(Getty Images)

Four hits, two RBI, the game winning single and a WBC title in a damn good game to watch. Here's Jack Curry's story for the NY Times. This ESPN recap has the video highlights of the game. The LA Times Bill Shaikin called the final a joyride he never wanted to end. Here's the LA Times' game story.

Box Score

Here's ESPN's Jayson Stark's solution to fix the WBC.

(AP Photo)

MONDAY
Chris Jakubauskas out-pitched Randy Johnson and Tim Linecum, Wladimir Balentien had a home run and three RBI and the Seattle Mariners beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-1.

TUESDAY
Another day-night double-header for the Mariners, who host the Rangers at 1:05 p.m., then play the Dodgers in Glendale at 7:05 p.m. The night game will be televised on FSN. Probable starting pitchers: Game 1, Brandon McCarthy vs. Jarrod Washburn; Game 2: Ryan Rowland-Smith vs. Eric Stults.

NOTABLE
Facing former Mariner Randy Johnson, who went three innings for San Francisco, the Mariners scored twice against him – on a Wladimir Balentien home run and on doubles by Rob Johnson and Yuniesky Betancourt. …Balentien added a sacrifice fly and, in the ninth inning, singled home a third run. …

Chris Jakubauskas went another five innings against San Francisco and allowed only one run. “He’s done everything we could have asked of him,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “He’s very much in the running for a bullpen job.” Jakabauskas has a 2.16 earned run average and, in 16 2/3 innings this spring, has allowed only 12 hits and four runs. He threw 71 pitches against the Giants. “I want to make their final decisions tough,” Jakubauskas said. Replied Wakamatsu: “He’s done that.” …

They’re back! Venezeulan Team players Felix Hernandez, Carlos Silva, Jose Lopez and Endy Chavez were back in camp – and Lopez and Chavez were back in the Seattle lineup. Now only two players, Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Johjima, remain missing in action at the World Baseball Classic. …Lopez doubled twice and Chavez went 0-for-3 but had an RBI. …

After giving up his first runs of the spring in his last appearance, reliever David Aardsma threw two scoreless innings and lowered his spring ERA to 2.70. …
Tyler Walker, Garret Olson and Felix Hernandez threw bullpens and came out fine. That means Hernandez, who threw 51 pitches on Monday, will return to the Mariners rotation on Thursday against Kansas City. Silva will start Saturday against the Angels. …

At 7:15 a.m., Jay Buhner walked through a mostly empty clubhouse to introduce himself to manager Don Wakamatsu and the Mariners coaches. After that, it was down to the minor league clubhouse and into uniform again – Buhner, like Dan Wilson before him this spring, will work with Mariners kids for a few days. …

The Mariners would like Erik Bedard to have thrown 80 pitches in a game before the season starts, and he’s at 47 now with at least two starts and probably three remaining. Can he do it? “You only build up your pitch count in games, you don’t do it in the bullpen,” Bedard said. “Your bullpen sessions are always the same. In a game, I can tell you when I’ve thrown enough pitches. Could I have thrown more than 47 (Sunday)? Not and stayed healthy. Next time out, I’ll probably throw 10-15 more pitches, but it’ll depend on how I feel that day. You can’t force it, you just have to feel it.” …

Yuni watch: After his two-out double pushed home a run, Betancourt was thrown out trying to steal third base with Lopez at the plate. Oops. … Denny Stark was brought up from the minor league complex and pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

QUOTABLE
From Ken Griffey Jr, to former teammate and often injured Jay Buhner: “We measure outfielders in dog years. That makes you about 320 years old.”

MEDICAL UPDATE
First baseman Russell Branyan bruised his right shin and calf by fouling a ball off his leg in Sunday’s game, so he was scratched from the lineup Monday. He went through the full team workout and took batting practice, but stayed back when the Mariners bus left for Scottsdale and the Giants game.

As sportswriters, we are sent a hundreds of press releases per week. Some are useful (game notes from the M's, etc.) some are annoying (all soccer releases, well, at least to me anyway) and some are just downright strange (viagra, golf swing equipment and cheerleading injury studies), but today's press release for Bill James' new book "The Bill James Goldmine 2009" is something that needs to be shared.

Don't know who Bill James (AP Photo)is, well, check out these stories ...

From the New Yorker

From Esquire

From Slate.com

Whether you believe in looking at the game as James does or not, his research and his theories must be respected. As a baseball writer, I would be doing readers a disservice by not at least learning if not completely embracing what James has to say.

So here's a few snippets that James sent local Mariners writers from his book.

* "Although he’s often overlooked, Adrian Beltre is one of the best third basemen in baseball. He is at the top of the list in fielding and below average in only one category, plate discipline. He has also been very durable, and his skill set is actually very similar to one of baseball’s saints: Brooks Robinson."

* "The Mariners in 2006 drafted Brandon Morrow with the #5 pick in the draft, rather than local favorite Tim Lincecum, who went to San Francisco with the tenth pick. This is something that people talk about, but—just my opinion—in the long run, I don’t think anybody is going to regret drafting Brandon Morrow. I think he’s tremendous. Morrow had a 3.34 ERA last year, but there are several signals that he may be a better pitcher even than that. Batters hit .174 against him, which is Randy Johnson territory. He made a mid-season conversion from relief to starting, which probably didn’t help his numbers any, and he gave up 10 home runs with just 47 fly outs. A ratio like that is probably a fluke, since the pitcher doesn’t really control the percentage of flyballs against him that become home runs. He may not be a starting pitcher. In five starts in September he walked 19 men, which is too many; even Randy couldn’t succeed as a starter issuing that many free passes. He m! ay have to go back to the bullpen. And I’m not saying he is Tim Lincecum, but...I think he’s a guy who has Cy Young ability."

* "What happened to Yuniesky Betancourt’s glove? His fielding plus/minus figures (the number of plays he makes above or below what an average defender at his position would have made) have dropped each of the past two years, and he was last among all major league shortstops in 2008. He has particularly lost range on groundballs up the middle."

* "Last year, we mentioned that Felix Hernandez threw his slider more often in 2007. In 2008, he changed his pattern again, throwing fastballs more often than anytime in his major league career, and de-emphasizing the slider and curveball."

* "The Seattle Mariners last year had a man on second base, no one out 116 times, and scored only 111 runs in those innings. They were the only major league team to score less than one run an inning when they had a leadoff hitter at second base. "

Now playing first base: Mike Sweeney.
A long-shot to make the team when signed, Sweeney has made the team as a pinch-hitter, right-handed designated hitter and occasional first baseman.
Today, for the first time this spring, he'll start at first base. Why? Russell Branyan, originally in the Seattle lineup, has a bruised right calf and shin.
Branyan took a foul ball off the spot on Sunday and could have played but. as in the regular season, there are times the coaching staff sides with caution.
So it's Sweeney, and here's the lineup:

Endy Chavez LF
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Jose Lopez 2B
Mike Sweeney 1B
Wladimir Balentien RF
Franklin Guttierrez CF
Matt Tuiasosopo 3B
Rob Johnson C
Chris Jakubauskas P

The Seattle Mariners still don't have their full team in camp - and won't until Team Japan plays its final game in the World Baseball Classic.

But they're closer.

Venezuelans Endy Chavez, Jose Lopez, Carlos Silva and Felix Hernandez are back.

For manager Don Wakamatsu, that means Phase Three of camp has begun.

"It was broken down into three phases, really," Wakamatsu said. "We had the workouts before the WBC, and the only guys missing were Ichiro (Suzuki) and Kenji (Johjima). That was Phase One.

"Phase Two was during the WBC, when we worked out and played games with a lot of players we probably wouldn't have seen much of without the WBC."

And Phase three will be a lightning-round of fundamentals work, trying to tighten the team on and off the field and get ready for opening day.

Not once this spring has the Mariners starting infield been in a game together. Not once has the starting outfield played together.

Yes, these are professionals, and baseball is baseball. But ask any team in the game if they'd like to run a camp this way, the answer would be a resounding 'No.'

The Mariners will start playing catch up today.

There was, briefly, another presence floating in the clubhouse this morning - Jay Buhner.

He came in early, met with the coaching staff, hung out with the training room crew and then dressed in uniform on the minor league side.

Buhner has been asked to work a few days with young outfielders, minor league hitters. Off the field, of coursre, he'll hang with Ken Griffey Jr.