This one may be a little brief as I am embarking for a drive back to Montana for a week to see my family and most importantly my dog, who moves back during baseball season. I'll still do some posting during the week, while Lash is on the road trip.

Overall, a great win today for the M's, they got a great start from Felix, some power from the middle of the order and lots of applause at the end.

“Obviously, it’s a nice win, especially with the crowd we had out there today,” Wakamatsu said. “I don't think people understand how much it means to us as a team to give back when they show up and support us like that.”

For me the big thing was seeing Beltre hit the home run, yes it's just his second of the season, but he does seem to coming out of his slump some.

Admittedly, Beltre had been absolutely scuffling at the plate for most of the season. He came into Sunday’s game hitting a meager .214. Even worse, his slugging percentage was .306 and he’d only hit one home run this season.

“It’s tough because you know our team needs some offense,” Beltre said. “When you are struggling, you want to be the guy, you want to help, at that moment sometimes you put too much pressure on yourself and that works against you. It’s tough to tell yourself to relax and make good contact.”

But he made good contact on the Zito slider.

“Safeco is tough but I knew I hit it good,” he said. “I thought I hit it far enough for it to go.”

Said Felix Hernandez: “For him it was great, for the team it was great, and for me it was outstanding."

As for Hernandez he was solid today, and Wakamatsu was quite pleased.

“We talked earlier today about Felix stepping up,” Wakamatsu said. “I thought he stepped up today and did a phenomenal job. Not just stuff-wise, but more importantly, because of the shape of our bullpen. We obviously needed the eight innings, and he gave some guys some rest. That's what we're talking about, being a team player.”

GIANTS NOTES:
• Barry Zito lost to the Mariners for the first time in last 12 starts (last: 07/23/03 w/ OAK)…previously 6-0 with 3.04 ERA (24 ER, 71.0 IP) in his last 11 starts vs. Seattle…Despite allowing 5 ER vs. Seattle, since starting the season 0-2 with a 10.00 ERA, Zito has gone on to allow just 15 ER in 47.0 IP for an ERA of 2.87 over that span… dropping his overall ERA to 4.02 (25 ER, 56.0 IP).
• Fred Lewis homered for the second consecutive day (3 overall).
• Aaron Rowand has hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games at .368 (21x57) with 10 runs scored, 4 2B’s, 3 HR’s and 7 RBI…raising his season avg. 63 points from .214 to .277…has homered in 3 of his last 7 games.
• Prior to today’s game, the Giants purchased the contract of C Eli Whiteside and optioned LHP Pat Misch to AAA Fresno…in his first MLB appearance since Sept. 30, 2005 (with BAL) and just the 4th start of his career, Whiteside went 1x3 with an RBI and a run.

MARINERS NOTES:
• Felix Hernandez snapped a personal 3-game losing streak to record his 5th win of the year…struck out a season-high 10 batters…has recorded 66 strikeouts through his first 10 starts (3rd in AL)…his 4th 10-strikeout game of his career (last: 04/27/08 vs. OAK).
• The Mariners won their 10th game against a left-handed starter this season… Seattle is 10-4 (.714) against LHP, best in AL for winning percentage against lefty starters…compares to 11-20 vs. RH starters.
• Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 5th HR of the season…his 3rd off left-handed pitching despite only 5 starts against lefties this season… was his first career HR against Barry Zito, the 397th pitcher to allow a HR to Griffey.
• Griffey’s 1st inning, 2 run HR snapped a Mariners streak of 31 consecutive singles.
• Over the last 4 games, Seattle starters have combined to go 2-1 with a 1.13 ERA (4 ER, 32.0 IP) with 24 strikeouts, allowing 1 earned run or less in 4 of the 5.
• Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 18 games; going 2x4…streak is currently the 2nd-longest active streak in the Majors (Ellsbury, 18)…Ichiro is batting .350 (28x80) with 3 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI during the streak.
• Ichiro Suzuki recorded 18th infield hit in 7th inning, including 10 in his last 16 games…18 infield hits lead the Majors.
• Despite going hitless on the day, Russell Branyan finished the home stand with an avg. of .406 (13x32) for the home stand with 2 HR, 4 doubles, and 3 RBI…has at least one hit in 13 of last 15 games at Safeco Field and 16 of 19 home games this season (.332, 22x65).
• Yuniesky Betancourt, batting 2nd in the lineup, tied a career-high by drawing walks in first 2 at-bats, 6th time in career (last: 05/15/09 vs. BOS)...after drawing his first walk of the season on May 4th in his 97th plate appearance, Betancourt has since drawn 7 walks in his last 56 plate appearances.
• Today’s time of game, 2 hr 15 minutes was the shortest time for a home game this season.

Good to see my post about last night's game is stirring up some commenting and debates. Snydro, you are right, I don't pay for tickets, but I have on numerous occasions for baseball and other sporting events. I will admit that my job has kind of left me a little laid back when it comes to cheering or booing. I just enjoy being there watching a game. Whether I was born here or not, means little. I have my team's that I care for deeply and I really have never had the urge to boo the players. I've booed some umps in my day though.

But I respect people's passion nonetheless. And Snydro is certainly not without his passion or opinions - let's still try to keep them relatively civil on some level. The powers that be (way above my head) are very sensitive to that.

Top of 1st
Felix looks pretty sharp. He gave up a single to former Mariner Randy Winn, but other than that no issues.

Bottom of 1st
Yuni with a walk!!! I'm calling it, he's getting three this game. And Junior scores him with a home run to right on the first pitch he sees - it is fifth homer of the season and snapped a streak of 31 straight singles for the Mariners.

2nd inning
Meh, Mariners get a double from Lopez and Zito balks him to third and he's stranded there.

Top of 3rd
Aaron Rowand looks relatively confused against Felix.

Bottom of 3rd
Yuni walks again. I bet Mariners media guru Jeff Evans that Yuni would walk three times today and I'm 2/3 of the way there.

Top of the 5th
Well that wasn't much fun. Felix gets into a bit of a jam thanks to an error by Branyan and a walk, but he looks like he's going to get out of it getting two straight outs, only catcher Eli Whiteside singles to keep things going. Whiteside woke up this morning in Iowa. Yes, Iowa. He was called up today, woke up in Iowa, flew to Seattle and got a police escort to the game. He was needed after Pablo Sandoval hurt his arm last night.

From there, the Giants added two more runs as Felix got really fastball heavy and the Giants got a few singles.

Bottom of the 5th
Not to pat myself on the back, but after the Mariners got the first two runners on and Yuni sac bunted them into scoring position, as Beltre walked to the plated. I looked at John McGrath and Jeff Evans and said, "Yard" as in Beltre was going yard. And he did. It was his first homer since May 9th.

The Mariners have a 5-3 lead.

Top of 6th
Felix seemed rejuvenated by the Beltre homer and looks much better on the mound. He rolled through the sixth.

Top of 7th
Felix allows a few hits, but gets out of the inning. He's at 95 pitches, but nobody is up in the bullpen for the Ms. Dave8557 has to be happy about that.

Think about this for a moment, when Barry Zito was a free agent back in 2006, then-general manager Bill Bavasi tried to sign him and was willing to give him a $100 million contract. Instead, Zito signed a 7-year, $126 million contract with the Giants. Since then he's 22-34 for the Giants with a 4.69 ERA, and that's pitching in the National League! Then again Bavasi also courted Adam Eaton, Jason Schmidt and Carl Pavano and the signed Carlos Silva. Wow. And this guy has been employed in baseball his whole life. Nepotism goes a long way.

A few things with the line-up (see below), Betancourt has been moved up to the No. 2 spot, while Ken Griffey Jr. is in there against a lefty in the Giants' Barry Zito.

"It's really with us facing two lefties in Oakland and I don't want him to sit too long," Wakamatsu said of Griffey. "And Zito tends to struggle against lefties as of late. I'll still use Sweeney against the other lefties."

For his career, lefties are hitting .246 and slugging .377 against Zito. And this season (small sample size), lefties are hitting .268.

But one thing Zito will do is walk hitters. He has 19 walks in 49 innings pitched this season.

Maybe Yuni will get a couple walks this game. Or maybe not.

"We've tried everything, we're still trying to find that mix," Wakamatsu said. "With Yuni, he's gotten the message over the last couple days. His last game he had poor pitch selection. It's similar to Beltre, moving him up got him a little more patient approach. We've always said that this guy can hit, hand-eye coordination, and he should believe he can hit with two strikes."

"We're kind of floating around that No. 2 hole of who is that guy and we really haven't found that guy yet."

As for Mariner hitters against Zito, Ichiro is hitting .316 (24-for-76) with three homers and five RBIs. Lopez is hitting .353 (6-for-17).

As for the bullpen, Mark Lowe is unavailable today for certain and most likely Miguel Batista. Sean White and Brandon Morrow will be the set up men with Aardsma closing. But Wakamatsu is still concerned about the bullpen's workload.

"The off day on Thursday couldn't come soon enough for the bullpen," Wakamatsu said. "You look at some of the numbers and it's four out of five, six out of seven, Lowe was six out of nine."

The conversation also went to Felix Hernandez and the difference in him from April to May.

"For us it's always going to come down to what's done prior to the game, they say the battle is won before it's ever started," Wakamatsu said. "The other day when I called him out it wasn't so much about his pitching but the finer things in the game."

Like controlling the running game.

Wakamatsu pointed out that part of the controlling the running makes Felix's delivery quicker and more efficient to the plate.

"With Felix he has to maintain that," Wakamatsu said. "Just like our hitters when they get emotional, they try to get bigger. He's trying find more power in his delivery. He was more efficient early and paid attention to the smaller things. That's what he had a discussion about yesterday. This guy's got a lot of talent but it has to be refined a little bit to get the consistency we are looking for."

To Wakamatsu, consistency and doing the little things is what separates an ace from other pitchers.

"It's not just about going out and wanting to win," Wakamatsu said. "It's about understanding his craft better as he goes forward."

Mariners
Ichiro CF
Yuni Betancourt SS
Adrian Beltre 3B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Russell Branyan DH
Jose Lopez 2B
Wladimir Balentien LF
Rob Johnson C
Franklin Gutierrez CF
-----
Felix Hernandez P

Giants
Aaron Rowand CF
Edgar Renteria SS
Randy Winn RF
Bengie Molina DH
Fred Lewis LF
Travis Ishikawa 1B
Juan Uribe 3B
Emmanuel Burris 2B
Eli Whiteside C
--------
Barry Zito (1-4, 3.62 ERA)