I'm way behind on doing my notebook for the paper and up here by myself, so game updates won't be quite as thorough as last night.

Top of first
Jarrod Washburn works an easy 1-2-3 first inning.

Bottom of first
Ichiro Suzuki was greeted warmly by fans at Safeco in his first at-bat of the season. But he lines out meekly to shortstoop. Endy Chavez continues to hit, slapping a single to center. Junior gets another strong ovation but grounds softly to first. The Angels can't turn the double play, but get out of the inning on a groundout by Adrian Beltre.

Top of 2
Wash has another 1-2-3 inning with Torii Hunter hitting a ball semi-hard.

Bottom of 2
Kenji Johjima with a single, but not much else as Yuni looks bad in a strike out.

Top of 3
Another 1-2-3 for Wash -- I'm not saying anything else.

Bottom of 3
Franklin Gutierrez leads off with a walk, but later gets thrown out trying to steal second. Ichiro lines a single for hit No. 3,084. And Endy Chavez follows with a walk to give the Mariners runners first and second with one out. But Junior struck out and then Beltre grounded weekly back to the pitcher.

Top of 4
Washburn another 1-2-3 inning, and while I haven't said anything, columnist Dave Boling said the words no hitter and the Everett Herald's Kirby Arnold said the words "perfect game." Not that I thought either was a possibility.

Bottom of 4
In the category of things you don't see every day, Russell Branyan hits a towering pop up to center and Torii Hunter had no idea where the ball was. He lost it in the sky. This is a guy that played in the metrodome where it happens all the time, and it rarely happened. The ball dropped about six feet in front of him and Branyan got a double. And since Yuni can sacrifice, so can his buddy Jose Lopez, who dropped down one to move Branyan to third.

The small ball paid off as Joh singled up the middle past a very angry Jered Weaver. But Joh seemed to injure something on the play. After a check with the trainers he stayed in the game. Yuni follows with a double down the line and Joh really looked strained. Wakamatsu went to Rob Johnson as a pinch runner -- Big ups for Montana!!

Johnson is then thrown out at home on Franklin Gutierrez grounder to third. For a moment I thought Johnson and Jeff Mathis may have a collision, but Mathis seemed smart to side step Johnson and tag him from the side --- apparently he knows you don't mess with Butte guys.

Ichiro flies out end the inning. Still, Mariners lead 1-0.

Top of 5
Well, the no-hitter and perfect game are gone as Vlad singles up the middle. And then the shutout is gone as Torii Hunter lost another ball in center- actually left-center as he absolutely crushes a belt high 3-1 fastball right over the plate deep into the night.

Ummm, interesting attempt by Russell Branyan to catch Juan Rivera's pop up in foul territory. It proves costly as Rivera doubles to left center. But Branyan comes back with a nice dig on Adrian Beltre's tough backhanded stab and throw to get Jeff Mathis. Washburn gets out with any further damage by fielding Erick Aybar's soft grounder and tagging out the speedster.

Angels lead 2-1

Bottom of 5
Endy Chavez hit his first homer as a Mariner to right, but that was kind of overshadowed when that Griffey guy just belted his home run and Safeco since his return. And this place went absolutely insane. I even had some goosebumps. Griffey pointed to his family in his private box after rounding the bases. It was his 400th career homer as a Mariner. Much props to the fans at Safeco, who refused to stop cheering until he gave them a curtain call, which he did and the place erupted again.

The inning ends as Beltre pops out, Russell Branyan's hard liner to left is gloved and Lopez taps out to the pitcher.

Top of 6
Washburn continues to pitch well. He went 1-2-3 in the sixth.

To answer your question Snydro --- it appears that Rob Johnson will be starting tomorrow. Kenji Johjima has tightness in his right hamstring according to the Mariners and will be reevaluated tomorrow. I imagine Jeff Clement has just been pulled out of the lineup in the Rainiers game as a precaution.

Bottom of 6
Rob Johnson (MONTANA!!!) doubles to right-center showing some good hustle with a head first slide to beat Torii Hunter's throw. He had to take a few moments because he dove headfirst and it meant landing hard on his protective cup. It's not a fun feeling - I know from experience. Erick Aybar was laughing at shortstop, knowing what happened.

Yuni shows some hitting presence, driving a single to the right side. With runners on first and third, the Mariners bunted Franklin Gutierrez. It wasn't a straight suicide squeez as Johnson didn't leave immediately. But he did leave after Weaver fielded the ball. He would have probably been out at home, but Weaver dropped the ball in his attempt to throw home and everyone was safe on the play.

The Angels brought in Kevin Jepsen to replace Jered Weaver, who kind of looked like his brother Jeff at times. OK, well not that bad.

Ichiro's soft grounder up the middle was turned into a 4-3 double play as Howie Kendrick made a nice play. It was pretty close at first and manager Don Wakamatsu went out to have a chat with first base ump Marty Foster. I didn't see the replays on the inhouse screens, so I couldn't tell. But the inning ends with Endy Chavez's soft grounder.

Top of 7
The Mariners bring in Miguel Batista and he promptly gives up a double down the line to Hunter, he then strikes out pinch hitter Kendry Morales, but the ball was away from where Johnson was set up and it gets by him so Morales reaches first on a passed ball. Batista then gives up an RBI single through the right side to Juan Rivera. There were quite a few boos from the crowd of 18,513. There were some cheers when Wakamatsu came out of the dugout to talk to Batista and more cheers when Wak signaled to the bullpen for Shawn Kelley. Batista left the field to some heavy boos from the fans.

With runners on first and second, Jeff Mathis lays down a sac bunt to move the runners up. We're playing some National League ball here - no waiting around for the three-run jackshot. Kelley strikes out Aybar on a pitch in the dirt- kind of a scary moment when Johnson delivers a low throw to first, but Branyan makes the play. Kelley then blows a 96 mph fastball by Chone Figgins to end the inning.

If I were Wak, and I know I'm not, but any time I had the urge to go to Batista, I would go to Kelley. I hope that's the case from now on.

Bottom of 7
Kevin Jepsen throws hard, but not many are strikes. He gives up a single to Junior and then walks Beltre and Branyan. Jose Lopez then smokes a pitch to center. Torii Henry retreats and makes the catch, but all three runners tag up and advance. The Mariners go up 5-3.

The Angels then bring in Jason Bulger to replace Jepsen.

And my fellow Montanan (yes, I'm going to keep mentioning that), Rob Johnson, comes up clutch with the bases loaded ripping a single up the middle driving in two runs. The inning is still alive as Yuni singles. Both runners move up on a wild pitch from Bulger, and then Bulger walks Gutierrez to bring up Ichiro. And he hits a GRAND SLAM! on a 3-2 pitch, deep to right. This place is insane right now. The homer ties him with Isao Horimoto and the Mariners are up 11-3.

That's all for Bulger, Scioscia brings in Justin Speier. But it doesn't matter, this game is done.

Top of 8
Franklin Gutierrez's defense is ridiculous, just think we watched Willie Bloomquist, Jeremy Reed and Wlad Balentien play the bulk of the innings at centerfield last season.

FINAL SCORE -- MARINERS 11, ANGELS 3.

I'm going to roll back to T-town and provide some post game stuff later.

In this photo (courtesy of Getty Images) Ichiro speaks with Isao Harimoto before the game. Harimoto is the all-time hits leader in Japan with 3,085 in his career. Ichiro has 3,083. So Mr. Harimoto is here to follow Ichiro's quest to break it.

We spoke with Harimoto and he said that he hopes Ichiro breaks the record soon, like tonight.

"As soon as he could do it, I’d be happy," he said. "People are almost too crazy about this. So if he’d could do it today, I’d be happy."

Back in Japan, this is major news. Harimoto and Ichiro are the only two professional players to ever amass more than 3,000 hits. Harimoto of course did his all in the Japan professional league. Ichiro had 1,278 hits in Japan and now has 1,805 in the major leagues.

Harimoto thought that Ichiro would break his record.

"Actually when he was in Japan, I told him that he was going to break my record," Harimoto said. "That was proably like 15 years ago. I don’t remember telling him that, but Ichiro remembers very well. He reminded me about it."

While Harimoto always thought Ichiro would break the record, he said if Ichiro had stayed in Japan it would have taken longer.

"If you hit that many, pitchers are always going to walk you," he said. "Here Ichiro could have five hits and they’re still going to pitch to him. In Japan, if you have two hits in the game, they are going to walk you."

Or even worse … as he simulated a ball going toward his head.

Harimoto maintained that the record isn't the true Japanese hits record because he didn't do it all in the Japanese professional leagues. And he also did it playing in seasons with about 130 games. But he recognizes the accomplishment still.

I talked with a few Japanese reporters and this is major news in Japan. Think about when Pete Rose approaching Ty Cobb's record. But they aren't debating about the legitmacy of the record because Ichiro did it in two different leagues. Most Japanese fans recognize that the major leagues are a better level of baseball, and that more than half of Ichiro's hits came in the US is even more telling.

Think about if it were in the US and this situation was happening. I'm sure Jay Mariotti's head would explode on Around the Horn as he was screaming his opinion and sports talk radio would have day long debates. But in Japan, its just the excitement of the accomplishment.

So watch Ichiro, if he gets 3 hits, he'll have the most hits of any Japanese professional baseball player.

AUDIO UPDATE: Here's my interview with Ian Furness today. It's a mess of stuttering yammerings and blather. I always think of about five more interesting things that I should have said. Oh well, I wish I could say I was better.

UPDATE #2: The venerable voice of the Rainiers, Mike Curto, pointed out that the Rainiers home opener is Friday. I should have known that since I have to cover it. And he also gave me a few notes on relievers throwing well ...

Eric Hull - 6 IP, 1 hit allowed, 0 ER.

Randy Messenger - 3 UP, 1 hit, 0 runs

Denny Stark - 3.1 HO, 2 hits, 1 run - hit 95 on Rainiers' radar gun multiple times.

Jesus Delgado - one game, 3 no-hit innings, looked most impressive of the group.

Griffey is back at DH. Wakamatsu said the back is still stiff. With Ichiro back in the lineup, it doesn't mean Wak won't continue to move guys around and feature multiple lineups.

"Early in the season we’ve got to make sure we’re allowing guys to play, but writing him in solidifies right field so we’ve got to be a little more creative," Wakamatsu said. "We talked about giving guys some days off to make sure everybody can be a part of it."

Who it will cost at-bats is most likely Mike Sweeney, which Wakamatsu admitted.

"The challenge is to find Mike Sweeney some at-bats," Wakamatsu said.

Some of this ABs came yesterday if Wakamatsu had decided to pinch hit Sweeney for Russ Branyan when he faced Darren Oliver twice late in the game. But Wakamatsu decided to stick with Branyan.

"What we’ve tried to do so far, whether it’s the pitchers and leaving them out there, we’re trying to find that balance where they can succeed," Wakamatsu said. "Russell is our first baseman and he’s going to have to face tough lefties as we go along. Now is not the time to take some confidence away from him. AS we go forward, hopefully he builds that confidence. His production numbers have always been good against lefties."

Well that's not completely true, Branyan only has 388 career plate appearances against lefties and in 299 at-bats, he has 61 hits including 20 homers for a .204 batting average and his OPS of .730

Still with the return of Ichiro, at-bats are going to become less and less for some players, including Sweeney, Endy Chavez, Wlad Balentien and Ronny Cedeno, but Wakamatsu isn't concerned about hurt feelings.

"A lot of it goes back to spring training, whether it’s where guys hit in the lineup or where they play, we’re going to do what’s best for the club first and everybody’s bought into that," Wakamatsu said. "You worry about those things as a manager but the bottom line is that we’ve got to put the best product on the field at any time."

Here's today's lineups
ANGELS (3-4)
Chone Figgins 3B
Howie Kendrick 2B
Bobby Abreu RF
Vlad Guerrero DH
Torii Hunter CF
Robb Quinlan 1B
Juan Rivera LF
Jeff Mathis C
Erick Aybar SS
--------------
Jered Weaver RHP (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

MARINERS (6-2)
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Endy Chavez LF
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Kenji Johjima C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS
Franklin Gutierrez CF
-------------
Jarrod Washburn LHP (1-0, 0.00)

Sorry, I totally forgot to post this earlier. We have injury update on shortstop prospect Carlos Triunfel, who hurt his left leg last week.

Triunfel suffered ligament damage in his left ankle and fractured the fibula in his left leg.

Triunfel had surgery today (Wednesday) to repair damage to the ligament in his left ankle. The surgery also allowed the broken fibula to better line up, which should help the healing process.

The surgery was performed by Mariners team medical director, Dr. Edward Khalfayan. He was assisted by Dr. Martin Mankey, a foot and ankle specialist.

Triunfel will begin his rehabilitation from surgery in Seattle in approximately two days. He is expected to be able to return to baseball activities in four to six months.

Sorry about the one sentence post, but I did it from the "crackberry" on the field.

Anyway, as expected Ichiro Suzuki was activated off the disabled list, forcing the Mariners to make a move on the 25-man roster. But the expected move of sending third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo back to Triple A Tacoma, didn't happen. Instead the Mariners placed Ryan Rowland-Smith on the disabled list with triceps tendonitis.

Chris Jakubauskas is going to make the start in his place. That means the bullpen is down a guy, but the Mariners have yet to make a move. Wakamatsu said that neither Cesar Jimenez nor Tyler Johnson is an option right now.

The Mariners could make a move tomorrow with the Rainiers opening in Tacoma. But looking at the staff, I'm not sure who it would be. None of the relievers on the Rainiers is pitching particularly well. Lefty Justin Thomas could be an option, or perhaps it could be Randy Messenger.

Jakubauskas probably won't throw more than 70 pitches. His longest outing of the spring was six innings, but it's doubtful he can go that far.

Rowland-Smith went on the disabled list - retroactive to April 11th, meaning he's eligible to return on April 26th.

"It's just really stiff," Rowland-Smith said. "It's like it's locked up."

Rowland-Smith tried to demonstrate by curling both arms up all the way. While his right arm curled up as far as one would go, his left arm had about an 8-inch difference.

"There's no range of motion," he said.

Rowland-Smith noticed the discomfort a few days ago, and thinks it may be a product of overworking the arm while making some mechanical adjustments with pitching coach Rick Adair.

"My body didn't respond and my elbow didn't respond the way it should," he said.

"It's really frustrating," he added. "I felt stressed out the last couple days. I'm going to use this week to reflect on last year and reflect on spring training and just get my mind in the right place."

First of all, this is going to be short, as I need to try and sneak some sort of a workout in before heading up to Safeco Field this afternoon. I think I'm doing my weekly appearance with Ian Furness on KJR today, but not certain when so I'll keep you posted. The Mariners Insider wishes a big happy birthday to our new Huskies Insider and longtime TNT reporter Todd Milles.

Here's a question I want to ask. Although its early and a lot can happen, the Mariners have played some good baseball as of late.

Does this make you want to go to Safeco Field and watch them play more than perhaps at the beginning of the season?

Links from yesterday's home opener ...

Here's Lash's game story.

Here's the AP's game story from Gregg Bell.

My story focused on the solid effort of Carlos Silva. Will this continue? I'm not certain, but he had a bid day, so I have him his due.

Here's yesterday's notebook.

Columnist John McGrath takes a closer look at Yuni's game winning sac bunt.

Columnist Dave Boling wrote about the Angels continued recovery from the Nick Adenhart tragedy.

News reporter Brian Everstine took in the fan experience for opening day.

Some very cool photos from yesterday's home opener in the TNT photo galleries.

From the Rainiers, Mike Curto provides a recap of last night's loss in Fresno.

From the LA papers ...

The LA Times game story ... This notebook says that Angels players are happy with the six game suspension for REd Sox pitcher Josh Beckett after an incident a few games back. Columnist TJ Simers also has some thoughts on Nick Adenhart.