The Mariners finish the homestand 6-1 and and win the series with the Padres. And apparently it was all hugs and kisses afterward. Well, at least we know Carlos Silva is useful for something. The Mariners are now 4-2 against the Pads, 2-1 against the Giants, 3-0 against Arizona, 0-3 against Colorado in interleague play.

A few thoughts ...

1. It was a good homestand and the Mariners played pretty decent baseball.
2. The Mariners will not face a starting pitcher as bad as Wade LeBlanc over the upcoming road trip.

LeBlanc was not good. He is not good and he should be catching a Horizon flight to Portland this evening.

Here's what his manager, Bud Black, had to say about him.

“Starting pitching is such a critical part of a Major League team. So every night, you want to give your team the best chance to get a victory and that starts with the starting pitcher.”

“The responsibility that starting rotation members have is (for me) the biggest on the team. Over the long haul of the season, if you have a solid rotation, you give yourself a chance every night. When you don’t get it, you have games like today.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Which brings me back to earlier point, it's all well and good that the Mariners beat the Padres and had a solid homestand, but they did so against two teams with losing records. Now they will face three of the best teams in baseball. And that's what much of the postgame conversation dwelled on.

“Everybody talks about where we are going,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. “But the thing I like about this club is we take every game and we try to play the best we can. We’ll see how we stack up on this road trip.”

Nine games, 10 days, three against the Dodgers, three against the Yankees, three against the Red Sox.

“Nine big games,” said DH Mike Sweeney, who was 4-for-4 on Thursday. “We’re going to be playing three of the best teams in baseball, hopefully we play good ball. And it puts us in position around the all-star break to be buyers not sellers.”

Ah yes, they have the nine games and then come back for four with the Rangers right before the all-star break. The Mariners could be in the middle of the AL West or in the middle of selling off the loose pieces.

What's the ideal outcome for the road trip. At a minimum 4-5. That would be acceptable, but below that, could be trouble since the Angels face Arizona on the road, Texas on the road and Baltimore at home over that span and the Rangers have the Padres at home, the Angels at home and Tampa Bay at home in the same time frame.

It's not only the games, but the teams. New York and Boston and their patient approaches are brutal on pitching staffs. And the Mariners' staff isn't exactly at full strength.

“It will be a test,” Washburn said. “If we pitch well, we’ll have a chance every game.”

Perhaps, but they need to hit and they will have to so against pitchers better than LeBlanc, Josh Geer, Greg Burke and such.

“I don’t care who we are playing,” Sweeney said. “If we go out and play like we did today, I’ll take our chances against anyone."

It's the final meeting between the two bitter rivals. The tension is palpable. It's like Average Joes vs. Globo-Gym ... yes, I watched Dodgeball yesterday --- Oh, I don't think I'm a lot dumber than you thought that I think that I thought that I was once.

Anyway lets get down to business. Today's starter Wade LeBlanc is, well, according to my Padres compadres -- "not good, not good at all."

LeBlanc pitched in five games last season (21 1/3 innings) and gave up 29 hits, 19 runs and seven homers.

This year he's thrown 3 innings and given up three earned runs on three hits. Sounds good for the offensively challenged Mariners.

First inning
Washburn with a 1-2-3 inning including a strikeout of Scott Hairston, who slams his helmet to the ground. I don't know that Hairston is good enough to be tossing his helmet.

And following what I said earlier, Ichiro hits a solo homer to right off of LeBlanc on a 1-1 pitch. It was an 85 mph fastball on the inner half of the plate. That's going to get hit out often. The M's continue to rough him up as Beltre singles up the middle and Mike Sweeney rips a double off the wall in right-center. LeBlanc did get Lopez to pop up to get two outs, but fell behind Gutierrez and then Bud Black called for an intentional walk and that move does not work well as Rob Johnson - my fellow Montanan - unloads the bases with a double to the gap. The pitch? Well, mlb.com has it as an 83 mph change-up. But if his fastball is 86-87 is 83 really a change-up?

LeBlanc then walked Ronny Cedeno, he of the .128 batting average. Cedeno has like four walks in this series. If I were the pitching coach, I'd fine a pitcher $1000 for walking Cedeno.

Wade LeBlanc gets out of the inning, but he'll be headed back to Triple A Portland very soon. He can have a beer at the Kingston or Marathon Taverna and then hit Henry's up after 10 p.m. for happy hour.

Second inning
Washburn gets in mild trouble after a bloop single to Adrian Gonzalez and a two-out walk to Kyle Blanks - who is the size of a sasquatch. But he gets out with a strikeout of Edgar Gonzalez.

LeBlanc is Le Gone after giving up a single to Ichiro and walking Russell Branyan. Don't worry Wade, Portland is beautiful this time of year. I was just down there last weekend.

Third inning
Well that wasn't dull. Washburn gets in a bit of a jam with runners on second and third with one out. But he gets a called third strike on Scott Hairston. It was a questionable call. The ball did seem a little out and up. Hairston took exception and said something to home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, who tossed him quickly. Bud Black came out and got tossed pretty quickly as well. Maybe neither wanted to sit through this game.

Tony Gwynn Lite, er Tony Gwynn Jr. is in the game now for the Pads.

Well, Josh Banks won't get the $1,000 fine since he struck out Cedeno.

Fourth inning
Ichiro is now 3-for-3 today with a single to right. I remember thinking that starting the season on the disabled list might make it a little more difficult for him to get 200 in a season. I was very wrong. He now has 103 hits this season. Mike Sweeney is also 3-for-3 on the day.

Moo: I guess Sweeney is playing to keep him fresh. Griffey's knee is sore and they wanted to get Sweeney some ABs. My guess is that Carp could be sent back to Tacoma in a week or so.

Quickly, a moment of silence for the passing of two formidable figures of my youth. Earlier today Farah Fawcett passed away from a long bout with cancer. Now it is being reported that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson has also died after going into cardiac arrest.

John McGrath mentioned the old baseball joke in the 1980s of "What do (insert player's name) and Michael Jackson have in common? They both wear a glove on their hand for no apparent reason.

Anyway, I know it's not baseball, but the passing of Jackson is big news. I think "Thriller" came out when I was in third grade. Even in Montana, we heard of Michael Jackson.

As for the game, the Mariners have gotten hits off of Banks, but no runs. Thank you Wade LeBlanc.

Fifth inning
Oh that tricky Don Wakamatsu, who calls a one-out suicide squeeze with Gutierrez on third and Cedeno at the plate. I was thinking about the possibility. Apparently the Padres and whoever has taken over the managing duties didn't see it as such.

And then Wlad Balentien absolutely hammers a homer into the left field upper deck, that's big boy power. Hopefully he can do it more than once a month. But that's what tantalizes you with Balentien, when you see him do something like that. Of course, he did strikeout off LeBlanc in the first inning.

Sixth inning
The Padres had hit some hard shots off of Washburn that were caught, unfortunately Chase Headley's shot to center was caught by someone in the CF beer garden. The sober fellow tossed the ball back into play. He's done after six with Chris Jakubauskas in for him. Washburn allowed two runs on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

Seventh inning
Well, Chris Jakubauskas has had better outings. He came in allowed a solo shot to the lesser of the Gonzalez brothers, a ground rule double to Henry Blanco and a walk to Everth Cabrera. Wak had seen enough at that and pulled Jakubuaskas for Mark Lowe, who eventually cleaned up the mess without allowing a run, including getting Kevin Kouzmanoff with the bases loaded.

Eighth inning
Mark Lowe with a solid inning of work.

The Mariners tack on a few more runs with Mike Sweeney collecting his fourth hit of the day. Ichiro and Sweeney each have four hits today.

Ninth inning
the human game delay Miguel Batista is in and as long as he doesn't have any base runners it should go by quickly. And it does for once. Thanks to an unreal play by Ronny CEdeno at short.

UPDATE 12:07 -- the move was officially made as Lopez was activated from the bereavement list and Betancourt was sent to the DL. He's eligible to come off on July 10th.

Ok, no more using the blackberry now. As I posted earlier, Yuniesky Betancourt is headed to the 15-day disabled list.

They haven't made the actual roster move yet, but manager Don Wakamatsu just said that he we'll likely be placed on there and be out the entire 15 days and possibly more.

"All indications are we will disable him before today's game," Wakamatsu said.

Betancourt is scheduled to have an MRI sometime later today. The hamstring strain is down by the base of the knee. Wakamatsu said it's a completely different injury than the one that slowed Betancourt in spring training.

Ronny Cedeno will make the start at shortstop today. I know some of you will be clamoring for Chris Woodward to make the start. But there's a problem, Woodward is battling a pulled groin.

He's available only on an emergency basis. Most, likely the recently acquired Josh Wilson would be used if needed. If Woodward had been healthy Wakamatsu hinted he most likely would have started today and a few more games. The hope is that two days of rest could have Woodward ready for games in Los Angeles and beyond.

* Erik Bedard will not start in New York as hoped. He's throwing a side session today and a side session on Saturday and then possibly a simulated game in New York. Wakamatsu said they are penciling Bedard in for the July 4th start in Boston. Not to jinx the situation, but the last start Bedard made last season before being lost of the season was on Fourth of July.

* Kenji Johjima will be activated tomorrow and start tomorrow night's game in Los Angeles. Joh caught all nine innings last night and went 0-for-4 at the plate with three strikeouts. But I talked to him briefly and he said he felt good.

* Jose Lopez is in the line-up today and will bat fifth. Wakamatsu said that when Lopez arrived in Seattle after yesterday's nine hour flight, he looked pretty physically and emotionally worn down.

Lineups
Mariners
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Beltre 3B
Sweeney DH
Lopez 2B
Gutierrez CF
Johnson C
Cedeno SS
Balentien LF
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Washburn LHP

Padres
Cabrera SS
Eckstein 2B
Hairston CF
A. Gonzalez DH
Kouzmanoff 3B
Headley LF
Blanks 1B
E. Gonzalez RF
Blanco C
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LeBlanc LHP

The Mariners will have two representatives on the World team in the Futures game over All-Star weekend in OF Tyson Gillies and 3B Alex Liddi.

Gillies, a native of Canada, is batting .325 (79x243) with 54 runs, 8 doubles, 9 triples, 4 home runs, 21 RBI and 17 stolen bases in 62 games. He has reached base safely (H-BB-HBP) in 59 of 62 games. Among California League leaders, Gillies ranks 6th in batting average, 3rd in on-base percentage (.444) and T2nd in runs scored.

Liddi (pictured), a native of Italy, is batting .341 (92x270) with 54 runs, 21 doubles, 3 triples, 16 home runs and 60 RBI in 67 games. Among California League leaders, Liddi ranks 3rd in batting, 3rd in home runs, T1st in RBI, 1st in hits, T3rd in doubles, 4th in slugging percentage (.619), 2nd in extra base hits (40), T2nd in runs scored.

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