spend the last five innings on the toilet? Not that I know of. I didn't have crab cakes tonight.

Shave your head? Never.

Give up cheap liquor and porn? Are you kidding, that's what gets me through the night.

The reason we did the chat at noon is because on Tuesday night, I turned the ripe old age of 33 and I needed the sufficient amount of time to recover on Wednesday. Next time we'll be doing the chat around 2 p.m.

9:33 --Felix has now thrown 15 consecutive shutout innings at Fenway Park which is the most in stadium history.

9:09 -- I don't know what's going on here, the Mariners are winning when i'm covering a game, Richie has three hits and two RBI and an 8-0 lead. The end of the world is near...

8:58 -- The Mariners 6-0 lead is the first six-run lead since May 5th.

8:29 -- Colon hasn't won any gold gloves on the mound for a reason. That RBI single for Richie should have been gloved. He's committed two errors and should have caught that last one.

Beltre just about got his head taken off by a Joh line drive in foul territory.

8:06 --- Richie with a hit --- I don't believe what I just saw.

8:00 -- Oh yeah, I did a live chat, last week, (Snydro didn't even write in) but here's the transcript from it. I think I'll do another one on Tuesday and Wednesday if people want.

7:45 -- Snydro checks in.. Until the next major move (firing of Bavasi, release of Sexson, etc.) I have little or no interest in the team.. do love to watch Felix pitch, but just can't stand the sight of the rest of 'em right now..

Why don't you tell us how you really feel?

7:40 --- From BeerbobJ: By using their first pick on a relief pitcher, is this foreshadowing a trade of JJ for prospects? Or is it merely a waste of a pick?

A very good question. It's odd to draft a player where you have an all-star at in the moment, but we all know how fickle the career span of a closer can be -- can you Eric Gagne, Derrick Turnbow, Mark Wohlers, or God forbid, Bobby Ayala (yeah, I said it).

Maybe there is some concern about how long JJ can pitch at such a high level. But I do think they also took Fields because they thought he could help them immediately, and perhaps fill the role that Brandon Morrow is filling now.

7:34 -- Varitek surprises everybody with a bunt hit to get on and put runner on first and second with one out.

7:27 -- Richie strikes out with a foul tip in the glove of Varitek -- shocking.

7:23 -- Felix, um, your shoe is over one side of the mound, your sock is over there and your hat is over there.

7:12 -- the Mariners get a gift from the Sox thanks to Bartolo Colon's awful throwing error on a routine double play. 2-0 Mariners

Here's the lineups ...

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

Red Sox
Coco Crisp CF -- Did you notice his where his braids start, he doesn't have a forehead, he has a five-head.
Dustin Pedroia 2B -- I'm still taller than him, and he's still grittier than most of the Mariners.
J.D. Drew RF -- He's hitting .303 with six homers and 28 RBI, without his production they'd be struggling.
Mike Lowell 3B -- hitting .310 in last eight games.
Kevin Youkilis 1B -- Sore hand has bothered the last few weeks but still
Sean Casey DH -- The Mayor can't hit for power, but still has a good approach.
Jason Varitek C -- I've said enough about him today in the paper.
Brandon Moss LF -- I don't think he's related to Randy Moss.
Julio Lugo SS -- Tied for 2nd in AL with 12 errors.
------------
Bartolo Colon P -- He's eating a hot dog right now as I write this.

Rd/overall    PLAYER       POS.    B/T    SCHOOL

33/1002        Kyle Brown   OF       L/R    UC Santa Barbara

34/1062        Tyler Tostenson LHP L/L Oak Ridge HS

35/1092        Nicholas Czyz    LHP  L/L Kansas

36/1122        Chris Kirkland    RHP  R/R Memphis

37/1152        Brandon Pullen  RHP R/R San Diego State

38/1152        Andres Esquibel  RHP R/R  Kansas

39/1182        Christian Staehely RHP R/R Princeton

40/1212        Troy Channing      C       R/R  Foothill HS

41/1242        Henry Cotto           OF     L/L   Gateway CC

Rd/overall    PLAYER    POS.    B/T    SCHOOL

25/762    Paul Robinson    2B    R/R    Paris JC

26/792    Taylor Stanton    RHP    R/R    Diablo Valley College

27/822    Tommy Johnson    C    R/R    Marshall University

28/852    Scott Savastano    SS    R/R    Franklin Pierce University

29/882    Stephen Penney    RHP    R/R    UC Riverside

30/912    Bradley Reid    RHP    R/R    Bellevue CC

31/942    Randy Castillo RHP    L/R     Aie HS

32/992    Nick Love          RHP    R/R   Bellevue CC

Here's today's line-up ...

Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez RF
Beltre 3B
Vidro DH
Reed RF
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Betancourt SS
------------
Hernandez P

Headed down to the clubhouse in a few minutes....

The Mariners keep loading up on right-handed pitchers. Here's the day two results so far:

RD/Overall    PLAYER                        POS     B/T      SCHOOL  

7/222             Nathaniel Tenbrink        3B       L/R     Kansas State  
8/252             Robert LaFromboise     LHP     L/L     New Mexico            
9/282             William Morrison            RHP    R/R     Western Michigan    
10/312           Nate Newman                RHP    R/R     Pepperdine       
11/342           Matt Jensen                    2B        R/R     Clovis East High    
12/372           Kenn Kasparek             RHP     R/R     Texas        
13/402          Ryan Royster                  OF         L/L     UC-Davis   
14/432          Luke Burnett                   RHP     R/R     Louisiana Tech
15/462         Jacob Shaffer                   OF        L/L     Northern Kentucky
16/492         Bennett Billingsley          2B        L/R     Lenoir CC    
17/522         Michael Dennhardt         RHP    R/R     Don Bosco Prep
18/552        Travis Howell                     C         R/R     Long Beach State    
19/582        Taylor Lewis                      RHP    R/R     Yavapai College
20/612        Frederick Bello                  SS       R/R     Cerro Coso CC 
21/642        Jordan Alvis                       RHP    R/R     Mid. Tennessee St    
22/672         Blake Nation                     RHP    R/R     Georgia Southern   
23/702        Brandon Maurer               RHP    R/R     Orange Lutheran

24/732        Henry Contreras               C         R/R     Cal-State LA
 

Felix will start today, Batista on Saturday and Bedard on Sunday. Washburn has been pushed back to Monday.

Not sure as to why, maybe Bedard doesn't want to pitch in Canada, kind of like Baltimore.

photo from Athens Journal

Yes it is raining here and it appears no sign of stopping for today.

I spent all of Thursday flying across the country. I was planning on writing on the plane and then posting when I landed, but somehow, I got stuck in a middle seat and so that was out of the question.

First of all, one quick complaint -- Why do I miss out on all the good stuff? Larry comes back last week and gets to write about a win, and then gets the day when McLaren goes off and Bavasi force all the players to stand in front of the locker to talk about this season. How do I miss out on all of that?

Then again in the last 27 games I've covered, the Mariners have won exactly two games.

I think it says something about Richie and his commitment to this team though that he was the one player who refused to stand in front of his locker after being ordered to by Bavasi. The guy simply seems to care about nothing but his own self.

I'm still figuring out my addition by subtraction decisions.

Let's get to some business here ...

A big thanks to Darrin for manning the blog yesterday and posting the draft updates. I don't know much about the Mariners first pick -- Josh Fields, but I did watch quite a few Canes' games on TV this year and second round pick Dennis Rabin wasn't too bad, but I reserve all judgment on college hitters because they use the metal bats. Some of the Mariners picks will be playing today.

Fields and the Georgia Bulldogs at 9 a.m. on ESPN 2
Raben and the Hurricanes will play at 4 p.m. on ESPN.

Larry LaRue was up at Safeco covering the draft. Here's his story from there.

Columnist John McGrath offers his own opinions about the Mariners draft in his column.

And since it was draft week and the Mariners are playing the Red Sox and desperate need of a leader, I wrote about the one that got away -- Jason Varitek.

It wasn't a dull night here in Boston last night. Obviously, the NBA Finals were going on so that made it interesting night, but it wasn't dull last night at Fenway Park. I'm sure you've seen the highlights of the brawl on the field involving Coco Crisp, pitcher James Shields and DH Jonny Gomes and others.

According to Crisp, the Rays hit like girls.

Also Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis got into it in the dugout over something, some people think it was Manny's non-chalant effort to get out to the melee and protect teammates.

Perhaps the biggest news should be that outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury injured his wrist on a diving catch. Ellsbury is day-to-day, but he joins David Ortiz as possible players who may miss the series.

Here's the story from the Rays' perspective in which Shields backs his motives.

I don't disagree with him in the least, but Gomes running in and taking cheap shots is over the top. Gomes should be suspended for at least five games, if not more.

The Mariners took right-handed pitcher Brett Lorin of Long Beach State in the fifth round (No. 162 overall) and then ended their first day by taking prep outfielder Jarrett Burgess of Florida Christian (Miami) with their sixth round (No. 192) selection.

"We were extremely pleased with how the draft turned out today. We set out to get a power pitcher and power left handed bat, which is what we accomplished when we drafted Josh Fields and Dennis Rabin," Mariners vice president of scouting Bob Fontaine said about the clubs top two picks. "Overall, we're extremely pleased with the players we drafted and look forward to tomorrow."

Lorin went 5-3 with a 2.61 ERA in 15 games, eight starts for Long Beach State. Burgess was the only prep player the Mariners took on Thursday.

This is courtesy of the Mariners:

Josh Fields: I am just super excited for the opportunity to play and I am just so pumped to see what the Lord has done for me the past year. It's an honor to be chosen by the Seattle Mariners as their first pick.

I had heard that several teams were interested, with Seattle being one of them, it was a complete surprise, I hadn't had any calls. I was just sitting there waiting for my name to be called and I just looked around at my family and I jumped up out of my seat so it was a complete surprise while I was watching it, it was awesome.

Question: Timeline for reaching the Majors?

Fields: I have no idea what the team is expecting of me and how long that would take but personally I would like to be in the Majors by next year but I don't know if that is going to be possible. It'd be tough for me to say now, but I just have to wait and see how things play out. Next year is when I would like to be up there if I'm ready.

Question: What do you need to do to be ready?

Fields: Just need to refine myself more as a pitcher, control of my fastball. I can throw it on both sides of the plate now but (I have to work) on being able to keep it down more and being able to refine myself more to throw to both sides of the plate better. A little better command of my off speed would really help me make it there quickly.

=> Read more!

Here's a transcript, courtesy of the Mariners, with VP of scouting Bob Fontaine and John McMichen, Major League/East Coast coordinator of scouting, on picking Joshua Fields with the team's first pick (No. 20 overall).

Fontaine: This draft came out how we mentioned to you earlier about position players being heavy in the draft. The thing that happens when that takes place is that by the time you pick 20th, a good many of them are already gone which then leaves a lot of pitchers available which is the way we went.

I think the first 10 out of 12 taken were position players if I'm not mistaken, but we had targeted to be in a position to get some power arms and most of the power arms at that part of the draft are obviously relievers, and when you can get a reliever with a power arm that's on a relatively short course to the Major Leagues it makes it very, very attractive.

... Our staff has seen him numerous times and this kid has a power arm and a power curveball and he is a good competitor. This is a great starting point for us in this draft.

=> Read more!

The Mariners drafted two college pitchers with their third and fourth round selections.

In the third round, Seattle took Aaron Pribanic, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-hander from Nebraska with the 98th overall pick.

Here's the MLB.com scouting report:

Fastball: Pribanic threw his fastball up to 94 mph.

Fastball movement: It's a relatively straight fastball.

Slider: It was average, on occasion, and he threw it in the 80-81 mph range.

Curve: It's a below-average offering.

Changeup: He showed an average changeup in this start.

Control: He's got pretty good command, especially of his fastball.

Poise: He had outstanding poise and competed very well.

Physical Description: Pribanic is a big and strong right-hander who uses a big Nolan Ryan-like leg kick.

Medical Update: Healthy.

Strengths: Arm strength that allows for a fastball up to 94 mph; he shows the ability to throw three average pitches.

Weaknesses: His fastball is straight; he doesn't have a long track record of success and is used only as Nebraska's Sunday pitcher.

Summary: A junior college transfer, Pribanic has opened some eyes this spring as Nebraska's Sunday starter. With a big leg kick, he's run his fastball up to 94 mph and shown the ability to throw an average changeup and slider. A strong competitor, he doesn't have much of a track record to go from, but if he pitches this well all season, that won't matter.

Right-handed pitcher Steven Hensley of Elon University was the M's fourth-round pick (No. 132 overall). Hensley is listed at 6-foot-3, 195 pounds.

Hensley (pictured below) was picked as the Southern Conference's pitcher of the year. The native of Asheville, N.C., was 9-1 with a 3.52 ERA.

With their second pick, and No. 66 overall, the Mariners drafted outfielder Dennis Raben from Miami.

Raben – a left-handed hitter! – is listed at 6-3, 220 pounds. Here's a scouting report on him from MLB.com:

Hitting Ability: After a steller Cape Cod campaign, Raben hasn't been able to duplicate those efforts with Miami. He's got a long swing and is often too passive at the plate.

Power: He's got above-average raw power, but it's average at best, in games. Because of his passivity, he hits in negative counts too much, making it difficult to get pitches to drive.

Running Speed: He has well below-average speed.

Base running: He is a station-to-station base clogger.

Arm Strength: He has a solid average arm that should play fine in right field.

Fielding: He'd make an average right fielder and gets good jumps and reads on balls.

Range: It's good enough. Worst-case, he'd be fine as a left fielder or at first base.

Physical Description: Raben has a big, thick frame, though he's fairly athletic.

Medical Update: A back injury forced him out of the first 11 games, but he appears healthy now.

Strengths: Above-average raw power.

Weaknesses: He hasn't looked like the player in the Cape and his overall hitting ability makes some wonder if he'll make enough contact to tap into that raw power consistently.

Summary: After an All-Star campaign in the Cape, scouts were eager to see what Raben would do for an encore, especially since the outfield group this spring is relatively weak. Unfortunately, he's been disappointing since coming off a back issue. He's got a long swing and takes too many pitches, often hitting in negative counts. His raw power from the left side will still get him drafted fairly early, but maybe not quite as soon as it once seemed.

And here's Raben taking BP during the Cape Cod league.

Sorry this is late, but here's John McLaren's meltdown after Wednesday's 5-4 loss to the Angels.

Yes, Mac's mad, frustrated and just about fed up with what's happened so far this season. But at least he didn't throw a phone like Hal McRae.

And it's probably not fare to compare McLaren to his old boss, Lou Piniella, either.

The first round of baseball's annual draft is finished. The next part of the draft involves compensation for free-agent signings. The Mariners do not have one of these 16 picks. Their next pick is in the second round, which will be the 66th overall selection.

Here's a list of the compensation picks:

=> Read more!

With the 20th pick of the first round, the Mariners drafted RHP Joshua Fields of Georgia.

Fields was the Southeastern Conference pitcher of the year in 2008 after recording 16 saves for the Bulldogs. He was 2-2 with a 2.27 ERA as a senior and is the career saves leader in the SEC with 39, the seventh-most in NCAA history.

"Josh has proved to be one of the top college pitchers in this year's draft," Mariners vice president of scouting Bob Fontaine said in a statement released by the team.

"We are very happy that he was available when we made our selection. With his potential, we think he can only get better in the future and we are extremely pleased to have the rights to him."

In his career at Georgia, Fields is 9-11 with 39 saves and 3.55 ERA in 98 games, one start. Fields was rated by Baseball America as one of the top pitchers heading into the 2008 Draft, including the No. 18 overall prospect. He was also rated by Baseball America as the closest college pitcher to the majors.

Fields was originally a second-round selection of the Atlanta Braves in the 2007 draft, but decided to return to school instead of signing with the Braves.

Here's Fontaine talking to the media about drafting Fields.

Here's a scouting report on Fields from MLB.com

Fastball: Fields threw his fastball in the 92-95 mph range, sitting comfortably at 94.

Fastball movement: His fastball is fairly straight, though he does throw it from a good downward angle.

Curve: Fields has a plus, plus curve, a true hammer that he throws in the 78-80 mph range. It's tight and falls right off the table.

Control: His command was fair, but certainly better than what he showed last year. He threw his curve for strikes.

Poise: Fields has a closer's mentality, works fast and goes right after hitters.

Physical Description: He has a lean, wiry and thin frame with whipping arm action -- kind of like a more physical Tim Lincecum.

Medical Update: Healthy.

Strengths: A closer's mentality, a resilient arm that allows him to throw on back-to-back days and a killer curve.

Weaknesses: His fastball is a little too straight; he needs to continue to show that last year's implosion is far behind him.

Summary: A second-round Draft pick last year by the Braves after a subpar junior season, he and his advisor, Scott Boras, could not come to terms with Atlanta. So the closer returned to Georgia for a senior season to try and make his junior campaign a distant memory. He was off to a good start and could be the kind of college closer teams look for these days.

Here's a clip of him getting a save earlier this year against Mississippi State.

No.1 Rays: Tim Beckham, SS, Griffin HS

No. 2 Pirates: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vanderbilt

No. 3 Royals: Eric Hosmer, 1B, American Heritage HS

No. 4 Orioles: Brian Matusz, LHP, University of San Diego

No. 5 Giants: Gerald Posey, C, Florida State

No. 6 Marlins: Kyle Skipworth, C, Patriot HS

No. 7 Reds: Yonder Alonso, 1B, Miami

No. 8 White Sox: James Beckham, SS, Georgia

No. 9 Nationals: Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri

No. 10 Astros: Jason Castro, C, Stanford

No. 11 Rangers: Justin Smoak, 1B, South Carolina

No. 12 A's: Jemile Weeks, 2B, Miami

No. 13 Cardinals: Brett Wallace, 3B, Arizona State

No. 14 Twins: Aaron Hicks, OF-RHP, Wilson HS

No. 15 Dodgers: Ethan Martin, 3B-RHP, Stephens County HS

No. 16 Brewers: Brett Lawrie, C, Brookswood HS (Canada)

No. 17 Blue Jays: David Cooper, 1B, Cal

No. 18 Mets: Isaac Davis, 1B, Arizona State

No. 19 Cubs: Andrew Cashner, RHP, Texas Christian University

No. 20 Mariners: Joshua Fields, RHP, Georgia

No. 21 Tigers: Ryan Perry, RHP, Arizona

No. 22 Mets: David Havens, SS, South Carolina

No. 23 Padres: Allan Dykstra, 1B, Wake Forest

No. 24 Phillies: Anthony Hewitt, SS, Salisbury School

No. 25 Rockies: Christian Friedrich, LHP, Eastern Kentucky University

No. 26 Diamondbacks: Daniel Schlereth, RHP, Arizona

No. 27 Twins: Carlos Gutierrez, RHP, Miami

No. 28 Yankees: Gerrit Cole, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS

No. 29 Indians: Lonnie Chisenhall, SS, Pitt CC

No. 30 Red Sox: Casey Kelly, SS, Sarasota HS

Thanks to the Associated Press, here's a list of No. 1 picks dating back to 1965, the year of the first draft:

2008 — Timothy Beckham, ss (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
2007 — David Price, lhp (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
2006 — Luke Hochevar, rhp (Kansas City Royals)
2005 — Justin Upton, ss (Arizona Diamondbacks)
2004 — Matt Bush, ss (San Diego Padres)

=> Read more!

Here's the Associated Press story on the Rays' top pick:

The Tampa Bay Rays selected Tim Beckham with the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft, choosing the talented high school shortstop from Griffin, Ga., over Florida State catcher Buster Posey.

Beckham was recognized as one of the best pure athletes in the draft and labeled a legitimate five-tool player. He established himself as the top prep prospect in the nation with solid performances at last summer’s high school showcase events and hit .500 with five homers, 31 RBIs and 16 stolen bases this season.

“I found out this morning. ... The scouting director gave me a call and the general manager gave me a call. It was crazy. I was about to do a backflip in my room,” Beckham said.

“It means everything in the world. I’ve worked this hard the last three or four years, me and my brothers and my dad. This means all the hard work paid off. I hope to become an All-Star and after that I want to become a Hall of Famer.”

This is the second straight year the Rays have had the No. 1 pick. David Price, a hard-throwing left-hander from Vanderbilt, was the choice in 2007 and is off to a great start with Class-A Vero Beach.

Beckham is the third high school shortstop taken No. 1 overall in the last five years, joining Justin Upton (Arizona, 2005) and Matt Bush (San Diego, 2004).

There is always pressure to get the No. 1 pick right, but the Rays imposed some extra heat on themselves this year because they’re hoping it will be years before they’ll be in a position to select first again.

Tampa Bay whittled its list of candidates for the top pick to five, then trimmed it to two — Beckham and Posey, a converted shortstop who developed into one of college baseball’s top offensive and defensive catchers over the past year.

The Rays called Posey a couple of hours before the draft to inform him that they were going to select Beckham. The Florida State star wound going to the San Francisco Giants with the fifth pick.

Baseball's annual draft is just about to begin. The Mariners have the 20th pick in the first round; we'll post here with the team's draft picks throughout the day.

Here's a story on Auburn High's Kyle Buchanan, who said he's OK with going to WSU if he's not drafted.

Mariners writer Ryan Divish talked to Mariners VP of scouting Bob Fontaine the other day about what the Mariners might do.

And, here's a list of the Mariners first-round draft picks throughout the years.

=> Read more!

John McLaren looks and sounds like what he is – the manager of a team that has become a colossal disappointment and doesn’t appear on the verge of turning its season around.

“Ownership isn’t happy, the fans aren’t happy and nobody in this clubhouse should be happy,” McLaren said. “People have had it. They want results. Some of the guys might be complacent, and they shouldn’t be.

“There’s always the concept of addition by subtraction. That’s a possibility here.”

Take control of the team – at least online. If this team starts making major overhauls on the field, where would you start?

Forget for the moment the general manager and manager, focus only on the 25-man roster. Who goes, who changes roles, who replaces who?

And try to enjoy Carlos Silva’s 13th start.

Just a heads up. Ryan's hosting a live chat about the Mariners at thenewstribune.com

Alright I'm way behind here. I had to transcribe a bunch of notes from the meeting with Bob Fontaine. I haven't forgot about game thoughts, give me a few minutes and I'll catch up.

OK, here's what I have....

"Monsieur de Silence" (there was another french word I could have used there) otherwise known as Erik Bedard has given up three runs in the first three innings. Adrian Beltre's first inning error on lead-off hitter Reggie Willits led to one run and Bedard gave up a two-run single to Maicer Izturis... did you know Izturis is Spanish for "I hit non-talking french guys."

The Mariners have done nothing against Joe Saunders. The Mojo's Risin.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:37 -- R.A. Dickey leaves to a standing ovation from the Safeco Field. He earned it, I think he might have earned a little more than that tonight. Ask yourself this would you rather start him, or Batista or Washburn right now?

9:19 -- I know you guys are sick of hearing about the blog issues. But what it is, is when I post something I have to wait for a long period of time - up to four minutes - to post something in the same post again. It's very frustrating.

Anyway since I neglected it yesterday it's time for.....

JEFF CLEMENT WATCH
First here's Grant Clark's story from yesterday's game.

In it you'll find that Jeff hit another home run and also now leads the PCL in slugging percentage.

Jeff is hitting .369 with 15 doubles, 11 homers, 34 RBI, 28 walks and slgguing .738 with an OBP of 1.226.

Here's his the Rainiers stats.

9:05 --- Again, I'm having some issues with the blog software not saving things. And it's like having conversation with Bedard - frustrating.

Here's a recap -- R.A.Dickey has come in and pitched solid --- which he always does.

The Angels booted the ball all over the infield allowing the Mariners to score three runs in the fifth all with two outs, so known of the runs are earned.

It's now 5-4, the Mariners trail by a run, but there is hope and as Dickey once told us ..."Hope is the quintessential human emotion."

8:27 --- Jose Lopez with a solo homer to get the Mariners on the board. Besides Ichiro, who will likely get voted in, Lopez is probably the Mariners only other all-star candidate. I told a reader ealrier in an email that if Bedard put together three or four good starts before the game he might have a chance. I now retract that statement.

8:16 -- Remember when I wrote about Jarrod Washburn wanting to "wear the loss" against the Tigers a few weeks back. I'm not thinking Capt. Personality wanted to do the same. Bedard leaves in the middle of the fourth and R.A. Dickey is in the game.

And he gets them out of the inning.

8:05 -- It appears that Jamie Burke's personal pitcher is pitching around No. 9 hitter Jeff Mathis, who's now walked twice. To be fair Mathis did hit a homer off of Jarrod Washburn yesterday.

Let's get this out of the way first....

Here's my story about yesterday's loss to the Angels...

And here's my notebook about Richie returning to first base.

Speaking of the big first baseman, he's back in the line-up again today, this time batting sixth. One thing that manager John McLaren mentioned last night is that Richie is batting with a more open stance. I wanted to ask Richmond Lockwood Sexson about it, but he was nowhere to be found in the clubhouse.

Here's the lineup quickly
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Vidro DH
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Sexson 1B
Balentien RF
Burke C
Betancourt SS
-------
Jamie Burke's personal pitcher

I talked with Balentien today. He said he's also been doing private work with Pentland to kind of adjust some things that were necessary.

"Everybody was throwing hard inside and soft away," Balentien said.

He thinks he's taking steps to adjust to that, but more than anything is pitch selection and not settling.

"In Triple A, guys make more mistake pitches, up here you might only see one mistake an at-bat if you are lucky," he said.

We also met with Bob Fontaine, the Mariners' vice president of scouting. He talked about the draft on Thursday.

The Mariners pick 20th and he feels that they will get somebody solid. He admitted that they are leaning toward college players, particularly starting pitching, relievers and a left-handed bats.

He didn't let on too much, but admitted that many teams are being tight-lipped about the early picks and the scenarios are all over the place. Nearly every mock draft has a multitude of possibilities.

Need proof?

Here's the guru Jim Callis of Baseball America's mock draft .... He has the Mariners taking ...

20. MARINERS. Seattle grabbed a high school righthander with Phillippe Aumont at No. 11 last year, and they could go for another in 2008, especially if none of them have gone off the board yet. That would give the Mariners their choice of Melville, Ethan Martin (Georgia) and Jake Odorizzi (Illinois). If they wanted to try to duplicate their success with Brandon Morrow, they could go for Texas Christian closer Andrew Cashner.

Projected Pick: TIM MELVILLE.

Here's Steve Henson of Yahoo's mock draft.... he has the Mariners taking

20. Seattle Mariners – Tim Melville, RHP (Wentzville, Mo., Holt HS): There has been talk that the Cardinals could pluck Melville at the No. 13 spot because he’s a local talent, but that rarely tips the scales on draft day. It’s more likely that he’ll end up with a team willing to take a chance on the top right-handed high school pitcher in the draft.

Here's ESPN's Keith Law's projections .... here's his pick for the Ms

20. Seattle -- Daniel Schlereth, LHP, Arizona

Everyone is assuming the M's will take a college reliever and shoot him to the big leagues to help their beleaguered bullpen. Cashner, Schlereth, Fields and perhaps Aaron Weatherford would fit here, as well as Arizona's Ryan Perry, who was great on the Cape last summer but has had an up-and-down spring. Scouting director Bob Fontaine has long shown a preference for size, which could hurt Schlereth (he's short) but also could help him (he's built like a football player, oddly enough).

MLB.com's Jonanthan Mayo's picks --- he has the Mariners taking ...

20. Seattle Mariners: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane
All along, the feeling was the Mariners would look for the best college pitcher with a live arm. It could be Perry or Cashner if they were here, but they're not in this projection. If they want to go with a safer college arm, Ole Miss right-hander Lance Lynn could be discussed. Or they could go for a closer with someone like Fields. As of this writing, though, we'll say the Tulane ace's slide will stop here.
Last week's projection: Hunt

I love that guy's name.

Remember during spring training when the Mariners made it a point to beat the Angels in an exhibition game. It was almost like a psychological ploy to say "hey, we're here and good enough to beat you this season."

Really though, the Angels weren't worried back then and they aren't worried now.

It's funny the Mariners made such a big deal about beating the Angels, but this series seems pretty mundane at this point. Even if Seattle swept the series, they'd still be 9 1/2 games back.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:
9:18 --- Lopez cuts the lead to 4-2 with a solo home run - his third of the season, knocking Santana out of the game after 109 pitches and a pretty salty performance.

9:04 -- Not much going for the Mariners offensively against Ervin Santana. But he did this to them in Anaheim as well. Then again a lot of pitchers tend to do this to the Mariners.

8:35 -- From emitch423: Please, someone tell me why Bill Bavasi has a job!

It's a question I'm asked daily, and still don't have an answer for, but I'd be glad to hear your reasoning for it.

If somebody did have a logical answer they need to be doing my job then.

8:13 -- Another example of how dangerous maple bats are as Raul gets sawed off and his busted bat flies into the crowd and hits a young kid.

Beltre follows that up with a strike out where he swung at a pitch above his head. I don't know that Yuni would have even swung at that...

8:07 -- Well, the lead goes to 4-1 as Washburn gives up a slew of singles and a fielder's choice for two more runs.

7:55 -- Mariners cut it down on a triple from Ichiro (I think the triple is one of the most exciting plays in baseball) and then Lopez scores him with a double.

7:42 -- There's a 2-0 lead for the Angels, and my ability to jinx the Mariners continues ...
Washburn just left a pitch up and Mathis, the No. 9 hitter and back-up catcher, hit his fourth home run of the season.

7:31 -- It appears that the extended break has not helped Richie, who grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. And more than a few boos greeted the result.

7:25 -- It appears that the extended break has helped Jarrod Washburn, who's looked very sharp so far, needing just 18 pitches to make it through two innings.

Here's the lineups ....

Angels
Maicer Izturiz SS -- Izturiz is spanish for "can't hit."
Howie Kendrick 2B -- back after gimpy hamstring kept him out for a month
Garrett Anderson LF -- is it me or has this guy been playing for the Angels forever
Torii Hunter CF
Juan Rivera DH
Gary Matthews RF
Casey Kotchman 1B -- Hmm a first baseman with an average over .300 and 30 RBI? Do the Mariners have that?
Robb Quinlan 3B -- is the second "b" really necessary?
Jeff Mathis C
------
Ervin Santana P

Mariners
Ichiro CF -- second in the AL with 24 stolen bases.
Lopez 2B
Vidro DH
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B -- nine of his homers are solo home runs, maybe it's because he's batting under .150 with runners in scoring position.
Reed RF
Sexson 1B -- He's back in the lineup tonight, wouldn't it be funny if he hit a two-run homer in his first at-ba
Johjima C -- He has his own celebrity imposter at the game, the guy calls himself Joh-jim-man.
Betancourt SS
----------
Washburn P

Ok, maybe all is right in John McLaren's world then. But yes, the big first baseman with a .200 batting average and nine home runs and 21 RBI will be back in the line-up.

Sexson last played on May 26th against Boston.

Here's the line-up
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Vidro DH
Ibanez LF
Beltre 3B
Reed RF
Sexson 1B
Johjima C
Betancourt SS

You know what's frightening?

Sexson is still second on the team with nine home runs behind Adrian Beltre's 13 homers.

Here's a few of John McLaren's comments.

* Richie's back and we're going to let him play.

* During games, he's been in the cage almost the whole game hitting and working.

* We know when he hits with his capability he can really help us with his power. Three-run homers speak for themselves.

* I really haven't seen him hit. Jeff recommended a couple things to them. I am looking forward to seeing him, because I haven't seen him.

* I was well aware with the match-up with Todd Jones. What I was thinking that I wanted to give him a fresh start. He cleared his mind and worked hard and tonight he's going to get that start. I understand some people lot of talk about why we didn't use him yesterday. I'm kind of glad about that, maybe people are rallying around him just a little bit. He needs that and we need him.

As for my thoughts on yesterday's situation, I look at it like this .... Somebody else should have hit other than Cairo -- either Sexson or Balentien. Both have the ability to tie the game with one swing, Cairo does not. Cairo's optimal result still leaves the Mariners down one run. For Sexson and Balentien, their optimal result ties the game.

I liken it to the reason why I buy Mega Million tickets. The odds of me winning are pretty slim, but on the off chance that I do win, I'll be drinking mojitos on a beach in Fiji with Sophia Bush for the next six months. And it can happen, I once worked with a guy in Havre, MT, who won 47 million dollars in the power ball.

Sure it may seem like a waste of money on some level, and if I totaled up all I spent on lottery tickets, I'd probably be sick to my stomach, but I guarantee you it would be far less than the money I'd win in the lottery. As the saying goes, "you can't win if you don't play."

And that's how I feel with the pinch hit situation. Sure the odds of Sexson and Balentien homering in that situation are slim at best, but the odds are still better than Cairo homering. At least throwing either of those guys out there and letting them get their hacks, a slim possibility remains. With Cairo the possibility is basically non-existent.

It's like the all-knowing Lloyd Christmas said in Dumb and Dumber -- "So you're saying there's a chance."

With Richie or Balentien there's a chance. Not a great one, but a chance. Don't you have to take that chance? What can it hurt. It's a two-dollar lottery ticket that could pay out so much more. And if it doesn't what has changed in the situation, other than your out two bucks, or in this case a loss, which seemed probably anyways.

And on a side note, after typing this rant, I find it depressing that I'm comparing the odds of Sexson hitting a home run in one at-bat as similar to me winning the lottery.

The pitching matchups for the Angels series

Tonight – LHP Jarrod Washburn (2-6, 6.54 ERA) vs. RHP Ervin Santana (7-2, 3.09), 7:10 p.m.

Tuesday – LHP Erik Bedard (4-3, 4.08) vs. LHP Joe Saunders (8-2, 2.76), 7:10 p.m.

Wednesday – LHP Carlos Silva (3-4, 6.00) vs. RHP Jered Weaver (4-6, 4.69), 1:40 p.m.

SCOUTING REPORT
While the Mariners were squandering a game in the ninth inning on Sunday, their opponent for the next three days – the Angels – were pulling one out.

The Angels rallied past the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, with two runs in the bottom of the ninth. That completed a six-game homestand in which all four of the Angels victories were of the walkoff variety.

=> Read more!

I was going to post some Kenny G lyrics in honor of Miguel Batista pitching today. But of course Kenny G doesn't have lyrics so that's out. So I figured I'd go with something a little different in honor of the concert I plan on going to in a few weeks and perhaps in honor of Richie and McLaren ....

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now

Some of you noticed, that I was absent yesterday. I don't what tipped it off more, the lack of game thoughts, or the fact that the Mariners won a game.

Actually, Larry LaRue made his triumphant return to the pressbox yesterday, while I was in Yakima playing fastpitch softball. Here's Larry's game story.... It's good to have Larry back, and as John McLaren would say, "in the mix." Here's Larry's notebook that leads with the return of Mark Lowe's slider.

John McGrath was also up at the game yesterday and wrote this column about King Felix.

GAME THOUGHTS START HERE:

5:20 -- Here's the postgame audio of Mac's press conference.... I was going to type it all out, but I don't have time.

4:15 -- Some good news, the Tigers closer isn't having much better luck than JJ. Todd Jones gave up a single to Vidro and monster homer to Ibanez that hit the hit it here cafe on the fly. He got Beltre, who didn't swing at a strike, and then walked Joh. But Reed struck out and Cairo flied out to end the game.

4:08 -- JJ made it 2/3 of an inning, giving up four runs, four hits, a walk and striketout.

Snydro I hear where you're coming from. The conventional rule on this is to use your closer in the ninth of a tie game and win it in the bottom of the ninth. But Morrow was dominated.

3:53 -- Well, that was pretty unfortunate, I don't think you can get a cheaper hit than the one Polanco just pulled out to put the Tigers up, and now the Mariners are down 4-3. JJ made a good pitch inside on Polanco's hands and yet the ball still managed to find grass.

3:45 -- sorry for the break, trying to get going on my notebook a little bit there. Morrow was once again electric in the eighth. The Mariners had a chacne in the bottom of the eighth, but both Betancourt and Lopez swang at somewhat questionable pitches with a runner on third.

2:40 -- From Snydro22: So now that Larry's out of rehab, how are things going to work as far as coverage, the blog, etc?
e
To be perfectly honest I don't know. I've said all along that this is Larry's beat, and I'm just keeping the seat warm till he gets back and is healthy and ready to go. I have no problem stepping aside at any point. I assume a lot of it will have to do with how Larry is feeling and how much he wants to do. I'm sure we'll have a meeting on it with our sports editor. I have told them that I want to continue working on the blog quite a bit. And offering supplemental coverage, even on the nights when Larry is covering games. So we'll see... But as for the immediate future. I'm covering the next two days, and all the road trip to Boston and Toronto and the road trip to Atlanta, New York and San Diego.

2:20 --- It's the fourth inning, and I guess now as good of time as any to have our daily - JEFF CLEMENT WATCH!!!

First here's Grant Clark's story from the Rainiers win over Salt Lake yesterday.

Clement was 2-for-4 and hit his 10th homer of the year and pushed his RBI count to 32.

Here'e the Rainiers' up to date stats ...

2:05 -- The Mariners tie the game as Ichiro and Lopez execute the hit and run and Ichiro gets to third on Lopey's soft single to left. Vidro scores Ichiro with a sac fly to center. Rauuuuuullll follows that up with a single to right allowing Lopez to go from first to third.

1:54 -- Carlos Guillen got a little preparation H and then doubled to right to put the Tigers back up 2-1.

Oh and if the fact that the Mariners didn't draft Tim Lincecum bothers you.... um you might not want to read this column then.

1:40 -- Beltre with a sole home run. I know I made fun of his .189 May average, but he also had seven homers in May and has 13 for the season.

1:20 -- Only a 12-minute top of the first for Batista. Thanks to Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald for timing it. Kirby said it was one of Miguel's shortest top of the firsts in recent weeks.

Tigers get a run still on a single by Magglio Ordonez RBI single, scoring Curtis Granderson, who drew a lead-off walk.

Jeremy Reed also had a nice diving catch in the inning.

Here's today's lineups ...
Detroit
Curtis Granderson CF
Placido Polanco 2B --- If you look closely, he has a really odd shaped head.
Carlos Guillen LF -- Never seen Carlos play outfield before. Maybe it's due to the hemmoroidal issue he's been struggling with this week.
Magglio Ordonez RF -- For the love God, just cut your hair.
Miguel Cabrera 1B --- Gray appears to be slimming on him.
Jeff Larish DH --- Never heard of the guy before Friday.
Edgar Renteria SS ---
Ivan Rodgriguez C --- One of the first major leaguers I ever met.
Brandon Inge 3B --- this guy should be their every day third baseman.
---------
Jeremy Bonderman P --- The pride of Pasco has a 2-1 record with a 2.78 ERA

Seattle
Ichiro CF -- fans still can't get the beer from Papua New Guinea
Lopez 2B -- Back in the No. 2 spot where he hits best.
Vidro DH -- every time he steps to the plate, he's one step closer to picking up that monster option for next year.
Ibanez LF --
Beltre 3B -- We got ballots to vote for AL player of the month, he was one of the candidates with a .189 batting average for the month. Needless to say I didn't vote for him.
Johjima C
Reed RF -- hit a homer yesterday, plays fearless defense every day.
Cairo 1B
Betancourt SS

Um, that would be the 6-foot-7 first baseman. Richie Sexson is on the bench for the fourth straight game.

You know what that means don't you? Cue the music....

But I will say this I saw Richie in the clubhouse today. He got dressed and headed out, armed with a pen and the crossword puzzle.

A few guys approached him, and he seemed willing to talk, but when the subject of him sitting came up, he just muttered that he didn't want to get into it.

Knowing that it was something we were going to ask about right away in the pregame meeting, manager John McLaren made a preemptive move and brought it up before the first question could be asked.

"One thing I really want to emphasize here, this situation at first base is more about Cairo than it is Sexson. Jeff (Pentland) has been doing a couple things with Richie behind the scenes. In the meantime, we've put Cairo out there and to be honest, he's energized us. He's given us great defense. He's given us a different look, he's given us some speed, he's a contact hitter. And we've played pretty good. So in the situation we're in, I'm not going to change it."

Again, it's about Miguel, it's not about Richie, it's about Miguel. I think we're trying to make something of this story that it's not. Like I've said, Richie is our first baseman. But we've got a hot hand going and I'm not going to change it. The way were playing right now, I just want to keep it going.

I thought about it last night. And I kept thinking about it, somebody told me the the other day there was a rumor we're releasing the guy.

It's funny how things start. So I just wanted to bring that forefront in our little get together from the beginning."

On how Richie is taking the situation ...
"He's got pride, and he wants to do well and he knows he's struggled. It's not an easy situation for him and it's not an easy situation for myself. but first and foremost and what will always be No. 1 is the team.

As for any changes in the lineup for the foreseeable future?
As long as we're running this little streak, I'm going to go with the hot-hand. We know he's going to be back out there again, it's just a matter of when.