BOX SCORE

I don't know what to make of the win. First of all, the game seemed to drag at time. The Mariners went 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position in the series -- and yet they won two of three against a pretty good team in the Twins.

Why?

Well, Seattle pitchers also held the combo of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau to 3-for-23 in the series.

Manager Don Wakamatsu used Garrett Olson on Saturday and Sunday to pitch to the duo in middle inning situations - like you would with a lefty specialist. Olson held them hitless.

“For two days in a row to have trust in Olson to face the heart of their order and for him to do what he did is phenomenal,” Wakamatsu said.

Could this be a future role for Olson? Maybe. But at least Wakamatsu knows he can use him in that situation if needed.

“After what he did the last two days, if I don’t have the belief system I don’t know who will,” Wakamatsu said.

Still, Olson isn't a classic left on left guy and his versatility and ability to spot start is important.

Some of may wonder why Sean White got the closing duties instead of Mark Lowe, who Wak said would close before the game. Well, Wak saw Morneau and Mauer most likely coming up in the ninth and he decided to use White, who's change-up and movement on his fastball are a little bit better against lefties.

A few other things ...
Mr. C.B. Bucknor and his floating strike zone didn't have many fans in either clubhouse. Nobody would comment directly.

“I don’t think (Erik) had much help there and I think it bothered a little bit on a few of the close calls,” Wakamatsu said.

“A couple of those were pretty close,” catcher Jamie Burke said. “That’s the way this game goes, you just can’t get discouraged, you just have to focus on the next pitch.”

And Bedard?

"It wasn't bad," he said, not wanting to discuss it further.

Well, I thought Bucknor was bad, but he was at least bad for both teams.

Wakamatsu was asked if Yuniesky Betancourt would start on Tuesday, and he replied, "I haven't decided on that yet."

TWINS NOTES:
• The Twins are now 5-14 in day games this season…have lost 11 of their last 18 games overall.
• Brendan Harris went 1x3 and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games with a double in the in the 6th inning…during the streak he is hitting .348 (16x46) with 3 runs, 5 doubles, a home run and 2 RBI.
• Kevin Slowey snapped a 4-game win streak, allowing a season-high 3 home runs today…5 of 12 home runs allowed this season have come against the Mariners…of 35 runs allowed this season, 16 have been via home run (46%).
• Denard Span had his first hit of the series, a leadoff single in the 1st inning, going 2x4 for the day…Span has now hit safely in 13 of last 18 games, going 23x69 (.333) with a double, 3 home runs and 6 RBI.
• Joe Mauer went 1x4 With a double in the 4th inning and a run scored…in 39 career games vs. Seattle, Mauer has a career average of .396 (57x144) with 16 doubles, 5 home runs, and 25 RBI.
• The Twins did not commit an error today for the 43rd time this season (58 games). They have committed just 2 errors in their last 10 games and lead the American League in fewest errors with just 21.

MARINERS NOTES:
• Seattle has won each of last 3 series (MIN, BAL, LAA) and 4 of last 5 (SF)...is now 9-6 in their last 15 games.
• Seattle and Minnesota finished their season series at 5-5...Seattle pitching held Minnesota to 2 runs or less in 5 of those, including all 3 at Safeco Field for a 1.29 ERA (4 ER, 28.0 IP) at home.
• Mariners hit season-high-tying 3 home runs (last: 5/13 at TEX) with solo shots from Branyan, Lopez, Jamie Burke.
• Erik Bedard earned his first career victory against the Twins, they were the only American League team that he had yet to defeat, he had been winless in 9 career starts and was 0-5 with a 4.80 ERA (24 ER, 45.0 IP)…has now allowed
2 earned runs or less in his last 7 consecutive starts at home and for the 12th time in 13 games.
• Sean White recorded his first Major League save, and extended his streak to 16.0 scoreless innings, 3rd in the AL.
• Russell Branyan hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season to score the first run of the game in the first inning.
Branyan went 2x4 today and now has a hit in 20 of 25 home games (.333/28x84)
• Catcher Jamie Burke, after being selected from Triple-ATacoma this morning, collected 2 hits, including the 3rd home run of his career in the 5th inning, going 2x4 today.
• Ichiro Suzuki went 2x4 and has at least 1 hit in 35 of his last 38 games (.372/61x164) and has reached base safely in 37 consecutive games, the longest active streak for any player in the American League.
• Adrian Beltre went 2x4 with a run scored…he is tied with Russell Branyan for 2nd most multi-hit games this season with 15 (Ichiro – 23)…Beltre is batting .353 (24x68) with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, and 10 RBI over his last 16 games.
• Jose Lopez went 3x5 with an RBI double in the 3rd and home run in the 5th…has 5 three-hit games this season... has 9 extra-base hits in last 13 games and 2 multi-extra base hits in last 5 games, ranks among best in American League.
• Seattle was 0x13 with runners in scoring position the last two days, but has won both games.

Top of 1st
The Interview looking okay. Going to be interesting with C.B. Bucknor behind the plate today. The guy is perennially voted as having the worst strike zone in all of baseball. It has a tendency to float. He also isn't the most accepting of comments or criticism about his performance.

Bottom of 1st
Russell Branyan with a long home run to center field. I can't wait for the FSN interview tonight with him. That's an inside joke some of you may have heard of if you listened to KJR at all on Thursday and Friday or to me in Friday's weekly segment with Ian Furness.

Beltre with a single, and Griffey with a walk, but the inning bogs down with Lopez and Cedeno.

Top of 2nd
Bedard gets himself into trouble with the help of Bucknor's floating strike zone, including back-to-back walks, but he rallies to strike out Alexi Casilla to end the inning. However, he is at 51 pitches after two innings. That's not a good sign.

Bottom of 2nd
Jamie Burke with a single in his first at-bat of the game.

Top of 3rd
A little better inning for Bedard, who kept his pitches down and finished with 62 at the end of the inning.

Bottom of 3rd
The Mariners have a two-run lead! Adrian BEltre leads off with a bloop single and then Jose Lopez followed with an RBI double to right-center. M's up 2-0. Maybe it won't be a one-run game today.

Bottom of 4th
The Mariners load the bases for Junior. He takes some exception to one of Bucknor's strike calls, which is rare for Junior. And then he grounds out hard to short, even giving a bit of a stare back to Bucknor again.

Top of 5th
The Twins tie the game as Denard Span draws a lead-off walk, Joe Mauer singles and the Twins use a hard ground ball to second and a sac fly to score the runs. Bedard is at 101 pitches. I don't know that we'll see him in the sixth.

Bottom of 5th
The Mariners take the lead on a solo homer from Jose Lopez. And get another homer from Jamie Burke of all people. Like columnist John McGrath, they call up one of the few guys from Tacoma not known to hit homers and he hits one out.

That's all for Slowey, and old friend R.A. Dickey comes into the game. I never got a chance to say to R.A. this weekend. But he's still one of the good guys in the game.

Top of 8th
Is it me, or is this game just dragging along?

Top of 9th
David Aardsma isn't available, and Mark Lowe threw a lot of pitches in the eighth so Sean White is on to shut the door. White does the job, it gets a little scary there, but the Mariners get the win and series win.

The Mariners were forced to make a roster move with Rob Johnson's sore foot not getting any better, so they called up catcher Jamie Burke from Tacoma and designated reliever Denny Stark for assignment.

"Rob is much better today," Wakamatsu said. "He was on crutches yesterday. But it's something that we think is going to heal up pretty fairly fast."

Johnson could have played on an emergency basis on Tuesday, but Wakamatsu is looking at having him ready by the end of the Baltimore series. That's why Wakamatsu decided to not to put him on the disabled list.

"It's unfortunate for Denny, but the way these games have gone and the way we have been forced to use the bullpen, he hasn't pitched a whole lot," Wakamatsu said.

Stark has only pitched once since May 25th. He appeared in nine games, and finished with an 0-1 record and a 6.55 ERA.

"If you take the 1/3 of an inning away, his numbers are awfully good," Wakamatsu said.

That third of an inning was against Texas when he gave up five runs on six hits.

Burke is starting at catcher today.

Ryan Rowland-Smith will not start Thursday against the Orioles like he had hoped. Wakamatsu said they are sending Rowland-Smith back to Triple A Tacoma and there is no timetable on his return.

"It was and it wasn't the fact that his outing wasn't where we thought it was," Wakamatsu said. "There's a reason why for the 14 hits. It's not just a bad outing and that's what we tried to convince him."

Rowland-Smith tried to convince the staff he's ready to return, but Wakamatsu felt different.

"In fairness to this club, in fairness to the bullpen, in fairness to him, it behooves us to have him pitch a little more down there," he said.

Rowland-Smith's reduced velocity is also a bit of a factor, Wakamatsu admitted.

"That's part of not wanting to expedite this," Wakamatsu said. "If he would have been electric down there and maybe been at 89, maybe it's a different story. The velocity comes into play and with that, is his arm truly in shape? That was his fifth outing and his longest one."

Wakamatsu's thinking on this a direct reflection of the struggles of Brandon Morrow.

"I think I learned a valuable lesson with Morrow," he said. "You can't just throw them right back into the fire."

Line-ups
For the third straight day, Yuni Betancourt is out of the line-up. And no, it's not to get Ronny Cedeno more playing time. Cedeno is nursing a nasty contusion on his leg from fouling two balls off his shin. Yuni is sitting out for a reason. My guess is his approach and the attitude he has displayed on the days he isn't playing haven't helped. I know the coaching staff does not care for his preparation, his commitment to getting better and his attitude about the whole situation.

Mariners
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Russell Branyan 1B
Adrian Beltre 3B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Jose Lopez 2B
Ronny Cedeno SS
Endy Chavez LF
Jamie Burke C
Franklin Gutierrez CF
----------
Erik Bedard (4-2, 2.37 ERA)

Twins
Denard Span LF
Joe Mauer C
Justin Morneau DH
Joe Crede 3B
Jason Kubel RF
Michaels Cuddyer 1B
Brendan Harris SS
Carlos Gomez CF
Alexi Casilla 2B
------
Kevin Slowey (8-1, 3.97 ERA)

BOX SCORE

Here's my game story.

Columnist Dave Boling was also at the game and filed this column on Jarrod Washburn.

Not much to say, it's late and most of the stuff was covered in either my story or Dave's column.

One thing -- if you were looking for quotes from Junior on his game winning hit, you won't get any. He was long gone when we got in there. And if you notice, Junior is rarely quoted when he delivers game winning hits and key homers in wins. He doesn't usually prefer to talk about them. He's more apt to speak when the team is struggling. When the team wins, he wants others to get some glory. Understandable.

He talked to me before the game and guaranteed he could still dunk a basketball with ease, he just can't deliver the reverse dunk.

Also, Ryan Rowland-Smith hinted to some other reporters that he probably won't start in Baltimore on Thursday and instead do another rehab start. I don't know that it will make a difference either way. I understand his frustration and there is no more genuine guy in the Mariners organization than RRS. But he needs to be patient with his return, even though I know it is tough for him to be patient. I respect the fact that he wants to go out and pitch and compete.

GAME NOTES
TWINS NOTES:
• Nick Blackburn took the no decision after winning his last 3 starts…hasn’t lost since May 5 @DET…over his last 4 outings, has allowed just 4 ER in 27.0 IP (1.48 ERA)… in 12 starts this season, 8 have been quality while allowing 1 ER or less in 5 of 12 starts this year.
• Brendan Harris extended his hitting streak to a career-high, 11-games with a single in the in the 2nd inning…during the streak he is hitting .349 (15x43) with 3 runs, 4 doubles, a home run and 2 RBI.
• Joe Crede scored the first run of the game and went 2x4, tying his season-high for hits…his 8th multi-hit game on the season.

MARINERS NOTES:
• Jarrod Washburn recorded his 2nd-highest strikeout total this season (6) while throwing his 8th quality start… along with Felix Hernandez, leads the M’s in quality starts…over his last 3 outings, has allowed just 2 runs in 19.0 innings (0.95 ERA)…now allowed 2 ER or less in 8 of his 11 starts…against Minnesota this season, he remains 1-0, but drops his season ERA against the Twins to 0.64.
• Washburn and the M’s got out of a 1-out bases loaded jam in the 3rd, striking out Justin Morneau and catching Delmon Young, attempting to advance from 3rd to home on a pitch that got away from the catcher (no PB or WP).
• After having his team-record, 27 game hit streak snapped on Friday, Ichiro went back to hitting… going 3x4, including a 2-out, RBI double in the 5th as well as scoring the go ahead run in the 8th… had his 23rd multi-hit game, 7th with 3 or more hits on the year…has now safely reached base in 36 consecutive games, the longest streak in the AL this season… Nationals R. Zimmerman has longest streak in ML this season (43).
• Ken Griffey Jr. doubled in Ichiro for the go-ahead run in the 8th inning… has 5 extra base hits in his last 4 starts.
• David Aardsma made his 28th appearance on the season, tied for the AL lead… recorded his 9th save… is 9-for-10 in save opportunities…allowed runs in just 1 of his last 18 outings (18.0 IP, 3 ER, 22 K).
• Saturday’s win was the 15th come from behind win for The Mariners, their 9th since the start of May.
• The Seattle bullpen has allowed only 1 earned run in their last 5 games spanning 14.1 innings (0.63 ERA).
• Seattle held the Twins to 1 run today...they have held opponents to 1 run or less in 10 games this season, including 3 against the Twins.