The scoreless streak is at 26 consecutive innings, three short of the franchise record. Can the Mariners break it or will they go scoreless into infinity?
Most likely, Raul Ibanez or Jose Lopez will hit one out, or perhaps Ichiro will work his way around.
Anyway it comes, the Mariners need a run before they can score, say, two.
Carlos Silva vs. Kirk Sarloos.
And we're off.

A 1-2-3 first inning and the Mariners have now tied their second-longest scoreless streak in franchise history.

Bryan LaHair snapped the streak at 27 with a two-run home run over the wall in right field.
The Mariners now have something even rarer than a score, they have a lead.
Silva and a 2-0 lead. If he can hold it and the Mariners get baserunners, Riggleman will play small ball to pad it.
Mariners 2, Athletics 0

So much for that lead.
Silva walked Jack Cust, gave up a single and the Athletics bunt the runners over.
With two outs, Jeff Baisley - batting .167 - singledd into center field to score both runners.
Mariners 2, Athletics 2

Luis Valbuena doubled, Ichiro legged out an infield single - hit No. 204 - and Yuniesky Betancourt grounded into a double play.
That scored Valbuena with the go-ahead run.
Silva set Oakland down 1-2-3, so the Mariners have a lead heading into the fourth inning.
Heady stuff.
Mariners 3, Athletics 2

Mariners loaded the bases in the fourth, then called upon the sun to push home two more runs and chase Sarloos.
Kenji Johjima's fly ball to the wall in left field somehow eluded Aaron Cunningham, who was there in plenty of time to catch it.
Ruled a single, it gave Johjima 31 RBI for the season - and gave Silva a three-run lead.
Mariners 5, Athletics 2

El Buffalo is gone, taken out after Oakland scored twice and team trainer Rick Griffin visited the mound.
Cesar Jimenez is in to relieve, with two runners on base, one out and a one-run lead.
Five runs will not be enough today.
Mariners 5, Athletics 4

Oakland walked LaHair and Kenji hit one out, his sixth home run of the season and fourth RBI of the day.
Can Johjima regain the form of 2006-07, when he was an offensive weapon behind the plate?
Right now, he's a what he was then - a dead-pull hitter with some pop. Where was it for the first four or five months of the season?
Mariners 7, Athletics 4

Seven runs won't be enough.
Oakland's rally has included a pinch-hit RBI single, a two-run double by .169-hitting Rob Bowen and a throwing error by Yuni on a relay to the plate.
That put the go ahead run at third base with one out and Roy Corcoran pitching.
The infield played in, Corcoran got a ground ball from Buck, walked Aaron Cunningham and was replaced by lefty Justin Thomas.
Ryan Sweeney popped out.
We be tied.
Mariners 7, Athletics 7

Still tied in the eighth, Jeremy Reed punched a single to left field to open the inning.
Cairo faked a bunt, then flied out. LaHair walked for the third time today. Johjima tapped back to the mound, starting an inning-ending double play.
Can the Mariners hold?
Mariners 7, Athletics 7

No, they can't.
Singles sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt put runners on first and third base with one out, and Dan Barton broke the tie with an RBI single.
Miguel Batista relieved and got an infield pop up, walked Jack Cust then got a ground ball to end the inning.
The Mariners are three outs from their 10th consecutive loss.
Can Oakland hold?
Athletics 8, Mariners 7

Yes, they can.
Valbuena doubled to right field and was thrown out on a close call trying for third. Coach Sam Perlozzo went ballistic and Jim Riggleman argued until he was ejected.
Game-changing call, since it involved having the potential tying run at third with no one out.
Ichiro walked, but Yuni grounded into a double play.
It's a final.
Athletics 8, Mariners 7

It’s an interesting question: If you liked Erik Bedard, would you view his season differently.

Certainly, he hasn’t always gotten the benefit of the doubt from teammates and media, and now he’s about to undergo exploratory surgery to determine just how badly the labrum in his left shoulder is injured.

Jim Riggleman was asked about Bedard today, and his response was illuminating.

“Obviously, he was pitching with injury, not with pain, but we didn’t know that,” Riggleman said. “Pitchers never tell you – they feel if they can’t pitch, they’re not part of the team. They know if they have an MRI done, it will find something. So that’s the nature of pitchers. They don’t tell you.

“Adrian Beltre played in pain, and we admired him for that. It’s the same with Erik, What he did was admirable.”

Last week, Bedard said he could pinpoint the moment his left shoulder turned on him – in his second start of the season. He made 13 more before, on July 4, walking off the mound and stunning the team.

“He told (trainer) Rick Griffin ‘My shoulder is killing me,’” Riggleman said. “That was the first we knew about it.

“Early in the season, John McLaren asked him. I think Mel (Stottlemyre) asked him. He’d tell them during a game when he was done, but when he was asked if he was hurt, he said no.”

Once Bedard was shut down, a number of the Mariners questioned everything from his heart to his pain threshold to his willingness to pitch. Riggleman said now that everyone knows Bedard has a torn labrum, those opinions should change.

“His teammates should have more respect for him now. He tried pitching with a tear in his labrum, and ‘labrum’ is sort of a four-letter word to pitchers. It scares them,” Riggleman said.

“I don’t know what the organization could have done differently. You trade for him, stretch him out in spring training and in his second start he hurts something but doesn’t tell you,” he said.

“We tell every pitcher every spring, when something is wrong, tell us. And they all nod their heads – and then never do it.”