And He's Off...
Ichiro leads off with a triple, then freezes and doesn't score on Willie Bloomquist's infield single. These Mariners invent ways not to score. Raul Ibanez ruined the shutout, hitting an RBI double.
Seattle is rolling. ...

Now Pitching For Seattle ...
The Mariners likely will call up Ryan Rowland-Smith in the next few days and give him at least one start in the spot currently filled by R.A. Dickey. They're also close to sending Brandon Morrow to Tacoma, giving him three starts there to stretch him out to about 75 pitches, then bring him back. If that happens, Morrow will take the spot now occupied by Miguel Batista, who will then join Dickey in the bullpen.
And Erik Bedard? It's beginning to look as if the the left-hander has pitched his last game of the season. ...

Knuckle ball 101 ...
Throw a knuckler into the wind and there's no telling exactly what it might do. Wrong.
R.A. Dickey says he can throw his eight warmup pitches on the mound before the start on an inning and get a pretty good feel for what the breeze will do to his pitches. From there, it's a matter of subtle adjustments.
Dickey would much rather pitch in a breeze than, say, in a dome as he did last week in Toronto. Indoors, the knuckler doesn't move as much.
Now you know. ...

Keep Those Zeroes Coming ...
When a starting pitcher holds the opposition scoreless for a few innings, it's amazing the impact that can have on his offense.
Rather than playing catch up, a team can grab a lead and add on as the game goes along. That was always the theory the Mariners had for '08.
The problem was, their rotation kept falling behind early and often.
To the bottom of the 4th:
Seattle 6, Texas 0 ...

Where's Yuni?
SS Yuniesky Betancourt isn't playing tonight but was in the original lineup.
What happened? He was scratched late because of a tender elbow, and may miss tonight's game, too. ...

Talk, talk, talk ...
Seattle didn't do much at the trading deadline, but 20 of the 30 major league teams stood pat.
If you have big pieces to be moved - a Jason Bay, a Rich Harden, even a Ken Griffey Jr. - a bad team can restock its system with young players.
If you have smaller pieces, the offers rarely make any sense unless you simply want them gone.
GM Lee Pelekoudas had few players any contending team found worth even a second-tier prospect. So he walked away from deals that promised more mediocrity. ...

Mr. Lopez Does It Again ...
With his eighth-inning single, Jose Lopez pushed that consecutive game hitting streak to 18 - and that's one week short of Ichio's club-record 25-game streak.
Now if the bullpen can hang on.
Seattle 8, Texas 2. To the ninth ...

... with the Mariners?

Well nothing. They are minus one reliever and a mid-grade prospect richer.

But with the playoff races in the American League East and the National League West? Plenty.

That's because Manny Ramirez has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a three-team trade, while former Gonzaga standout and Kirkland resident Jason Bay is headed to the Red Sox. Here's some of the details of the trade.

But who cares about teams fighting for playoff spots, lets focus on a team that hasn't been in the playoff equation since April - the Mariners. I guess I'm not completely surprised. And maybe it's not over. Any deal involving the exchange of money or teams picking up another players contracts, must have it approved the commissioner's office.

And even if a move hasn't been done now, Jarrod Washburn could be moved in a waiver wire deal. That's not totally implausible, particularly if the Yankees get a few crappy starts from Sidney Ponson or Darrell Rasner over the next week.

On some level, I understand that interim general manager Lee Pelekoudas didn't want to just give up Washburn or Raul Ibanez or Adrian Beltre just for the sake of giving them up. Having a certain level of demand is expected. But according to most reports, the bulk of the executives around the baseball felt that the Mariners asking prices for their players were "exorbitant."

But is Washburn any part of their future plans? I wouldn't think so. Even with his newfound change-up, Washburn isn't likely to be re-signed by Seattle. The Mariners would have been better off dumping the salary and giving Ryan Rowland-Smith or Ryan Feierabend their shot at the rotation. Unless a waiver wire deal goes down the Mariners are on the book for another $14 million for Washburn counting the end of this season and all of next season. That's still a lot for a guy that's 5-9 with a 4.50 ERA, even with his latest run of good starts. Even if you make a trade in the offseason for Washburn, you're likely not going to get anybody to pick up all of his salary.

As for Ibanez, I don't understand why you don't make a trade for him. I guess we don't know what the Cubs, Mets or Blue Jays were offering. But think about this ... there is no guarantee that Raul is going to re-sign with the Mariners next season. He's an unrestricted free agent. And as a guy who loves the Florida area, if the Marlins or Rays offered him a contract for slightly less money that the Mariners, he could definitely wind up staying in the area. The positive of that situation is that if he does sign with somebody else, the Mariners are guaranteed two draft picks because Raul is a type A free agent. But that leads to the assumption that the Mariners draft well with those picks --- anybody remember Michael Garciaparra?

It seems that the trade deadline is often overhyped for how much really happens. Honestly if Manny, wasn't, well, Manny the last few weeks, that trade probably doesn't even happen. But since he's been a pouting, unhustling, clubhouse disrupting baby, the Red Sox kind of had to make the deal.

More and more GMs are a little wary of making that risky deadline trade that comes back to bite them in the end. Call it the Woody Woodward syndrome. Nobody wants to make the Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb trade.

For Pelekoudas, the safest thing to do was trade Rhodes, and do nothing else. Ask high, and if you don't get what you want, you can't be faulted as much. Pelekoudas has been around long enough to know that playing it safe could be the safest way to maintain employment and push for the GM job full-time. He also knows that being an interim GM with a team in the dumper, that opposing GMs might try and lowball him or bully him into a trade he didn't really want to make. So he played it safe. I guess you can't fault him for the idea of job-preservation. But really, there was a chance to make some sweeping changes and the Mariners stood pat ... and we all know it isn't the first time.

He's scheduled to meet with the media later today in Texas and I guess we'll know more then.

The trade that was most likely to happen did, and Arthur Lee Rhodes is now a Florida Marlin - moved in exchange for a young, minor-league starting pitcher.

It was a move that served the future, and whether 22-year-old Gaby Hernandez works out is something no one can know today.

But Rhodes, 38, will be missed - as much in the clubhouse as on the mound, where he was having a rock-solid season.

Arthur had character, the kind that lets a man deal with a son who has cancer without using it as an excuse for poor outings. He was the unquestioned leader of a Mariners bullpen that has been effective and close-knit.

He had the strength to challenge others on the team who didn't work hard, whether they were pitchers, first basemen or shortstops.

Good games or bad, Rhodes would be at his locker afterward, and insisted his fellow relievers do the same. In a clubhouse where regulars rarely did, it was a breath of fresh air to see someone who believed in taking responsibility.

Rhodes was the kind of man you'd have liked as a neighbor, the kind of player that will be missed now that he's moved on.

That doesn't mean Seattle shouldn't have traded him, begun the process of rebuilding.

It just means he left his imprint on a team, and how many left-handed specialists can say that?

All the clamoring for Junior to be traded to an American League has been answered, only the team is the Chicago White Sox. Multiple sources, led by Fox's Ken Rosenthal , have reported that the Griffey has approved the trade for infielder Danny Richar and pitcher Nick Masset - neither of whom are exactly household names - not even for a person who covers baseball.

How Griffey is going to be used remains to be seen. The White Sox have a pretty solid outfield with Carlos Quentin in left, Jermaine Dye in right along with Brian Anderson and Nick Swisher.

But with the 1B/DH Paul Konerko scuffling right now, Griffey could move to center (although he would be a defensive liability at this point in his career) and Swisher would move to first with Jim Thome as DH.

Who knows, SI's Jon Heyman points out that White Sox GM Ken Williams may be in the process of making another move to free up a spot for Griffey.

Either way, Griffey leaves a Reds' team well out of the race, and joins the White Sox, a team with legit postseason chances, good for him.

For those of you hoping for a Griffey return, it's still possible. He will be a free agent at the end of the season.

The Mariners traded relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes to Florida this morning for a minor-league pitcher.

While much of the talk about possible trades for the Mariners surrounded a different left-handed pitcher, the trade of Arthur Rhodes should have been expected. He will be the first of about five or six left-handed relievers to get traded.

Why?

Because the left-on-left specialist is a needed commodity for down-the-stretch success. The Marlins bullpen has been decent this season but their lefty specialist Reynel Pinto leads the NL in appearances at 57. Rhodes offers some insurance and a veteran presence in the bullpen. Even this year in Seattle, he provided plenty of leadership for what is a relatively young bullpen.

Realistically Rhodes has been somewhat of a surprise since he's coming off of Tommy John surgery. His velocity is in the low 90s and his breaking pitches have been solid - regardless of what happened last night (he was clearly getting squeezed on a couple of calls).

Really the trade is just a rental and Rhodes will be a free agent in the offseason, and able to re-sign with the Mariners if he so wishes. Seattle does have a capable lefty in Cesar Jimenez (but he isn't a classic left on left power guy). The Mariners also have Eric O'Flaherty, who is hurt right now, but still filled with potential.

As for what they got back, I'm still waiting for some information about Gaby Hernandez and what he throws. I will say this though, if he pitched in Albuquerque, his stats are going to be inflated because that is a total hitters park - as are several in the PCL.

If it was the final time Arthur Rhodes donned a Mariner uniform in his career, you can at least say that his exit wasn't dull.

- Ryan Divish

From Jon Heyman's Trade blog on SI.com ...

12:42 p.m.

The Mariners' agreement to send reliever Arthur Rhodes to the Marlins may be giving the Yankees hope that perhaps Seattle will also relent and agree to trade Jarrod Washburn to the Yankees. Word is, Gaby Hernandez -- who went to the Mariners in the Rhodes deal -- was on the table for weeks. Perhaps the Mariners will also relent on Washburn. The Yankees have generously offered to pick up the rest of the $14 million remaining on Washburn's contract through 2009 while sending them a middling prospect. Seattle has been calling around to try to beat that, but the suspicion is they won't. So maybe the Yankees will get Washburn after all.

The team release:

MARINERS ACQUIRE RHP GABY HERNANDEZ FROM FLORIDA MARLINS
Left-Hander Arthur Rhodes sent to Marlins

ARLINGTON, TX. -- Seattle Mariners Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Lee Pelekoudas today announced that the club has acquired right-handed pitcher Gaby Hernandez from the Florida Marlins in exchange for left-handed pitcher Arthur Rhodes.

Hernandez, 22, was 5-8 with a 6.46 ERA in 17 starts combined between double-A Carolina and triple-A Albuquerque this season. He began the season with Albuquerque, making 13 starts before being transferred to Carolina on July 6. He is 3-0 with a 4.30 ERA in his four starts with the Mudcats. Hernandez was on the disabled list earlier this season with a strained left oblique muscle from April 23-May 19.

"We felt the opportunity to acquire a young pitcher made sense as we look towards 2009 and beyond," Pelekoudas said. "Pedro Grifol, our minor league field coordinator, has known Gaby for several years and believes he has a chance to help us in the future."

Hernandez was originally selected by the New York Mets in the third-round of the 2004 June draft. He was acquired by Florida with OF Dante Brinkley in exchange for C Paul Lo Duca on December 9, 2005. Hernandez owns 35-35 with a 3.97 ERA (242 ER, 549.0 IP) in five seasons in the Minor Leagues.

Rhodes, 38, was 2-1 with one save and a 2.86 ERA in 36 relief appearances with the Mariners this season. He has limited opponents to a .230 (17x74) average, while striking out 26 in 22.0 innings in relief. Rhodes has held opponents scoreless in 32 of 36 appearances this season, including a streak of 18 consecutive scoreless games (11.2 IP) that ended last night. He missed all of the 2007 season recovering from "Tommy John" surgery on his left elbow.

Rhodes has a career mark of 77-61, 4.28 in 689 big league games (61 starts) with Baltimore (1991-99), Seattle (2000-03, 2007-2008), Oakland (2004), Cleveland (2005) and Philadelphia (2006). He is 28-16, 3.03 in 312 career appearances with the Mariners. Rhodes currently ranks fourth in Mariners history with 312 career pitching appearances, while his 628 games ranks fourth among active left-handed relievers in the Major Leagues.