Say this about the 2008 Seattle Mariners – they’re not your every day bad team.

On Sunday, catcher Jamie Burke was the losing pitcher.

In Oakland, in the process of blowing a 3-0 lead – on a Richie Sexson home run, no less – the Mariners ran themselves out of a promising inning by forgetting to step on a base.

Fifth inning, one out, Adrian Beltre at second base, Sexson at first. Kenji Johjima hits a fly to center field – and Beltre zips all the way around third base. When he realized the ball had been caught, Beltre raced safely back to second, without stepping on third.
The Athletics noticed, threw to third base and got an inning-ending out.

This series in Oakland is a good test of whether the Mariners are playing well – they’re catching an Athletics team decimated by injury.

Take Frank Thomas, Mike Sweeney, Bobby Crosby and Eric Chavez out of any lineup, the hole left behind is immense, and all four of them are on the disabled list. If ever Seattle should be favored in this ballpark, it’s now.

The Mariners have also scratched together a rotation:
Tuesday: Carlos Silva.
Wedneseday: Miguel Batista
Thursday: R.A. Dickey
Friday: Felix Hernandez
Saturday: Eric Bedard or Ryan Rowland-Smith
Sunday: Jarrod Washburn

A quick programming note: Lash is covering this road trip. He's already in Oakland with the team. Obviously, he'll be posting from there. Also, I'm going to try and keep the links up daily, while working on some stuff here.

From yesterday's 2-1, 15-inning loss...
* Here's my game story leading with Jamie Burke taking the loss.

* Here's my notebook where manager Jim Riggleman stuck up for Erik Bedard basically saying the perception isn't the reality.

* John McGrath was up at the game with me yesterday, here's his column on Burke pitching, with a pretty good last line.

* Here's the game story from the Detroit Free Press from former Mariners' writer John Paul Morosi.

* Here's the game story from the Detroit News.

* Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald has a funny little column about taking R.A. Dickey's life advice into his golf game.

* The Rainiers' bullpen fell apart in a 4-3 loss to Portland yesterday. The day before, I watched the Rainiers were on FSN and I watched long enough to see Wlad rip a big two-run double in a big win.

* In this story from the Everett Herald you'll see that recently signed second-round draft pick Dennis Raben is tearing it up. He's now 8-for-10 in three games.

* Several West Tennessee players made it to the Southern League AA all-star game.

Elsewhere in baseball....

* Congrats to George Sherrill for making his first all-star team

* Here's a story on Kim Ng from Yahoo sports' Tim Brown.

* Jose Guillen got a little upset with one of the Royals coaches.

* Jamie Moyer is serving as a mentor to some of the younger pitchers on the Phillies staff.

* Some of you may remember Todd Williams, a former reliever with the Rainiers and briefly the Ms and most recently the Orioles. Well, he's still hoping for a chance again to pitch in the big leagues..

* Here's a story on clubhouse chemistry with the A's. Hey I didn't write it, I just find them.

* Let's get the C.C. Sabathia fall-out.

Indians owner Paul Dolan just released this letter to Cleveland fans concerning the deal.

Here's the story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Columnist Michael Hunt says it was the right move at the right timestrong>.

Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro describes the reasoning behind it.

Columnist Terry Pluto believes that the trade was necessary so the Indians could acquire the power that they are lacking in their lineup in Matt LaPorta.

* It appears the Cubs now have their sights set on Oakland's Rich Harden.

* Tim Lincecum will probably get one more start before the all-star break which might prevent him from pitching in the all-star game.

* Braves outfielder Jeff Francouer felt "betrayed" by the Braves for being sent down to the minors.

* Troy Tulowitzki had to go on the DL because of a temper tantrum.

* Jose Reyes and Keith Hernandez got into a shoving match on the team plane a few days back.

A-ROD TIME!!!!

Well, it's official C-Rod filed for divorce from A-Rod.

Here's the story from the Daily News.

Here's the story from the Post.

Apparently, A-Rod has been brainwashed by MaDonna into becoming a practicioner of Kaballah.