Ichiro Suzuki likely has had this game circled on his calendar since he heard that Vincente Padilla was starting for Texas.
For good reason.

Ichiro has a career batting average of .526 against Padilla in 38 lifetime at-bats - his highest average against any pitcher he's ever faced more than once.

Similarly, that .526 average is the highest by any hitter against Padilla, who has thrown every combination of pitches to Ichiro that he has.

So Ichiro is fully capable of starting rallies tonight, and the Mariners could certainly use a few.

They get Russell Branyan back in the lineup for the first time - batting third! - and have Ken Griffey Jr. batting fifth.

Yes, it's Don Wakamatsu's 88th different lineup of the season. Jason Vargas vs. Padilla.

Fast start

Ichiro popped out on the first pitch he saw, but the inning got better.

Branyan, in his first at-bat since Sunday, drew a walk - and Lopez hammered his 14th home run of the season down the left field line.

The Mariners have what they never had Thursday: A lead.

In the first: Mariners 2, Rangers 0

Rangers rally

Texas got a couple of hits and a walk to load the bases with one out, but Vargas limited the damage to a Taylor Teagarten sacrifice fly.

Against the Rangers, the key to victory is avoiding the big inning. So far, so good.

After three: Mariners 2, Rangers 1

Ranger thunder

Ah, they do love a good home run here, and every Ranger can hit 'em.

Vargas left a pitch away a little up, and Taylor Teagarten - batting .189 - hit it out to right center field.

Omar Vizquel and Michael Young singled and Marlon Byrd homered, his 11th. Now that's a big inning.

After five: Rangers 5, Mariners 2

Mariners ... thunder?

No, the Mariners lack that particular weapon, so they relied upon singles in the sixth inning.

With two outs and no one on, Branyan, Lopez and Griffey each singled, with Junior picking up his 30th RBI.

In the sixth: Rangers 5, Mariners 3

When cows fly!

Rain, lightning and wind strong enough to blow a bovine over the house - we have a delay in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Nasty weather. Nasty!

Play ball - again!

Game set to resume a few minutes down here in Texas.

Sean White is warming up and will be pitching to Michael Young in the bottom of the seventh when we restart.

Rangers 5, Mariners 3

Scrappy little Mariners
A two hour, 18-minute rain delay? So what?

Gutierrez singled with one out and, with two outs, Lopez singled - his third hit of the night - to push home his 57th RBI of the season.

That brought on reliever C.J. Wilson to face Junior, lefty vs. lefty. Wilson won.

It's a final: Rangers 5, Mariners 4

Ian Snell never quite made it to Tacoma, and the right-handed pitcher will step into Seattle's starting rotation Sunday against Texas.

"He's going to take Jarrod's spot in the rotation," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "Starting tonight, our rotation is Jason Vargas, Felix Hernandez, Snell, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Luke French or Garrett Olson."

Don't panic - the only reason French isn't automatic is the Mariners haven't laid eyes on him yet and can't pencil him into until they do.

As for Snell, he said something today that no player coming to the Mariners has said in years:

"It's great to join a winning club," he said after being acquired from Pittsburgh. "I love Seattle, I've got family in Tacoma.

"It was a lot of fun today, just throwing in the bullpen. These guys are fun, and it reminded me of my AAA team - guys playing tricks on one another, guys enjoying one another."

Snell's state of mind will have a lot to do with his pitching, if history is any judge. Going 2-8 in Pittsburgh this season, he and Pirates management didn't always see eye-to-eye.

"I didn't like the finger pointing just at me for being 2-8 - I wasn't the only guy on the field in those games," he said. "In the end I just told them to send me to the minors and let me get my thoughts together."
As he did, scouts said, his pitching improved dramatically, and no one doubts Snell can pitch.

"He had a game in the minors earlier this year where he struck out 17 guys in seven innings - struck out 13 in a row," Wakamatsu said. "We're going to let him pitch and see what Rick (Adair) and John (Wetteland) can do when they get their hands on a pitcher of this caliber."

Here's a bit of news first-discovered by the great eyes of intrepid radio empress Shannon Drayer - who looked out to the Seattle Mariners bullpen today as we were interviewing Jarrod Washburn.

And who did she see throwing for manager Don Wakamatsu and pitching coach Rick Adair?

Ian Snell, the 27-year-old right-hander picked up from Pittsburgh two days ago in the trade that brought shortstop Jack Wilson to Seattle.

Snell is, technically, enroute to Class AAA Tacoma, but since he's here - and throwing - it's not a huge leap to assume he's going to stay and step into the rotation at some point.

Precisely when, we'll find out when Wakamatsu addresses the media in about an hour.

Meanwhile, Snell is here and lefty Luke French will be here in about three hours.

Jack Zduriencik's trade of Jarrod Washburn for a couple of younger left-handed pitchers is going to be seen by some as evidence he's given up on the Seattle Mariners season.

One talk radio voice even asked how Zduriencik could look Felix Hernandez in the ace after making the trade.

That won't be a problem.

Zduriencik inherited a 101-loss team that, when the season began, was rated near the bottom of all 30 big-league teams by national writers - and not much higher by Seattle beat writers.

If the Mariners finished near .500, it was said, it would be an immense step forward to respectability.

Then, directed by Don Wakamatsu and a teach-first coaching staff, the Mariners did what no one expected. They won more games than they lost and got into July within striking distance of the American League West lead.

More important, they were playing good, solid, exciting baseball and winning one-run games.

Now, trading Washburn has ended all that?

Not at all.

What Zduriencik has done this week is improve the team with shortstop Jack Wilson, and add two pitchers - Luke French and Ian Snell, who figure to move into the rotation in place of Washburn and Garrett Olson.

Are the Mariners better today than they were a week ago?

To answer that, ask how many games Washburn might have won for Seattle the rest of the season after winning eight in the first four months.

Can French, Snell and Wilson help the team win as many or more?

It's a close call. And the bottom line is, this season was never about what happened by the July 31 trading deadline - in spring training it was being assumed the team would trade Washburn, Erik Bedard and Adrian Beltre.

Instead, this is a team that wants badly to win, to gain respect now, not somewhere down the line. Within the game, they've done that by playing far better than expected.

There's no reason to think that will change because a few cast members have arrived and departed.

The season isn't over and Zduriencik may not be done. It's not hard to forsee an August waiver deal for Beltre or Miguel Batista.

Whether he does or doesn't, he'll have no trouble facing Felix or anyone else in the Seattle clubhouse.

August and September are about what they were always about - winning games and hearts, transforming a joke of a team into one contending teams want no part of.

With young arms like Ryan Rowland-Smith, Jason Vargas, Brandon Morrow and Garrett Olson starting games, the Mariners were never likely to take the division, but they never stopped playing hard.

Now that young arms like French and Snell will be added to the cast, those chances are no worse, and this team won't change the way it plays.

Jarrod Washburn, the veteran left-hander having the finest season of his four-year career in Seattle, has been traded to the Detroit Tigers for two young lefties - Luke French and Mauricio Robles.

The move deepens the Mariners pitching, as French, 23, joins Ian Snell as the second young ready-for-prime-time starters acquired this week in deals.

"We had an opportunity to acquire two starting left-handed pitchers under the age of 23, including one with Major League experience," general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "As we continue to build the Mariners organization, it is crucial that we acquire depth and quality. This deal is another step in that process."

French has split the 2009 season between AAA Toledo and Detroit, making seven starts with the Tigers and going 1-2 with a 3.38 earned run aveage. One of thosed starts July 23 against Seattle, when he worked 5 1/3 innings and allowed two earned runs.

With Toledo this season, he was 4-4 with a 2.98 ERA.

A 6-foot-4, 220-pound pitcher, French was selected by the Tigers in the eighth round of the 2004 June draft.

Robles, 20, is a strikeout pitcher who have never pitched higher than the Florida State League.

In trading Washburn, whose contract ends after the season, the Mariners walked a fine line between trying to stay as competitive as possible in 2009 while looking beyond.

While Washburn had said he was willing to listen to a contract extension offer, he never got one and he'd made clear once the season ended he would pursue all options.

French will join the Mariners, while Robles will be assigned to the minor leagues.

The acquisition of French and Snell come as the Mariners scramble with their rotation, which this week included Ryan Rowland-Smith, Garrett Olson and Jason Vargas.

With Washburn gone and Erik Bedard still on the disabled list, the Mariners don't have a true No. 2 starter behind Felix Hernandez.

Lou Piniella used to say he didn't care what his catcher hit - until he didn't - as long as the team won when he was behind the plate.

The Seattle Mariners have noticed that Rob Johnson is hitting .212, but they're more impressed with how he handles pitchers.

In his last 11 starts, the Mariners have won nine times, and in his 49 starts this year the team is 32-17.

That's why he's catching again tonight.

It's Garrett Olson vs. Derek Holland - and the temperature is cooler in Arlington than it is in Seattle. Amazing.

Mr. Blalock, again

It only seems like Hank Blalock homers against Seattle every time they meet. One out into the second inning, Blalock hit his 20th of the season for Texas - and his fourth of the year in 33 at-bats against the Mariners.

It wasn't cheap.
One out later, after an Andruw Jones walk, Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his eighth of the season.

In the second: Rangers 3, Mariners 0

More Texas thunder

Michael Young homered, another 400-foot-plus shot against Olson. If the Rangers knew what was coming, they couldn't swing much harder.

Chris Jakubauskas is warming up in the bullpen.

In the third: Rangers 4, Mariners 0

Thunder, thunder, thunder

Olson is out, Chris Jakubauskas is in and Michael Young doesn't care.

Young just hit his second home run of the night and 16th of the season. The Mariners have one home run in their last seven games, so watching Texas hit four out tonight in the first four-plus innings is doing nothing for their confidence.

In the fifth: Rangers 5, Mariners 0

It's not just the pitching

Aside from watching all those home runs, the Mariners have other problems tonight - like hitting.

Through six innings, Holland has allowed one single, period. No matter who was pitching for Seattle, that wouldn't be enough.

That said, Mr. Olson may have made his last start for awhile. The Mariners are going to want to see Ian Snell before long, and Doug Fister is a possibility, too - although that might wait until September callups.

This is a tough park for pitchers trying to show they belong, and Jason Vargas starts here tomorrow night.

A lot of it is the pitching

OK, the Rangers are being worn down tonight, all that running the bases after hitting a home run.

Young singled with one out and Marlon Byrd, of course, homered - his 10th, the Rangers fifth tonight.

What must Jack Wilson be thinking?

In the seventh: Rangers 7, Mariners 0

And in the end

Tip your cap to rookie Holland, who had never pitched beyond seven innings in his first nine big-league starts.

Tonight, he went 8 2/3 innings and allowed one baserunner in the first eight innings - Jack Hannahan's ground ball single in the fifth inning. In the ninth, the Mariners 'rallied' when Johnson drew a walk anc, with two outs, Franklin Gutierrez singled on Holland's 118th pitch.

At that point, he was lifted to a standing ovation, and Jose Lopez singled home a run against reliever Warner Madrigal.

The Mariners couldn't have done much worse if they hadn't shown up at all.

It's a final: Rangers 7, Mariners 1

Jack Wilson makes the first start of his Seattle career tonight, batting seventh as manager Don Wakamatsu gets a good look at him before making any long-tem lineup decisions.

The Mariners remain without their top power hitter, Russell Branyan, who has been laid low by back strain. Branyan took batting practice today, will likely play tomorrow. Otherwise, against lefty Derek Holland, the Mariners won't be starting Ken Griffey Jr. or Kenji Johjima.

Here's your Seattle starting lineup:
Ichiro RF
Franklin Gutierez CF
Jose Lopez 2B
Mike Sweeney DH
Chris Shelton 1B
Jack Hannahan 3B
Jack Wilson SS
Rob Johnson C
Michael Saunders LF
Garrett Olson LHP

If you think Jack Wilson was happy to make the upward jump in the standings from Pittsburgh to Seattle, think how ex-Mariner George Sherrill feels todcay.

Sherill's been traded from Baltimore to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and while he may not close, he's moved from an abysmal team to one with a shot at the post-season.

Sherrill, remember, was the Seattle reliever found in the independent leagues by scout Charlie Kerfeld, who's now with Philadelphia. He was part of the trade for Erik Bedard, so Sherrill has never had an August or September pennant race in his career.

He's got one now. Enjoy them, George. They can be few and far between.

The week of the trading deadline has served another reminder that journalism and blogging remain friends but haven't yet married.

There are a couple of baseball blogs surrounding the Mariners that get it right - and get it first - with regularity, and offer perspective with their news.

Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald breaks stories routinely, although the entertaining U.S.S. Mariner always credits another blogger for doing so. And Larry Stone of the Times is not only a fine national baseball writer but a rock-solid beat guy when he's doing that job, too.

BOX SCORE

Sorry for the delay, but I had to leave the press box at Safeco and retreat back to Tacoma in search of air conditioning, which I found at the West End Pub & Grill - a one-time favorite of former Rainier and Aussie Chris Snelling.

But it was the big Aussie left-hander that stole the show today. We began the day under the idea that it could be Roy Halladay's final start as a Blue Jay - and it still may be. And if it is, Rowland-Smith and the Mariners made sure it will go down as a loss.

The Hyphen as he is called, well, for obviously reasons, pitched his best outing this season and perhaps last, throwing seven strong innings, including the first six without giving up a hit.

"He was locked in," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said.

And he worked fast - think the opposite of Garrett Olson and Miguel Batista. Rowland-Smith worked with a steady pace and rhythm.

"That's something I want to do," he said. "I've had games where I've done that. I remember Raul telling me last year one game how much the fielder loved it."

RRS would have had a perfect six innings had he not hit Kevin Millar with a pitch - which I thought looked like retaliation for Kenji Johjima getting hit with a pitch by Halladay in the top of the inning. But no hits, and not really any hard hit balls.

Rowland-Smith had joked that he would "need to throw a no-hitter to beat Halladay" before the game. And for six inning he was doing exactly that.

=> Read more!

I'm a little behind on the game updates because I'm kind of by myself up here. Columnist Dave Boling is here, but not to help with the leg work or the blog, so a little patience may be necessary.

First Inning
Lots of Blue Jays fans here again today. It was only 87 degrees at first pitch, but I'm thinking it will be a little higher about 3 p.m.

To note, Roy Halladay is pitching today. He got a large ovation from the Blue Jays fans when he was announced. Ryan Rowland-Smith works a perfect first, but he did leave a change-up up around the head of Adam Lind.

Halladay gave up double to Jose Lopez but gets out of the inning

Second inning
Nice quick inning for "The Hyphen"

Owwww, Kenji Johjima just got "dotted" with a 94 mph fastball from Halladay. Retaliation for the RRS high and tight, perhaps, who knows. Jack Hannahan then reaches on an air, and it appeared the M's might scratch a run across as Chris Woodward singled to left, but since Joh runs well like a catcher, he was tossed out at the plate. Halladay then struck out Michael Saunders to end the inning.

Third inning
Perhaps to prove a point for Halladay hitting Joh, RRS hits Kevin Millar (grazed him really) to start the inning. Lopez then makes a Lopez play by dropping a pop up over his shoulder and hurting his finger, but he does have the where with all to get the force at second. RRS then gets out of the inning.

Halladay give up a bunt single to Ichiro, who moves to third after a pair of outs, but Halladay breaks Griffey's bat for the second straight at-bat to end the inning.

Fourth inning
RRS - 123
The Mariners missed out on a chance to score in the fourth as Saunders has now left a small village of runners on base today.

Fifth Inning
RRS - 0 and 0
the Mariners still can't figure out Halladay. Until Jose Lopez just crushed a solo homer to left --- The Everett Herald's Kirby Arnold, who occupies the spot to the right of me in the press box, called it two pitches before, saying "Lopey's going to go yard."

Junior follows up the hit with a pretty double to right-center. But Halladay strikes out Shelton to end the inning.

Sixth inning
another hitless inning for RRS, not saying anything else

Seventh inning
Well, the no-hitter comes to an end as Aaron Hill loops a single into left for the first hit. The Safeco Field crowd gives RRS a very nice ovation. One pitch later, the shutout is gone as Adam Lind crushes a two-run homer right-center. RRS does focus up and get out of the inning but the M's are down 2-1.

The Mariners make sure that RRS is still in line to get the victory - which he deserves.

Michael SAunders and Ichiro Suzuki get a pair of infield singles to start the inning and Lopez loaded the bases with a single. Ken Griffey Jr. rips a two-run double his second in a row off of Halladay, to give Seattle a 3-2 lead.

Three runs off of Halladay, this was a team that couldn't score against Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey.

Obviously, Ronny Cedeno and Jeff Clement weren't exactly the focus of the previous days worth of trade rumors we've been hearing. No that belongs to left-handed pitcher Jarrod Washburn, who is being viewed as the consolation prize for teams that don't have or aren't willing to part with the massive amounts of players being requested in trades for Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

Though it appears, at least according to sources, one of the potential suitors for Washburn, the Milwaukee Brewers, have decided to stop pursuing him because of their recent struggles.

And there are some rumors that Lee has been dealt to the Phillies.

Looking at today's trade for Jack Wilson and Ian Snell, it may lead some to believe that GM Jack Zduriencik acquired another starting pitcher to take the place of Washburn in the rotation when he's dealth. But Zduriencik downplayed such thinking.

"It's really not related," Zduriencik said of adding Snell. "It's has nothing to do with what might happen, it has nothing to do with us getting Ian Snell. We got Ian Snell because he has a very nice arm. If we can get him back on track, he's a talented pitcher we can add to our major league club."

But while Zduriencik wouldn't say that it affected his decision with Washburn, he admitted there have been discussions about trading Washburn.

“There’s always discussions,” he said. “I don’t that I would classify it as a framework. Maybe someone else thinks there’s a framework. I’m all ears. I can’t say anything is imminent. There are people that are mentioning things, but we haven’t jumped in the fray and said hey that makes a lot of sense at this moment in time.”

But that moment in time could change very quickly as the deadline steadily approaches.

"I think because we have about 48 hours left, I think it gets intensified now, and if some other dominoes fall people may get more aggressive," Zduriencik said. "But right now, it’s been what it's been."

But Zduriencik wouldn't say he's trying to deal Washburn. He said he's listening to offers on him.

"It’s been discussions, it’s been names, but you can’t prevent that," he said. "I’m not sitting out there as someone might think that I’m shopping guys. People call me and I have to listen to what they have to say. When I get one or two or three phone calls, it’s a courtesy to call somebody back, to say he just to let you know, we are having these discussions. I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere. I can’t sit here today and say this is going to happen. I wouldn’t do that. I don’t know that."

When asked if he would wait to see what happens with Halladay and Lee before making a decision, Zduriencik balked at such thinking.

"I don’t think I’ve ever waited for the dominoes to fall," he said. "If there is something for us that makes sense for us to be better, then we have to entertain that. Sometimes it could be the effect of somebody else coming off somebody else’s radar or it could be the fact that we sit there and look at something and say this makes sense and we move on."

Unlike other GMs this time of season, Zduriencik isn't under any desperation or things of that nature.

"I’m not saying we’re going to do anything," he said. "We’re just going to sit back and let the pieces fall where they may, and at the end of the day make the best call."

Let's just go over the two deals that we've had today, and I highly doubt GM Jack Zduriencik is done, since he's got Roy Corcoran still out there in the midst of his 10-day period after being DFA'd.

Deal #1
Mariners get: shortstop Jack Wilson and right-handed pitcher Ian Snell
Pirates get: shortstop Ronny Cedeno, catcher/first baseman Jeff Clement, right-handed pitchers Nathan Adcock, Brett Lorin, Aaron Pribanic.

Deal #2
Mariners get: Right-handed pitcher Robert Manuel
Reds get: Outfielder Wlad Balentien

One thing to note, Pittsburgh Post Gazette Pirates reporter Dejan Kovacevic is reporting that the Pirates will eat a substantial amount of salary for both of Wilson and Snell's contracts this season. He is reporting that the Mariners will only pay each player $400,000 for the rest of the season. Meaning the Pirates will pay the remaining portion of the $7.25 million that Wilson makes this season and of the $3 million Snell is to make, Kovacevic says it's $3,308,702.19

Wow, Jack Z never ceases to amaze me.

Wilson was supposed to be here around 2:30, but his flight has been delayed (stunning) but we'll try and get some reaction from him later.

So let's get to the reaction ...

Obviously all the talk was surrounding the first trade.

Ronny Cedeno was red-eyed, emotional and absolutely stunned about being traded, despite hitting just .167 this season.

"I don't have any control over it," Cedeno said. "It's baseball. It's a business. I'm really surprised."

Cedeno was notified this morning at 9 a.m.

"I'm really sad," Cedeno said. "Felix is my best friend. He and Carlos Silva are great guys and I'm going to be miss them."

Zduriencik met with the media shortly thereafter for a lengthy session.

"I would call it a relatively major trade," Zduriencik said "We've acquired shortstop Jack Wilson and right-hand pitcher Ian Snell from the Pirate organization."

Wilson is somebody the Mariners have been rumored to have been interested for quite some time and Zduriencik confirmed that.

"I've talked to them couple of months ago," Zduriencik said. "Quite frankly, probably in May the first discussions we had together. It was about a lot of different things. His name came up. We still had another shortstop here at this time.

But those talks got more intense over the last 10 days, and Zduriencik said the two teams had several conversations.

"In terms of Jack Wilson, I think what we acquire here is a very talented defensive shortstop," Zduriencik said. "He's a former All-Star player, set several records for errorless streaks. He's a feisty, gamer type of guy. I think people will like watching him play. Having been in Milwaukee the last nine years, I watched this guy against us on many occasion. Not only the kind of defensive player he is, but what he brings to the table -- he's an intelligent player, he's got a lot of smarts, he has leadership skills, he's as feisty as can be."

Beyond the feisty lies another issue, Wilson is under contract for this season with an $8.4 million club option for next season.

=> Read more!

Jack Z is not done yet. His phone rang about 20 times during our pregame press conference, perhaps this is a reason why.

Just received word that the Mariners have sent recently DFA'd outfielder Wladimir Balentien to the Cincinnati Reds for right-handed pitcher Robert Manuel.

From the release ...

Manuel, 26, has appeared in three games for the Reds and has not allowed a run in 4.1 innings. He was recalled from AAA Louisville on July 7 and made his Major League debut July 9 at Philadelphia (1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 SO). He was optioned back to Louisville on July 19 and recalled again on Sunday. In 36 relief appearances at Louisville, was 3-4 with 10 saves and a 2.70 ERA (14 ER, 46.2 IP).

In 2008, Manuel received a MiLB.com This Year in Baseball Award as the best reliever in the minor leagues. In 52 games split between Sarasota (A), Chattanooga (AA) and Louisville (AAA), Manuel went 6-3 with 3 saves and a 1.25 ERA (12 ER, 86.2 IP). He was originally signed by the New York Mets as a non-drafted free agent in 2005 out of Sam Houston State University.

Balentien, 25, was designated for assignment on Sunday (July 26) and the club had 10 days to trade, release or outright him to the minor leagues. Balentien hit .213 (33x155) with 10 doubles, 4 home runs and 13 RBI in 56 games with the Mariners this season.

Ok, we have a deal finished.

THe Mariners have just released the trade, they've acquired SS Jack Wilson and RHP Ian Snell from the Pirates for SS Ronny Cedeno, C Jeff Clement, RHP Brett Lorin, RHP Aaron Pribanic and RHP Nathan Adcock

It's a lot of players to wade through. The first and foremost is Wilson, who the Mariners appeared to have some interest in earlier this season. GM Jack Zduriencik discussions about

Wilson is 31 and has spent his entire career with the Pirates. He has been loyal and was even considering re-signing with the team, until low-ball contract offers perhaps.

Since 2006, Wilson has the 4th-highest fielding percentage among all Major League shortstops (.980), and since his debut in 2001, he has made 1,112 starts at shortstop, 6th-most in the Majors. Wilson has a career .978 fielding percentage at shortstop, 4th-highest among active players (min. 650 G).

Wilson, a National League All-Star and Silver Slugger Award Winner in 2004, is a career .269 hitter (1158-for-4305) in 1159 career games with the Pirates since making his debut in 2001. He is hitting .267 (71-for-266) with the Pirates this season with 18 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs and 31 RBI.

Snell, 27, is 2-2, with a miniscule 0.96 ERA in six starts with AAA Indianapolis this season. He has struck out 47 in 37.1 innings. He started the season with the Pirates and was 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA in 15 starts. Since making his Major League debut with Pittsburgh in 2004, Snell has compiled a 33-46, 4.75 mark in 128 games, 116 starts.

Here's Jack Z's comments from the press release.

"This was an opportunity for us to acquire a veteran shortstop, a former All-Star player, with leadership qualities and above average defensive skills. As we move forward over the next few years it is nice to know that we have solidified the shortstop position."

"We also acquired Ian Snell, a talented pitcher with Major League experience who now has an opportunity re-start his career after a very successful re-assignment in Indianapolis."

I'll have more when I get to the stadium.

UPDATE 12:51 AM -- Jeff Clement's comment to Mike Curto, who covered the game for us: "I have no idea, they haven't told me anything."

Rainiers manager Daren Brown's only comment was no comment.

File this name away as well -- Aaron Pribianic of Class A Clinton

UPDATE 10:45 -- I tried to contact Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik but haven't heard from him. Manager Don Wakamatsu when asked about Clement had no idea that he'd been pulled and was informed of it only moments before his postgame press conference.

"I just found out about it," Wakamatsu said. "Obviously, we were here trying to win a ballgame. They are on the phone during the game talking to people and making decisions."

Then again when I mentioned to him that he wouldn't be the first to know of these things, he agreed.

"I trust our organization in Jack Zduriencik's hands," Wakamatsu said. "I don't know any details beyond that he was pulled from the game."

However, I talked with a player, who seemed pretty certain that a deal would be announced tomorrow. And that player, said, "I don't think we're selling, I think we're going out to get somebody."

If that's the case, there is a possibility that the Mariners would need to package Clement, along with perhaps a big league player (reliever?) and another minor league player. I'm checking into that, but it could be possibly be a pitching prospect from Double A or A.

UPDATE: My source told me that Clement isn't sick either. So obviously something is going on. And if you recall, Clement was also given yesterday off. So there's something being discussed or in process of being finalize. How it involves Clement we aren't certain.

Obviously, we heard the talk of the three-way trade earlier this week, in which Clement and Brandon Morrow would go to the Indians, Cliff Lee and possibly Victor Martinez would go to the Rays and then Scott Kazmir and Reid Brignac would come to Seattle.

That deal seemed to be off the table, especially with the Red Sox and Phillies pushing to get Lee instead.

But remember many of the perceived deals that we thought Jack Z was going to make, end up being different than suspected.

I've been informed that Jeff Clement has been pinch hit for in the third inning of the Rainiers game tonight in Reno. I have it on pretty reliable source that it is not injury related.

Hmmmmmm

Clement has been rumored to be part of possible trades already this season and maybe he is part of a package deal.

Or perhaps, he is being called up in place of another player for the Mariners, who might be getting dealt.

It's tough to say, but I do think it's unlikely that he angered manager Daren Brown to where he would be pulled. Jeff isn't that guy. The only other thing might be sickness of some sort, but he seemed fine when I talked to him yesterday, other than the mustache he was starting to grow.

Right now, I'm not sure, what's going on, but I will do some digging.

Not much to ask of a fellow who's spent the last four or five days talking about whether he was about to be traded, but Jarrod Washburn will try to snap a four-game Mariners losing streak tonight.

During that streak, Seattle has been out-scored, 42-10 - and folks are leaping off the bandwagon in packs.

Washburn has eight wins this season and probably should have three or four others, but none has been any more urgent than this one would be.

He could use a little help, and the lineup is without Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez once again. Both have tight backs.

Ichiro Suzuki had three of the Mariners 12 singles Monday night, and in his career he now has 194 three-hit games.

What the Mariners need tonight might be a three-run game from Ichiro, which would require someone driving him in.

Ichiro leads the American League by a wide margin with 146 hits - but he's not in the top 10 in runs scored.

It's Washburn vs. Marc Rzepczynski.

Who's in left?

First inning, no score, no one on and two outs. Vernon Wells drills a Washburn fastball deep to left field.

Rookie Michael Saunders tracks it, measures it and then leaps - all 6-foot-4 of him - and caught the ball near the top of the wall.

Waiting near the dugout, Washburn high fived the kid. Nicely done.

Ichiro ball

Ichiro's 147th hit of the season was a ground ball to shortstop that he outran. When Rzepcyznski tried to keep him close to first base, he balked Ichiro to second base.

Franklin Gutierrez bunted him to third. Mike Sweeney aimed a ground ball to the right side of the infield, Ichiro scored and Sweeney had his 17th RBI.

After one: Mariners 1, Blue Jays 0

Pitch count! Pitch count!

For dave and everyone else intrigued by the changing world of pitch counts in baseball, here's a wonderful story examining the topic from Tim Kurkjian.

He talked to quite a few people, including Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, and comes up with eight possible explanations - including the influence of the media.

Now, back to the game.

Washburn working it

Through five innings and with 63 pitches, Washburn has held Toronto to two hits, making that one run hold up.

The Mariners, of course, haven't added on. With scouts watching, Washburn has given them about all anyone could ask for - high fastballs, the occasional change, a breaking pitch that's been nasty.

And, oh yes, he's throwing a shutout.

After five: Mariners 1, Blue Jays 0

Mariners add on

Ichiro hasn't scored three runs yet, but he's scored two.

After Ichiro opened the sixth with a walk, Gutierrez singled, Sweeney grounded into a force play and Shelton - playing only because Branyan is stiff - doubled home a run.

Jack Hannahan singled home Sweeney.

After six: Mariners 3, Blue Jays 0

Toronto rallies

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with birds with one out, but manager Don Wakamatsu left it to Washburn as Mark Lowe warmed up in the bullpen.

Washburn gave up a sacrifice fly to Jose Bautista, got a line drive out from Raul Chavez and was out of it.

In the seventh: Mariners 3, Blue Jays 1

Toronto rallies II

Washburn is done after seven, and with Lowe pitching, the Jays got back-to-back doubles from Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill for a run.

With Hill on second, Lowe popped up Vernon Wells and Scott Rolen, but Alex Rios doubled to tie it up.

Lowe struck out Lyle Overbay.

If this losing streak is to be stopped tonight, Washburn won't be the one to end it with a win.

In the eighth: Mariners 3, Blue Jays 3

It's over!

Third baseman Hannahan's third hit of the night opened the ninth, Rob Johnson walked and Chris Woodward was credited with a bunt single that loaded the bases.

Pinch-hitter Jose Lopez forced Hannahan at the plate. With the infield playing in, Ronny Cedeno struck out.

Ichiro looked terrible on a second-strike swing, then blooped a single into short center field for the win.

It's final: Mariners 4, Blue Jays 3

When Erik Bedard came off the disabled list this month, he made two starts before his left shoulder started hurting whenever he threw a fastball.

"It just got consistently worse, but after my third start I didn't say anything - I didn't want to skip a start," Bedard said today. "We're playing well, we're winning and the team counted on me to be there every fifth day."

Bedard's fourth start was four days ago against Cleveland, and in it he threw 81 pitches in three innings.

"Not good," he said of the effort. "I felt OK warming up, but in the game, whenever I'd max out the fastball, there was a sharp pain, and I didn't have any command of the ball.

"I could throw the curve without the pain. I just assumed it was tendinitis, and that I could pitch through it."

When Bedard came out after the third inning, manager Don Wakamatsu told him he was done. Bedard didn't argue. He was in pain and pitching ineffectively.

After the game, Wakamatsu, general manager Jack Zduriencik and trainer Rick Griffin met with Bedard.

"I didn't volunteer anything," he said. "But I didn't really have to. They knew something was wrong, so I told them."

There is, as of now, no official diagnosis other than inflammation, and Bedard is getting treatment for it.
Wakamatsu said today Bedard would try to throw tomorrow, in part to evaluate his progress, in part to keep him stretched out while on the disabled list.

Bedard will try, he said, to do everything he's asked to do. As of today, however, the discomfort remains little changed.

"If my arm is at my side, I'm fine," he said. "If I lift it, it hurts."

He is aware - perhaps hyper-aware - of the complaints that he is injury prone or, worse, a wimp.

"I work hard, but in this game everyone works hard," he said. "Some people just get hurt, and you can't explain it. You can't explain everything that happens, you just deal with it.

"I feel terrible. I'm letting my team down, and I don't know when I'll pitch again. I we had a magic wand, we could wave it over my shoulder and I'd be fine."

Instead, he takes his meds, does his exercises, goes through the ice packs and heat packs and waits for the pain to subside when he lifts his left arm.

"My teammates are supportive, but when guys ask 'How are you doing?' I always say, 'OK.' I don't know what else to say."

A relatively quiet pregame meeting with manager Don Wakamatsu.

The status of Russell Branyan and Jose Lopez and their achy backs were the first order of business.

We thought we'd have tehm both back in there today, but they were both a little bit stiff," Wakamatsu said. "I'd like to think they are going to be in there tomorrow. Bottom line, I think it's better off resting them and letting them get in there tomorrow."

Branyan has battled this on different occasions, including spring training and most recently the road trip in Cleveland. But Wakamatsu said this isn't quite as severe.

Lopez just woke up stiff, there wasn't a play that tweaked the back that Wakamatsu could recall.

Wakamatsu said he probably won't use either in a pinch-hitting situation.

As I type this, Adrian Beltre is taking batting practice on the field. He's hit a few balls deep into the left-field stands.

"His BP yesterday was as good as I've seen in a long time," Wakamatsu said.

The plan is to have Beltre to continue taking batting practice and working out into the Texas portion of the road trip and then possibly activating him Kansas City.

Jarrod Washburn takes the mound tonight while trade rumors continue to swirl about him. According to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal and JP Morosi, the Mariners have told interested teams like the Brewers, Yankees and Phillies, that Washburn is officially on the market.

Wakamatsu was asked how Washburn is dealing with the rumors and speculation.

"It’s not easy for anybody," Wakamatsu said. "We had a talk in there yesterday and just tried to keep him focused. He is a veteran guy and been through a lot. He went through it last year and nothing happened last year. To me, if there is anybody can handle it, it would be him."

As for Erik Bedard's replacement in the rotation, Wakamatsu said they are leaning towards Garrett Olson making that start.

Blue Jays
Scutaro SS
Hill 2B
Wells CF
Rolen 3B
Rios RF
Overbay 1B
Millar DH
Bautista LF
Chavez C
-----------
RHP LHP Rzepcynski

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Gutierrez CF
Sweeney DH
Shelton 1B
Hannahan 3B
Johnson C
Woodward 2B
Saunders LF
Cedeno SS
--------
LHP Washburn

So according to Mets GM Omar Minaya, if you write stories about how your assistant GM took his shirt off in the Double A clubhouse and challenged all the players to a fight, apparently it's because you are trying to get a job in the Mets' player development staff.

During yesterday's press conference discussing the dismissal of assistant GM Tony Bernazard, Minaya unexpectedly insinuated that the New York Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin was trying to take down Bernazard to somehow get himself a job with the Mets, or as vindication for not getting a job with the Mets.

“Adam, for the past couple of years, has lobbied for a player development position," Minaya said. "He has lobbied myself, he has lobbied Tony, and when these things first came out, I didn't know what to think about it."

Rubin to his credit didn't back down and confronted Minaya about the insinuation in the press conference, to which Minaya didn't really answer. Here's some video of it. Rubin also defended himself today in the paper.

To be honest, from the few times I've dealt with Minaya, it seemed a little out of character. But I think he knows the vultures are circling. Though this recent outburst did nothing to help him.

So I guess for me to get a job working for Jack Z, at least along Minaya's thinking, I just need to have Lee Pelekoudas, fly to West Tenn, rip off his shirt and challenge the likes of Greg Halman, Phillippe Aumont, Josh Fields and Nick Hill to throw down and then write about it.

Wow, working in New York would be interesting.

Ace Felix Hernandez has another of those 'you're-the-ace, fix-this' starts tonight.

The Mariners have not only lost three consecutive games, they've had their egos blown up in the process. Tonight, Hernandez goes for more than his 12th win - his job is to snap that Seattle losing streak.

To do that, he's going to have to pitch well, since his offense is a bit diminished without Jose Lopez or Russell Branyan in the lineup.

Both have stiff backs.

In their places: Chris Woodward and Chris Shelton, with Ken Griffey Jr. in the third spot as designated hitter.

It's Felix vs. Ricky Romero, Seattle vs. Toronto.

Toronto scores first

With a contingent of Blue Jays fans chanting their support, Toronto got a first-inning run by playing little ball.

Marco Scutaro blooped a single and Aaron Hill rolled a perfectly placed hit-and-run single into right field behind him.

Scott Rolen flied out, and the Blue Jays grabbed a lead.

In the first: Blue Jays 1, Mariners 0

Small ball all around

Mariners struck back in typical fashion: singles by Ichiro and Franklin Gutierrez, ground balls by Junior and Shelton got the run home.

Nice execution, we're tied.

After one: Mariners 1, Blue Jays 1

Long ball

Lyle Overbay got a 2-0 fastball about thigh high and hit it over the center field wall, with Felix turning to watch it go.

Probably only a double if they were playing in the Polo Grounds.

In the second: Blue Jays 2, Mariners 1

They're even

Junior singled, Shelton singled and, with one out, Rob Johnson singled home the tying run.

Johnson may never be the hitter fans thought Jeff Clement would be, but he's got up over .210 - which took quite a climb - and he's got 21 RBI. He's no longer an automatic out. Sort of a semi-automatic, now.

After four: Mariners 2, Blue Jays 2

Long Ball II

Rod Barajas this time, to left field, his ninth of the year.

If you're counting, that's 13 home runs for the opposition this home stand, zero for the Mariners.

Ouch.

In the fifth: Blue Jays 3, Mariners 2

Those scrappy Mariners

Rookie Michael Saunders opened the fifth wih a perfectly dropped bunt, went to second on an Ichiro single and scored on a Gutierrez single that tied the game.

With two outs, Shelton - yes, the guy who never gets to play - singled for his second RBI tonight.

A lead for Felix after five innings? The Mariners would take their chances on this one every night the rest of the year.

After five: Mariners 4, Blue Jays 3

Two outs, so what?

Felix got two quick outs, then gave up consecutive singles to Vernon Wells, Overbay and Alex Rios for a run that got Toronto even.

From left field, Saunders strong throw got to the plate with the runner, but Johnson couldn't hold it. Worse, it allowed the runners to move up a base.

Barajas bounced a ball past third, and shortstop Ronny Cedeno had no play, so the go-ahead run jogged in.

A fifth hitter, .167-batting Joe

Inglett, rolled a single into right field for another run. A bad-hop single by Scutaro off third baseman Hannahan meant another run - and Hernandez was gone.

Two outs, no one on, then six consecutive hits. Hernandez leaves, trailing by three.

In the sixth: Blue Jays 7, Mariners 4

Yikes!

Long fly to center field. Gutierrez gets to the wall, waits for it - and watches it bang off his glove for a three-base error.

Naturally, a fly ball got him home. Just a failure to focus, one of the few mental mistakes Gutierrez has made in the field all year.

In the seventh: Blue Jays 8, Mariners 4

Ugly, ugly, ugly

This is four consecutive losses, during which Seattle has been out-scored, 42-10.

They haven't played four worse games all year.

It's a final: Blue Jays 11, Mariners 4

As of this moment, Jarrod Washburn remains a Mariner, and general manager Jack Zduriencik is down on the field talking to - no, not another GM - a radio host from Toronto.

Washburn, talking about 90 minutes ago, said he was open to a contract extensiond and wouldn't speculate on trade rumors.

Look we know the Mariners need a shorstop, unless some of you want to see Ronny Cedeno and his .174 batting average back in a Seattle uniform next season. The Mariners have few legitimate shortstop prospects in the minor leagues. Their best prospect Carlos Triunfel has missed most of the season with a broken leg and there was some speculation before the season that Triunfel might be projected as a third baseman or second baseman in the big leagues.

But what I'm wondering is whether they have to use Washburn as the trade bait to get a shortstop prospect or an established shortstop.

We've heard that the Mariners and Brewers are discussing a deal for Washburn, and the Mariners want SS prospect Alcides Escobar in return. But in all previous trade talks this season, Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin intimated that Escobar was off limits in trades. It was rumored to be a sticking point in the Roy Halladay trade talks.

Fox Sports' J.P. Morosi is saying that Escobar could possibly be available for Washburn AND Brandon Morrow. Which really would basically be swapping prospect for prospect since Washburn is a free agent.

Still, my gut feeling is the Brewers are still finding ways to avoid giving up Escobar - their top prospect according to Baseball America - for Washburn. Milwaukee doesn't seem to inclined to sign JJ Hardy to an extension. And giving up Escobar would then leave them without a shortstop after next season. The Mariners ostensibly could take Hardy instead of Escobar and use him as a rent-a-player for this season and next, and then either try to sign him, trade him before next season's trade deadline or even pick up the draft picks for when he leaves as a free agent.

The Mariners need a shortstop and the Brewers have two. It makes sense. But maybe Jack Zduriencik also has his eye on other players in the system, after all, he knows plenty about them. Their system took a bit of a hit when they traded 1B/OF Matt LaPorta, Rob Bryson, Zach Jackson and Michael Brantley to the Indians for CC Sabathia.

But they do have Escobar, 3B Mat Gamel rated No. 2 by Baseball America, who was also deemed off limits in most trade talks. There is also catcher/3B - but really just left-handed hitter - Brett Lawrie (pictured above), who played in the Futures Game and is the younger brother of UW standout fastpitch pitcher Danielle Lawrie and is their No. 3 prospect. There's infielder Taylor Green, who is listed as third baseman, but projects more as a second baseman. The Brewers also have a couple decent pitching prospects and outfield prospects out there as well, so perhaps a package of two prospects not including Escobar could be easier to get done.

I'm not saying the Mariners aren't asking for Escobar. I'm sure they are. But he may be off the table. Of course, Zduriencik is in the power position. Washburn has drawn interest from the Brewers, Phillies, Yankees and other teams that view Washburn as a fallback if they can't get Halladay or Cliff Lee. So Big Z can take his business elsewhere if he's not liking what he's hearing from the Brewers.

The only thing we also must remember is that the trade chips have dwindled to Washburn at this point. Bedard won't get much interest, Beltre is hurt as well - perhaps they could be dealt before the waiver trade deadline ends in August. And of course, Miguel Batista, another free agent, isn't worth a bag of used baseballs and a free haircut from Supercuts.

Not the Mariners, apparently.

Two minutes into their 98th game, Grady Sizemore homered and, yes, Cleveland is ahead yet again.

The Indians haven't trailed in this series, and the only ties have been scoreless ties, since they've outscored the Mariners, 20-3.

Jason Vargas vs. Cliff Lee, with Mike Sweeney as the Mariners designated hitter - that's three consecutive games without playing Ken Griffey Jr. at home.

The key matchup? No. 9 hitters Kelly Shoppach (.194) vs. Ronny Cedeno (.178). Can either reach the Mendoza Line by August 1?

Seattle is trying to avoid a sweep and make up ground lost the past few days in the American League West. On the scoreboard in left field, it says the Twins lead the Angels, 2-0.

That would seem more encouraging if the Indians weren't once again leading the Mariners.

In the first: Indians 1, Mariners 0

Call the game!

With two outs, Jose Lopez singled, Sweeney doubled and Lopez spent too much time jogging to score from first.

Lost opportunity? No - thanks to Franklin Gutierrez, whose two-out single scored both runners and saved Lopez some explaining.

That's 44 RBI for Gutierrez, and an actual lead for Seattle.

After one: Mariners 2, Indians 1

It's even

Vargas was cruising along, having retired nine of 10 batters, when the Indians rallied with two outs in the fourth.

Ben Francisco doubled, Jamey Carroll dropped a bloop single into left field and Cleveland drew even.

In the fourth: Mariners 2, Indians 2

Bad decision, bad baseball

Just the kind of inning the Mariners avoided before this series.

Sizemore walks - the first mistake - takes second on a wild pitch. When Vargas fields a bunt, he throws late to third to put Indians at the corners with no one out.

Shin-Soo Choo, the former Mariner, singled Sizemore home to break the tie. With his 85th pitch, Vargas hit Ryan Garko to load 'em up.

That was it for Vargas, who was replaced by Shawn Kelley. In this inning, Vargas allowed one hit and leaves with a run home and the bases loaded.

On Kelley's second pitch, Jhonny Peralta hit a grand slam.

In the fifth: Indians 8, Mariners 2

Back to the ridiculous

The home runs are flying - off Indians bats - and another game is long gone for the Mariners.

If you're counting, Cleveland has hit 11 home runs in this series and the Mariners haven't hit one yet. The Indians have scored 31 runs, so far, to the Mariners 5.

It's a reminder how small Seattle's margin for error is - when they hold a team to three runs or less, they win. When teams break away, the Mariners can't do much more than wave goodbye.

They're waving now.

In the sixth: Indians 11, Mariners 2

A little Seattle history

Two outs into the seventh inning, Michael Saunders singled off the glove of center fielder Ben Francisco, who dove for the ball but couldn't come up with it.

That was Saunders' first big-league hit.

Did the Mariners score? No. But their rookie left fielder now is in the books with a base hit.

After seven: Indians 11, Mariners 2

And in the end

Call it a lost weekend - three games, three blowout losses and the Mariners are swept in a series most would have picked them to win.

Instead, they're left to lick their wounds and hope Felix Hernandez can beat the Blue Jays tomorrow night.
Saunders, by the way, delivered his second big-league hit - and first RBI - with a single in the ninth inning.

It's a final: Indians 12, Mariners 3

Rookie Michael Saunders becomes the sixth man to start in left field for Seattle this season - joining the ranks that include Wladimir Balentien, Ronny Cedeno, Endy Chavez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Ryan Langerhans.

He'll start behind lefty Erik Bedard, who hasn't won a game since June 7 - not the best stat to put up as the trading deadline approaches.

In his fourth start back from the disabled list, Bedard hasn't yet pitched into the sixth inning - and he's thrown 93 pitches in each of his last two.

This is a game the Mariners have to win, given they lost Friday and face Cliff Lee tomorrow.

It's Bedard vs. Jeremy Sowers.

Good news and bad

The Indians haven't scored in two innings against Bedard, but they've made him throw more than 40 pitches.

Before the game, Don Wakamatsu was asked what he hoped to see from his veteran lefty and he said: "Pitch efficiency."

What the Mariners need - and what scouts in the stands want to see - is a Bedard capable of gettting deeper into a game than the fifth inning. No matter how low that ERA, if he requires four innings from the bullpen every time out, he's not a top of the rotation guy.

What Bedard would like to see? Maybe a run behind him.

The end is near

Bedard labors through the third inning, throwing 40 pitches and giving up a two-out, two-run single after loading the bases with walks.

Now, he trails by two runs and has thrown 82 pitches - so he has about 18 left. Plate umpire Dale Scott had a small strike zone in the third, but 40 pitches to get three outs?

Not good.

In the third: Indians 2, Mariners 0

The end is here

Bedard left after three innings, and five pitches into the fourth, reliever Chris Jakubauskas had given up a single and a home run. A Ronny Cedeno error led to two unearned runs.

If you're scoring at home, Cleveland has now out-scored Seattle in the first 13 innings of this series, 15-0.

In the fourth: Indians 6, Mariners 0

Dancin' on the diamond

No sooner had Asdrubal Cabrera homered in the fifth inning than Jakubauskas drilled Ben Francisco in the back with a fastball.

The Indians came out of their dugouts willing to wrestle, but never quite reached the mound, and the Mariners came out even slower - so nothing happened, as cooler heads took over.

Wakamatsu lifted Jakubauskas for Garrett Olson and, with an eight-run lead, Francisco stole second base.

On your toes, lads.

In the fifth: Indians 8, Mariners 0

Just another long ball

Four home runs on Friday, three more today. Hard to believe these Indians came in with the second worst record in the American League.

The Mariners, meanwhile, have four hits today - all singles.

When a team is built around pitching and defense, and gets neither, it doesn't have much to fall back on. Which explains another lopsided score.

In the sixth: Indians 10, Mariners 0

To the ninth!

Well, the chances for a comeback seem ... um ... remote.

The Mariners are about to post their worst back-to-back games of the season, and while it was bound to happen at some point, they'd just as soon it happen on the road somewhere.

Instead, they're being blown out at Safeco Field by a bad team for the second night in a row, held to four hits today.

They haven't scored yet in this series, so they'r bearing down on their seventh shutout of the year.

That would mean Seattle hitters have one more shutout than Mariners pitchers this season.

And in the end

Apparently, the Indians hadn't forgotten Jakubauskas hitting Francisco in the fifth inning.

Winston Abreu began the bottom of the ninth by hitting Jack Hannahan in the back, which got Abreu and manager Eric Wedge ejected.

No one charged the mound. Everyone understood. Now, it should be over - much like the game.
Rob Johnson doubled into the right field corner, and umpires awarded Hannahan home, perhaps feeling bad about him being hit by a pitch. Right fieldr Chris Gimenez robbed Saunders of extra bases with a leaping catch at the wall.

Cedeno grounded out, pushing Johnson home. Ichiro doubled. Russell Branyan doubled to score Ichiro.

It's a final: Indians 10, Mariners 3

The new left fielder of the future, 22-year-old Michael Saunders, was in the Seattle Mariners lineup today - and the expense of the former left fielder of the future, Wladimir Balentien.

Saunders was recalled from Tacoma to make his big-league debut today, adding a bat with power potential to a batting order lacking it.

To make room for him on the 25-man roster, the Mariners designated Balentien for assignment, meaning they must trade, release or offer him the opportunity to play in the minors.

Saunders, a 6-foot-4, 210 pound left-handed hitter, batted .310 in 64 games with Tacoma this season, with 13 home runs and 32 RBI as he came back from 2008 shoulder surgery.

Balentien, a right-handed batter, hit .213 in 56 games with Seattle this year, hitting four home run and driving in 13. Once considered as good a young player as Adam Jones, the 25-year-old Balentien never blossomed in the big leagues and lost his starting job last month.

"I heard about all this last night about 11:30, and I didn't sleep a wink all night," Saunders said. "My family was already here to watch me play in Tacoma - my mom, dad and some friends - so they're coming here to watch me play now."

Penciled into the lineup, Saunders will play regularly, manager Don Wakamatsu said.

"I'll pick and choose a few spots, but he's here to play," Wakamatsu said. "The two questions you always ask about young players is, one, can he help you and, two, is he ready? We think he's ready. We'll find out about the first part."

That's five innings down

Rowland-Smith isn't done, but he's already given Seattle five strong innings - allowing just two hits and a run.

One of the things that got him back in the majors was how deep he was going in Tacoma, where he pitched at least seven innings in each of his final three starts there.

Yes, he's behind. But the Mariners can't have hoped for much more through five.

Any time now, guys

Pitching and defense win games, yes, but Rowland-Smith probably wouldn't mind seeing a little offense show up.

Through seven innings, the Mariners have three hits against lefty Laffey, and have gone 10-up and 10-down over the last three-plus innings.

Now it gets harder - Hafner just hit his 10th home run with Jhonny Peralta aboard, and Ben Franciso hits a solo home run.

After seven: Indians 4, Mariners 0

It's the ninth inning - duck

Miguel Batista in to pitch, and he quickly allows more hits (5) than the Mariners have all night, and as many runs (4) as Rowland-Smith allowed in seven innings.

It's a final: Indians 9, Mariners 0

A warm welcome back to Franklin Gutierrez back to the Mariners line-up and the confines of Safeco Field where all the walls were padded. Chris Shelton not only survives the roster cut, but he also gets the start at DH.

Indians (38-58)
Sizemore, cf
Cabrera, ss
Choo, rf
Martinez, c
Peralta, 3b
Hafner, dh
Garko, 1b
Carroll, 3B
Francisco, lf
----------------------------
Laffey, lhp

Mariners (51-44)
Ichiro, rf
Branyan, 1b
Lopez, 2b
Shelton, dh
Gutierrez, cf
Langerhans, lf
Johjima, c
Hannahan, 3b
Cedeno, ss
----------------------------
Rowland-Smith, lhp

Umpires:
HP - Ron Kulpa
1B - Dale Scott
2B - Delfin Colon
3B - Mike DiMuro

I'll be going on with Ian Furness at 1:40ish on KJR for my weekly segment and also I've fooling around with a twitter account against my better judgement, which you can get to at twitter.com/tntmariners.\

Unfortunately, I'm not talking about the Mariners, though they've won every game after the break that Garrett Olson didn't start. So with him out the rotation, they should be money.

No the "these guys" I was referring to is the Los Angeles Angels, who won yet again, this time scoring two runs in the ninth off of all-star closer Joe Nathan and later beating the Minnesota Twins in the 10th inning.

It was the Angels' 31st comeback victory of the season - the most in the majors.

Perhaps, David Aardsma put it best today following the Mariners win in Detroit.

"We just need the Angels to lose, Aardsma said. "We feel like we win they win, and when we lose they win. It feels like they can’t lose a game to save our lives. That’s all we can do is keep playing and when we get a chance to face them, take advantage of it."

Think about this, the Mariners were four games back at the all star break. They went 5-2 out of the break and still managed to lose 1.5 games in the standings

Oh this should make Mariners fans pleased, but owner Arte Moreno said that they are interested in acquiring an ace. Los Angeles has already inquired about Arizona's Dan Haren, and will are in the middle of the Roy Halladay sweepstakes, and now they may target Cliff Lee.

Here's the standings as of tonight ...

AL WEST W-L PCT GB L10
LA Angels 56-38 .596 - 9-1
Texas 52-41 .559 3.5 5-5
Seattle 51-44 .537 5.5 7-3
Oakland 40-54 .426 16 5-5

Well, I made my flight, after taking possibly one of the scariest, most expensive cab rides ever. I'm not certain, but I think I may have similar pain in my neck that Franklin Gutierrez is experiencing after my cab driver used his breaks in the jump on them with two feet method.

Anyway, a great win for the Mariners. It wasn't pretty offensively. Manager Don Wakamatsu called it "scratch and claw." I guess Mike Sweeney's RBI double was "scratch" and Wlad Balentien's RBI fielder's choice "claw."

It was enough for Washburn, who was extremely candid following his fourth straight win to improve to 8-6 on the season and lower his ERA to 2.71.

We talked with Washburn who was very candid about the team, the standings and the trade deadline.

When asked about the Angels, he said ...

"You pay attention. Our goal is to catch 'em, so you pay attention, keep an eye on what they're doing. All we can control is what we're going on the field. We have to keep playing the way we are now and try to win the first game of a series. Then stay within striking distance when we really have a chance to control our fate, when we're playing Texas and the Angels head to head. All we can control is what we're doing. You pay attention. It's just human nature to pay attention. But all we worry about is what we can control."

In fact it was Washburn who first mentioned the trade deadline, not us.

To start the second half strong, a lot can happen, the trade deadline is coming up. We know the only way we can control what's going to happen is at least try to make the decisions hard for Jack. Hopefully, we won't be in a position we're going to be selling the whole team off. I think we're making it hard on him. Let's see what he ends up doing, but we're happy with the way we're playing. We definitely need to come out and start the second half strong to continue the momentum we had at the end of the first half.

Given the opening we kept firing questions ...

We asked if the feelings change depending on how things work out

"I'd say it's a day to day feeling. A lot can happen in a day. Guti hitting the wall, luckily he didn't hurt anything serious, he'll only be out a couple of days. But if he was going to be out a long time, that might make some decisions easier for Jack. That would be a tough guy to replace. But we've had a few tough guys to replace go down this year, but it seems like someone steps up and fills that role. I don't doubt anything we can accomplish here."

=> Read more!

Well, first pitch was 1:31, so it was a 26 minute delay.

The Mariners will be facing lefty Luke French, who to be honest. I don't know much about. He's 1-0 with 1.89 ERA. He's appeared in five games and started three. He was 4-4 at Triple A

According to the Tigers media guide, Lucas "Luke" French was drafted in the 8th round of the 2004 draft. He was born in Salina, Kansas, but played his high school ball at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado.

First Inning
Ichiro Suzuki keeps his streak of not going in hitless in back-to-back games going with an infield single and moving to second on Brandon Inge's throwing error. He would later score on the Mike Sweeney's double down the left-field line.

I've counted eight scouts at the game. I mentioned the Phillies were here, there are also scouts from the Pirates, Diamondbacks, Twins, Yankees in attendance

Wash works into some minor trouble and works right out of it.

Second inning
Well the Mariners catch a bad break, they were trying to play hit and run with Johnson, but his liner is grabbed by Placido Polanco, who tags out Langerhans for a double play. In the very next at-bat Jack Hannahan hits a ground rule double.

Washburn goes 1-2-3 in the inning with three fly ball outs, all of his outs this game have come on fly balls.

Third inning
Three more flyball outs for Wash, its nine in a row.

Fourth inning
Washburn goes from a flyball outs to strikeouts. He strikes out 2 of 3 and gets a ground ball out.

Fifth inning
The Mariners squander a chance in the fifth getting a pair of runners on. Washburn gives up a lead-off single, but got a nice 6-4-3 double play to help get out of the inning.

Sixth inning
The Mariners go up 2-0 as Lopez doubles to lead off the inning and later scores on Wlad Balentien's fielder's choice, maybe not exciting, but effective.

Two more fly ball outs for Washburn.

Seventh Inning
Two more fly ball outs for Washburn, that's 14 of the 21 outs on flyballs.

Eighth Inning
Well, Mark Lowe nearly gives me a heart attack, walking the lead off guy, throwing six straight ball, then striking out two guys and giving up an RBI triple to Curtis Granderson. Wak pulls him for Sean White, who gets Placido Polanco and his odd-shaped head to ground out to end the inning. MAriners lead 2-1, but I wouldn't mind an insurance run for my sanity.

UPDATED 10:01 a.m.: The new start time will be 1:30 p.m. (EST), 10:30 a.m. PST.

UPDATED (9:45 a.m.): It's raining right now again. The tarp is back on the field, and I'm not going to take a picture, because I'm going to bang my head off the desk and then call Northwest to see about my options.

There was also a scout sitting behind us early that was talking to his bosses, and he let it be known that he was here specifically to scout Washburn. I checked, and he was from the Philadelphia Phillies.

As you can tell from stellar photography above, the tarp is off the field and they are applying Diamond Dray to the field. Diamond Dry is basically ground up corn cobs, that somebody marketed for quick water absorption for baseball and softball fields. And now the guy is a probably a billionaire.

The reason the grounds crew is wearing Santa Hats is for the Tigers' Christmas in July promotion. I'm sure they're ecstatic about wearing a santa hat in like 88 percent humidity.

Not much going on in the pregame meeting with manager Don Wakamatsu.

He still has made no decision on the Sunday starter. He mentioned Jason Vargas or Chris Jakubuaskas as candidates, and did not mention Brandon Morrow.

The decision could come down to if they have to use Jakubauskas today or tomorrow extensively.

Adrian Beltre will start hitting off the tee during the Toronto series next week and Wakamatsu said it appeared that his recovery will be "expedited."

UPDATE: It would help if I actually remembered to post the lineups. You'll notice Franklin Gutierrez is not in there. The knee and elbow are fine according to Wakamatsu, but the neck muscles are still very stiff.

LINEUPS
Mariners
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B (Thanks ETFM for the heads up)
Sweeney DH
Balentien LF
Langerhans CF
Johnson C
Hannahan 3B
Cedeno SS
-------
LHP Washburn

Tigers
Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Cabrera 1B
Thames DH
Ordonez RF
Raburn LF
Inge 3B
Ryan C
Everett SS
---------
LHP Luke French

This picture does not make me happy. Not because of the sheer anticipation of seeing Jarrod Washburn pitch, but because I have a 7:30 flight out of here, and that could be in jeopardy. And that would be beyond inconvenient for me.

You know what else is inconvenient -- how bad the Kansas City Royals are playing. They have a 6-2 lead on the Angels and then choke it away in the late innings, using four different pitchers in a five-run eighth inning. Then again this a team that did trade for Yuniesky Betancourt ... on purpose. But if you ask their GM Dayton Moore, he believes they're on the "right track" for long term success. Apparently Moore has been watching a few too many Tony Robbins videos at night, but at least he got a snuggie and a shamwow as well.

I don't know what to think about the Angels right now, they keep winning games behind the stellar hitting of Erick Aybar, Maicier Izturis and Mike Napoli.

And apparently, the team I thought was the best in the American League - the Boston Red Sox - apparently can't beat the Texas Rangers. Texas swept the Red Sox, knocking Boston out of the AL East lead and keeping pace with the Angels.

So here's the standings....
Angels 55-38 .591 ----
Rangers 52-41 .559 3.0
Mariners 50-44 .532 5.5
A's 40-53 .430 15.0

I was perusing the Detroit Free press and John Lowe's game story

When I came across this quote.

"This is not an ordinary pitcher," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "This guy is one of the best in baseball. It still frustrates you a little bit, but not as much as if it had been an ordinary pitcher.

You said it Jim.

BOX SCORE

It appears that the hapless Kansas City Royals, who blew a 6-2 lead in a 9-6 loss to the Angels, will do no favors for the Mariners, so Seattle simply can't afford to lose any games right now. And they certainly can't lose a game with Felix Hernandez on the mound.

But for seven innings it certainly looked that way. Felix was solid as usual. He shook off a tough first inning and then gave the Mariners nation a near second coronary in two days when he twisted his ankle on Marcus Thames' infield bloop fly.

Wakamatsu had a sick feeling in his stomach as Felix lay on the infield grass not getting up immediately.

“The same thing that happened with Franklin Gutierrez last night,” Wakamatsu said. “You hold your breath and hope it's not severe. After the game, we checked on him, and he had no ill-effects from it.”

What did Felix think?

"I'm used to it," he said.

Perhaps, but is there a need to go for that play. It's not a high percentage play.

"It's a flyball and I'm going to try and catch it," he said.

Apparently, he's channeling his inner-Franklin Gutierrez.

Ever the competitor, Felix got up threw a few warm up pitches and proceeded to pitch the next 4 1/3 inning allowing just one hit.

"That shows his competitiveness and how much he battled to get into that seventh inning," Wakamatsu said. "I thought he did a great job, came out and competed, his stuff was good. Just the pitch count got up a little bit. Other than that, you can't ask for anything more."

And yet, after seven innings, he still was behind 1-0 and looking at a loss.

Why?

Well, Tigers starter Armando Galarraga - a fellow Venezuelan and friend of Felix - was better.

He allowed on 1 hit - a Ryan Langerhans single to right - over 7 1/3 innings.

“He changes speeds, he doesn't throw anything in the middle of the plate,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. “He threw a heck of a ballgame. He kept us off balance and threw a lot of pitches right on the corner. We couldn't square anything up. He seemed to want us to swing a little bit off the plate. He did a nice job.”

=> Read more!

Well, we had a rain delay of 32 minutes. It's better than an hour and 32 minutes.

First Inning
Not exactly a productive first inning for the Mariners at the plate, as Armando Galaragga needs just nine pitches to get out.

Felix Hernandez needed a few more than that. As he gave up back to back hits to Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco, but then struck out Miguel Cabrera and Clete Thomas, walked Marcus Thames to load the bases and got Josh Anderson to pop out. That took 20 pitches, and that might have been the best chance for the Tigers to get their runs off of Felix.

Second inning
The Mariners go quietly in the second as Galaragga does walk a batter at least.

The Tigers see a little different Felix in the second inning as he goes 1-2-3 with ease.

Third inning
Galarraga still hasn't given up a hit, though Cedeno did line out.

The Tigers get to Felix and part of the reason is his fault. Placido Polanco singles to right with one out, and after Felix strikes out Cabrera, he falls asleep with Polanco on first and the Tigers second baseman steals second with ease. Two pitches later, Polanco scores on Clete Thomas' single.

Things get much worse as Felix twists his already weak ankle on Marcus Thames' little pop in the field. First Gutierrez and now Felix? Who angered the baseball gods? But of course he stays in the game. What can you say, the guy doesn't like coming out of the game. And he rallies to strike out Anderson on a nasty 3-2 pitch.

UPDATE: My buddy Doug Pacey is covering the Rainiers tonight and he talked to Ryan Rowland-Smith before the game, here's a few quotes.

On finding out
“I got a heads-up about it last night. It was confirmed to me today.”

On his being in Tacoma
“It’s been an interesting couple of months. There have been a lot of lows and a few highs. There’s been some negativity and the biggest thing is I had to not doubt myself and have confidence in my stuff.”

On the success he’s had in his last four starts
“I’ve been using my check points in my mechanics, just little things like that and believing that I’m good enough.”

Fourth inning
An eight-pitch inning for Galaragga. Are the M's trying to get no-hit?

Fifth inning
The Mariners get their first hit as Ryan Langerhans slaps a single through the right side. Jack Hannahan later draws a walk, but that's where that ends.

Miguel Cabrera extends his hitting streak to how many 17 games with a double to right-center just past Ichiro, but that matters little as Felix gets out of the inning.

Sixth inning
apparently the Mariners can't seem to figure out Galarraga. Fortunately for the Ms, the Tigers aren't doing much against Felix.

Eighth inning
The Mariners finally get Galarraga out of the game and Russell Branyan got to reliever Bobby Seay, crushing a 415 foot homer to left on a 1-0 slider. It was a two-run shot and it puts Felix in line to get the win.

It was just the second Mariners hit of the game.

UPDATE: as you can see from the photo above, the tarp is coming off the field. Approximate start time is 7:40 p.m. in Detroit and 4:40 p.m. in the Northwest.

Well, we have ourselves a bit of precipitation.

Not exactly a Motown flavor, but you get the gist ...

Apparently, it's supposed to be a short storm, so we should be playing soon.

Manager Don Wakamatsu confirmed that Ryan Rowland-Smith will indeed be the starter on Friday. Erik Bedard will be pushed back to Saturday and Garrett Olson will not start on Sunday, and the final decision on who will make that start hasn't been determined.

Wakamatsu gave two reasons for pushing Bedard back: 1. the extra rest is always good for Bedard because of his past shoulder issues. 2. It would set him up to start the opening game of the Texas series July 30.

So here's how it slots
Today - Felix Hernandez
Thursday - Jarrod Washburn
Friday - Ryan Rowland-Smith
Saturday - Erik Bedard
Sunday - To be announced.

When asked about what has him impressed him most with Rowland-Smith's recent outings, Wakamatsu said:

"I think the progression as much as anything," he said. "Just the fact the velocity was up. There were different reports good and bad. I wouldn't say bad, but the location on certain pitches could be better. The overall improvement...it's kind of what we talked about, him going down and getting ample work. We want to see how he'll fare up here."

=> Read more!

Grrrrr, that's the Tiger in front of Comerica Park.

As we go into today's game obviously two things stand out:

1. The status of Franklin Gutierrez.
2. The status of the rotation

UPDATE: Manager Don Wakamatsu also mentioned to us that Gutierrez is bothered by a sore neck, saying it was jarred a little when he slammed into the wall.

When asked if he felt lucky that Gutierrez only has bumps and bruises, Wakamatsu said: "Absolutely. The amount of time he spent on the ground, the initial collision -- I really thought he broke something. I was talking to Dave Niehaus earlier -- he kept looking for the cart. For him to be able to just walk off with help of trainers, that was a good sign."

He's a tough kid. The majority of his body took the brunt, not one single area. That's a blessing in itself.

The hope is still that Gutierrez will be ready on Thursday, but Wakmatsu is trying to be careful.

"I don't want to send him out there if he's not ready to go," he said.

Well, on the first aspect, we just saw Gutierrez briefly in the clubhouse.

When asked if he was sore today, he responded, "A little bit." And then before we could get another question in, he said, "I'm fine."

So that's that.

I will say he is walking normal with no limp.

We talked briefly with trainer Rick Griffin, who said that Gutierrez got to the field early and already had two treatments on his elbow and knee. He even rode the exercise bike.

Of the two, which concerns him the most, Griffin said it was Gutierrez's left knee.

"Probably the knee because he's trouble with it in the past," Griffin said.

In the moments after Gutierrez hit the wall, Griffin had thought he'd broken his collarbone or separated his shoulder, just by the way he was laying and keeping his left arm low.

So if Gutierrez says he's fine, then I'll believe him. But fine doesn't necessarily mean that he'll be in the line-up tomorrow. Griffin wouldn't give us a timetable on his return.

On the second aspect, the rotation is now likely in need of two starters, not just a fifth.

With Wakamatsu admitting that they are most likely going to take Olson out of the starting rotation, which will be good for the team and him as well, we are left with four viable starting options for two spots.

We have:
1. Chris Jakubauskas
PRO: He's started games before at the big league level, he's stretched out and has had some success.
CON: I don't know that his stuff necessarily rates as a starter. He's pretty effective only about once or twice through the order and not much more than that.
2. Ryan Rowland-Smith
PRO: He's pitching lights out for the Rainiers. In his last three starts, he's only allowed four runs in 21 1/3 innings pitched. His velocity is back up to 89-91 and he seems to have found his command with his offspeed pitches.
CON: The numbers he is putting up are at Triple A, not the big leagues. And the only start we've seen him at the big league level this year was the first week of the season.
3. Jason Vargas
PRO: He's had success as a starter this season. His command is a plus and he has four pitches he can use. HE's also stretched out and would be on proper rest for Saturday's start.
4. Brandon Morrow
PRO: The stuff is there. He has started games at the big league level with fair to average success and he's scheduled to pitch on Friday which would fit what the Mariners need.
CON: Everything that we've complained about Morrow in terms of fastball command, reluctance to throw his offspeed stuff, confidence in the offspeed stuff was still readily apparent in his first start with the Rainiers.

If I had to make an educated guess it will be one of the guys from Triple A and then Jakubauskas, you would only have to make the one roster move and slide Olson to the bullpen. If they were to bring up two players from the Rainiers, they would have to make two roster moves.

The Mariners are carrying 14 position players and 11 pitchers, so they have to make a decision, they could always place somebody on the disabled list and use the new "anxiety disorder" injury.

I'm not even certain of what the move will be for the extra starter. Do they send out Olson and stay at 11 pitchers on the staff? Or do they send out Shelton or Woodward and have a 12 pitcher staff.

You can see how bringing up a second pitcher would make things more difficult in terms of roster decisions. Almost certainly Olson would have to be sent down or to the DL if they bring up two players.

It will be interesting decision to see. We've heard that part of the reason for possibly pushing Bedard back to Saturday in his next start is so that he would be lined up to pitch in the series against Texas on July 30-Aug 1. He would set up to pitch Thursday July 30, the day before the MLB trade deadline.

Where exactly do you start with this game. Perhaps, it's instructive to go with what everybody's talking about and going to be talking about - Gutierrez and the scare he gave everybody.

Here's another reason why you should love Gutierrez. He was asked postgame if he knew he was going to hit the wall, his response:

"I knew it. I had to take a chance to get that fly ball," he said. "When you are in the moment you only think of catching the ball and that’s it."

Unfortunately, that collision was into a part of the fence where there is no padding, only some metal and plastic.

“I don’t know what it is,” Gutierrez said of the composition of the fence. “I hit so hard, it felt like I hit rock.”

You know what I first was reminded of? This ....

I wasn't the only one.

"I thought he might have caught his wrist there and broke his hand," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "Even when we went out there, he was a little bit dazed just from the collision. I was hoping he didn't have a concussion. He was a little disoriented out there, but nothing serious. We're awfully thankful for that."

M's trainer Rick Griffin was also worried.

"We thought it might be broken collarbone or even dislocated shoulder," Griffin said.

Instead, it's contusions on his left knee and elbow and some bruised ribs, a few scrapes and that's it.

"Other than that, he's very lucky, very fortunate," Griffin said "It could have been worse."

The Mariners are also very lucky. A broken bone would have ended their chances. As it is, they aren't outstanding with the Angels sweeping a double header from the Royals today. But if Gutierrez were out for a month or so, the Ms would be done. Instead, Gutierrez was walking around the clubhouse without a limp and seemed to moving decently.

=> Read more!

We have the report on Gutierrez, and it's actually pretty good news considering the collision with the wall.

Gutierrez left the game with what they labeled "left knee and left elbow contusions." X-rays on his elbow were negative. He's also got an abrasion on the knee. We don't know the extent of the contusions (bruises), but if he thinks he feels bad now, he's really going to feel bad tomorrow.

He's officially listed as day-to-day, you can all breath a sigh of relief. When you saw the photo below, you had to be absolutely freaking out.

Youngster Rick Porcello all of 20 years old will make his second start against the Mariners. He beat the Mariners 8-2 on April 19th for his first career win, pitching 7 innings, allowing one run on five hits and striking out three.

Much of the talk surrounding the Tigers is their offensive struggles of late, to which I say: The Mariners have struggled offensively most of the season.

First Inning
Ichiro with a lead-off double to left. He later stole third with Jose Lopez up and the true evidence of how bad the Tigers offense has been of late, Jim Leyland plays the defense in to cut the run off - in the first inning. That move doesn't work so well as Lopez sneaks a ground ball through the middle of the field. M's lead 1-0

Garrett Olson, who is barely hanging on to his spot in the rotation, is watching it slip away at a much faster pace than he pitches at. He's made it four batters before having Chris Jakubauskas. Maybe Jakubauskas should just warm up with Olson before the game starts. Olson gives up a single to Granderson, an RBI double to Polanco, then walks Thames and Cabrera and then serves up a grand slam to Magglio Ordonez, who has been one of the Tigers worst hitters all season. It's 5-1 and he hasn't even recorded an out.

So he gave up, five runs on four hits, he walked two and threw 42 pitches.

Ladies and Gentleman --- Garrett Olson!!!!!!

Second inning
Olson allows a homer and a walk before he mercifully gets lifted for Jakubauskas-- 1 1/3 7 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, 2 HR. He threw 53 pitches, 30 were strikes and not one of them was a swing and a miss.

This is horrible development, Gutierrez plows into the wall, trying to make another amazing catch. He's down, and we haven't heard what's hurt on him. We'll obviously let you know as soon as we hear something.

He's being helped off the field by trainer Rob Nodine. There's something wrong with his left arm, either shoulder, forearm or wrist.

Balentien will go into left and Langerhans will move to CF.

Third inning
The Mariners get one back as Balentien tries to make the most of an opportunity with an RBI single.

Fourth inning
Still no news on Gutz, Mariners media guru Jeff Evans, promised to keep us posted.

Jack Hannahan hit a solo homer, so now it's 8-3.

If Gutierrez's injury is bad, the Mariners will have the option of calling up Prentice Redman and Michael Saunders, both of whom can play centerfield, Jerry Owens can play centerfield and has played in the big leagues, or they can keep Langerhans in center and use those three or even Mike Carp or Bryan LaHAir in left field, but they aren't exactly ideal defensive options.

Fifth inning
The Mariners continue to claw their way back into the game. Wlad Balentien draws a walk and then Ryan Langerhans rips a two-run homers. It's now 8-5 the Mariners lead.

Jakubauskas has been decent since he came in, I would sooner see him make Olson's next start than Olson, Jakubauskas seems to pitch more in them anyway.

Sixth Inning
It's now 8-6 since Jack Hannahan hit another solo home run to right off of Fu-Te Ni. That's homers in consecutive at-bats. The Mariners third base duo of Jack Hannahan and Chris Woodward were 0-for-18 in the ABs leading up to Hannahan's first homer.

Miguel Cabrera pushes the lead to 9-6 with a solo homer to left off of Shawn Kelley. The Tigers moved the fences in at Comerica a few years ago, and that probably would have never come close to getting out in the old dimensions.

Seventh Inning
Wlad Balentien continues to make the of his unexpected playing time crushing a pitch off of Bobby Seay deep into the left field stands for a solo home run. That's a season-high four homers in a game for the M's.

Will it be him?

or him?

or him?

Manager Don Wakamatsu said he plans on announcing the fifth starter to join the rotation tomorrow, perhaps the wait will be to see how Garrett Olson does today because he may also add a fourth starter if Olson struggles again on the mound.

"We're still talking about the fifth starter, we haven't made that decision yet," Wakamatsu said. " We'll make that probably by tomorrow. We have some options and maybe give (Erik) Bedard one extra day and maybe go (with fifth starter) on the 24th. We kept talking about the 25th, but we might do it on the 24th."

I don't know that it could be Vargas, since he threw on Monday and he would be throwing on really short rest. But if they don't bump Bedard back and start him on Friday as he's scheduled, Vargas would slot better for Saturday.

Wakamatsu wasn't exactly thrilled with Vargas' outing last night in Tacoma. Here's my buddy Doug Pacey's game story about last night, where me mentions a couple bad innings plague Vargas.

Wakamatsu had similar comments about Vargas.

"They weren’t great," Wakamatsu said of the reports on Vargas. "I think that the command was the biggest issues. You end up having a cuple good innings, and I think the fourth is where he ended up giving up two runs on three hits and a walk. Not exactly what we were looking for."

If they were looking for a Friday starter, Morrow is scheduled to start Friday night for the Rainiers, so that's a match. But Wakamatsu was far from pleased with Morrow's last outing.

"The things that we talked about him working on, I didn’t think we accomplished," Wakamatsu said. "No. 1, he walked the first hitter on four pitches so the command overall was not what we were looking for from him. Second, with his secondary pitches – we talked about going a little bit hard and soft and we didn’t see that also. When he tried to throw his curveball he yanked it out of the zone. Again, we just keep going back and try to reiterate what’s going to make these guys successful at the major league level. "

So that leaves Ryan Rowland-Smith, who's pitched the best of the three. The problem is his starts don't slot out well. He's scheduled to start on Wednesday for the Rainiers. So he would need to be scratched and maybe work a light side session. That possibility seems entirely possible. So we'll have to make sure and watch to see if RRS is scratched from his start tomorrow.

Just got back from the clubhouse, and a check of the line-up card where Mike Sweeney's name is listed in the reserves, while Josh Wilson is not listed at all.

A quick conversation with the Mariners media staff and they confirmed that is the pending roster move of activating Sweeney from the disabled list, while Wilson will be designated for assignment. But manager Don Wakamatsu won't make it official until after batting practice, in case something were to happen to Sweeney.

We talked with Sweeney a little bit. He seemed genuinely upset having to take Wilson's place on the roster, saying it's a good and bad day since Wilson is being sent out.

"It breaks my heart that a guy like Josh Wilson has to get sent out," Sweeney said.

Wilson appeared in six games and had two at-bats since the Mariners claimed him on June 19th.

Sweeney went on the disabled list on July 7th, retro to July 6th for back spasms. But he admitted he didn't need 15 days to get healed up.

"I told Jack and Wak that I'd only need three days," Sweeney said. "I know my body pretty well, especially with back and knee pain. I know how long its going to keep me out. They told me after a few days they needed a spot for Bedard, and I told them, 'whatever is bet for the team, is best for me. If this is something you need to do, do it.'"

As for staying ready, Sweeney has been taking batting practice and been very active for the last seven days. He isn't concerned about being rusty when he comes back.

"I have a routine that gets me ready to play and if I'm in the line-up I'll be ready to go," he said.

With Chris Shelton with the team, it will be interesting to see how Wakamatsu uses Sweeney and Shelton.

LINE-UPS
Mariners (49-43)
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B
Griffey DH
Gutierrez CF
Langerhans LF
Johjima C
Hannahan 3B
Cedeno SS
--------
LHP Olson (3-3, 4.53 ERA)

Tigers (48-42)
Curtis Granderson CF
Placido Polanco 2B
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Marcus Thames DH
Magglio Ordonez RF
Ryan Raburn LF
Brandon Inge 3B
Gerald Laird C
Adam Everett SS
-----------
RHP Rick Porcello (8-6, 4.14 ERA)

What's wrong with this picture? Read below.

Today's Standings

AL WEST
Angels 52-38 .598 ---
Rangers 50-41 .549 2.5
Mariners 49-43 .533 4.0
Oakland 39-52 .429 13.5

Quickly a few links about the Mariners.
I mentioned my column from today's paper. But I also had my Sunday column which gave out midseason awards to the Mariners and around baseball.

My MVP - Felix Hernandez.
My LVP - Carlos Silva

At the bottom of this Ken Rosenthal story that deals mainly with Roy Halladay (like everything these days), it mentions the Mariners have some interest in Nationals outfielder Josh Willingham, but so do a lot of other teams.

SI' Fan Nation blog says that Jarrod Washburn would be the most overrated player to acquire at the trade deadline. I don't know that I agree completely with that premise, but I guess I can see where he's coming from.

USS Mariner's Dave Cameron explains why Russell Branyan's production has fallen off.

=> Read more!

Good morning from the home of Motown. And though I didn't grow up during its golden age, my father made sure that I was aware of the great music from that era.

Here's one of my favorite songs by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.

It's gray and overcast out the window and during the entire three days we are here there's a chance of thunderstorms.

In today's paper, I wrote a column that tried to have a little fun with the whole Rob Johnson/Kenji Johjima catcher debate by using the wisdom of the man above.

Yep that's Crash Davis from the movie Bull Durham, and though that movie is 21 years old, many of its baseball lessons - particularly from Crash - hold their weight these days.

Just look at a few situations for the Mariners this year.

Example 1: the highly analytical Garrett Olson and his over thinking on the mound.

Crash says: “Don't think; it can only hurt the ball club.”

=> Read more!

Greetings from the Cleveland Airport, where a handful of writers - myself, Larry Stone and a few of the Japanese media - await flight 2541 to Detroit, which has been delayed by about an hour. So that means the delay will actually be longer than the flight.

Anyway, much of the story yesterday was Ichiro's catch to end the game. But I was unable to find a picture of it on our AP site. Obviously you can watch the video from MLB.com

Well, the excellent Yahoo blog Big League Stew put together a photo (which I posted above) from the AP and a screen grap and posted it in their Sunday wrap-up of games.

Watching the Indians and listening to some of their beat writers, I was reminded of something - that was the Mariners and our beat writers last season. Their game stories today reminded me of ones that we wrote last season.

Here's the game story from Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon Journal and the game story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

A quick mention of Brandon Morrow's start last night for Tacoma. It was well Morrow-esque. He gave up four runs in the first inning, couldn't spot his fastball and submarined his start because of a inflated pitch count. I don't have all the details. I'm awaiting an e-mail from the venerable Mike Curto and I will keep you posted. Here's the box score.

With the Mariners in the middle of this AL West race, I'm going to try and post daily links, particularly for the Angels and Rangers. I know I've made this promise before, "but this time it will be different, I promise." Believe me? Yeah, neither did any of my ex-girlfriends.

Here's the standings of the AL West as of today ...
TEAM - RECORD - PCT - GB -LAST 10 GAMES
Los Angeles Angels 52-38 .578 -- 7-3
Texas Rangers 49-41 .544 3.0 4-6
Seattle Mariners 49-43 .533 4.0 6-4
Oakland Athletics 38-52 .422 14.0 4-6

Even with the win yesterday, the Mariners still didn't make any ground on the Angels, who are playing the hapless Oakland A's. Even when Oakland lefty Brett Anderson has a perfect game through seven innings, the Angels' John Lackey was equally as good and Bobby Abreu delivered the game-winning hit.

Another note from the Angels, it appears Vlad Guerrero's days of playing outfield are done, at least for this season. Probably a good thing since he moved like he was a 65-year old man with double knee replacements out there.

The Rangers also kept pace as Ian Kinsler led off the game with a home run and ended the game with a walk off home run.

Former Mariner R.A. Dickey gave up the bomb and as expected, he took the blame for the loss.
Also of note, Joe Mauer went 0-for-6 in that game and his averaged dropped to below .360 meaning Ichiro is now leading the AL in batting.

The Rangers are rumored to be in the much-talked about Roy Halladay sweepstakes, but this Jeff Wilson story says they are reluctant to Bavasi their whole farm system for Halladay. You lik e my new word.

From the Divish dictionary...

Bavasi (Buh-vay-zee) - 1. verb, to inexplicably overpay for veteran talent thereby depleting your young prospects. 2. verb, to destroy a baseball franchise and do so in a condescending manner. 3. verb, to grossly underachieve and underperform (see also Silva). Syn - decimate, plunder, set-back, pillage. Ant - Zduriencik.

And one thing I love to do is go to one of the greatest sites on the internet -- baseball-reference.com - and check out the on this date in baseball history.... they NY Daily News just did a story on the guy who started it, his name is Sean Foreman.

Here's the entry for July 20th.

First of all a happy 21st birthday to Stephen Strasburg, who was born on July 20th, 1988. I don't think people will be spending much on his presents.

On this date in 1965, Former M's pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Sr. then of the Yankees becomes the first pitcher to hit an inside-the-park grand slam since Deacon Phillippe did it for the Pirates in 1910. Stottlemyre's bases-loaded drive in the 5th off Bill Monbouquette assures him a 6-3 victory over the Red Sox.

On this date in 2000, Red Sox OF Carl Everett - who was latered Bavasi'd by the Mariners - receives a 10-game suspension for twice bumping an umpire in a game with the Mets last week. A defiant Everett places most of the blame for the suspension on the media.

BOX SCORE

David Aardsma's raises his hands after Ichiro makes a great leaping catch at the wall on Victor Martinez's deep shot to right so secure the Mariners win.

Did you honestly think he wouldn't catch it?

Well Don Wakamatsu couldn't watch to find out.

“I didn’t look,” he admitted. “You look at the reaction of the hitter, and I think he thought he got it. I actually didn't see the catch.”

Though Wakamatsu didn’t watch it, he never lost hope that Ichiro would catch it.

“You always feel comfortable with him in right field that he's going to make a great catch or climb the wall,” Wakamatsu said. “It was awfully nice he came up with.”

Aardsma watched carefully and raised his hands (above) in celebration as Ichiro came down with the ball. He then bear-hugged Ichiro as the team shook hands post game.

“(Martinez) is a decent hitter and right off the bat I thought it was out, but you never know with Ichiro back there,” Aardsma said. “Obviously, he can cover a lot of ground and (Martinez) just didn’t get enough of it, and Ichiro made a great play on it. He made an awesome play.”

Ichiro was typically sardonic on the catch. When he was first asked to go through the play, he joked through his interpreter Ken Baron: “There was a runner on first, there was a fly ball and I caught it.”

But later he conceded that he was going to do everything he could to make the catch.

“The only thing that was in my mind as soon the ball made contact with the bat was to catch it,” he said. “Just like a dog chasing after a Frisbee.”

So the Mariners take 3 of 4 against an awful Indians team. They are now 49-43 --- how exactly I have no idea.

They gained no ground on the Angels as the squeeked out a win in Oakland to stay four games up on the M's.

Greetings on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, the Mariners will be looking to take three of four from the Indians today facing the likes of Aaron Laffey.

No familiar with the lefty Laffey. Well, he was a 16th round pick in the 2003 draft out of Allegany, MD. He's made 12 appearances this season, including six starts, and has been better than some of the other pitchers the Indians have rolled out this season.

First inning
Laffey is looking like Taffy (well you know give me a break it's early). Anyway, Branyan lobbied Wakamatsu to be in the line-up today and he just crushed a two-run homer to right that traveled 426 feet. Chris Shelton making his first start for the M's this season ripped a double down the line and then Franklin Gutierrez continued to torment his old team with a stinging line-drive RBI single.

The Mariners lead 3-0, but probably could have had more.

Second inning
The M's had a chance to go up 3-0, but Ronny Cedeno was tossed out at home following Jose Lopez's double to left to end the inning.

About the time that we noticed that Erik Bedard's fastball was right around 87 and no higher, he threw a few over 90 including one at 93. But it was an 88 mph fastball that Ben Francisco deposited into the left-field stands for a two-run homer. It Francisco's seventh of the season and traveled an estimated 398 feet. Bedard also gave up a single to Valbuena, but got Kelly Shoppach to hit one of the highest foul pops Ive ever seen for the third out.

Third inning
Chris Woodward makes a nice play on a ground ball to get an out, but the inning drags on and Bedard's pitch count is at 60 after three innings. Not a great development.

Fourth Inning
The Mariners miss out on another chance to stretch the lead with a runners on second and third and two outs and Lopez grounds out.

In the bottom of the inning, the Indians get a couple runners on, but Bedard comes up with a big strikeout of Kelly Shoppach to end the inning. He's at 77 pitches.

Fifth Inning
Well, it's now a tie ball game thanks to a ghastly two-out error on Jose Lopez. He seemed to anticipate where the ball was going to bounce up to instead of getting down on the ball. Initially, some people in the press box thought the ball had a bunch of sidespin, but replays showed it was was a ball he should have gloved. Bedard didn't look especially pleased and was lifted after the play.

The Ms brought in Miguel Batista, whose hairdo these days, should warrant this for his entrance music. He gets the one out needed to get out of the inning.

Sixth Inning
Well, Batista makes it interesting doesn't he? He looks stellar striking out the first two hitters, then walks light-hitting Luis Valbuena, gives up a double to Kelly Shoppach, throws about 11 pitches to Sizemore, who he eventually walks, and then gets Asdrubal Cabrera to ground out to end the inning. It took about 20 minutes as well.

Eighth Inning
The Mariners manufactured a run as Gutz leads off with a single and then Rob Johnson has a great at-bat, working a walk after an 0-2 count, Ryan Langerhans moves them up with a good sac bunt with all the infield drawn in and then Jack Hannahan hits a sac fly to right.

Mark Lowe gives up a lead-off single, but then leaves him there.

Ninth Inning
WEll the Mariners add a key insurance run when Cabrera bobbles a sure double play ball with bases loaded to let a run score. Yeah, the Mariners should have had more, but you take what you can get.

Aardsma gets some help from Ichiro with a great catch at the wall to save the game.

Well after writing today that Russell Branyan was going to get the day off - based on what manager Don Wakamatsu told us yesterday day - low and behold Branyan is in his usual spot in the order and playing first base.

"We talked about Russell getting a day off," Wakamatsu said. "He came in feeling better. He really wanted to be in there today, and it gives us an opportunity to give Grif a day off with his knee.

So was there any level of convincing?

"We talked about it last night," Wakamatsu said. "I told him I planned on giving him the day off, we'd come in here and see how he felt. He came in today and said he wanted to play. The big thing is we wanted to get Shelton in there, either at first base or DH."

Wakamatsu admits they are walking a line where they try and keep Branyan's back healthy, but also giving him the at-bats to break out of a minor offensive funk that he's been in.

"We're trying to get his swing back to where we feel it should be," Wakamatsu said. "He's making some progress, nice swing on his sac fly yesterday. Now's the time he has to push through. We have to juggle how much is the back, and how much is the swing."

While Branyan is in, Johjima is out. It really wasn't a surprise. Maybe to some since Rob Johnson will have now caught three games in a row, including a day game after a night game, something that most teams try to avoid.

But, since Joh returned from the DL, Johnson has caught every game that Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard and Jarrod Washburn have pitched, while Joh has been catching the likes of Garrett Olson, Jason Vargas and Brandon Morrow.

It's a trend that could continue, despite Johjima getting three hits on Thursday to open the series.

=> Read more!

BOX SCORE
Apparently Franklin Gutierrez isn't like most players or me or a lot of people in that he doesn't hold grudges.

If Gutierrez got some pleasure for hitting the key two-run home run in tonight's win along with making yet another brilliant leaping catch, he isn't letting on.

One would think he would derive some added satisfaction beating his former team, that it appears may have given up on him a little prematurely.

His manager Don Wakamatsu understood if he did.

“I think for anybody who performs against a former team it’s always special,” Wakamatsu said.

But Gutierrez, who might be the most laid-back guy and quiet person in the cluhhouse, just shook his head at such a notion.

“I don’t think like that,” he said. “I treat them like any other team. I represent the Seattle Mariners now. Some people think it’s great to do against your old team. But for me it’s like any other team.”

Of course the circumstances of his departure weren’t tenuous. Gutierrez was one of the key pieces in the three-team trade that sent Seattle close J.J. Putz to the New York Mets in the offseason.

Gutierrez holds no ill will for Cleveland trading him.

=> Read more!

Ok, so in the midst of finishing my Sunday baseball column and pregame notebook, the game thread got ignored a little to which I apologize.

But here's the highlights thus far.

First inning
Franklin Gutierrez makes another stellar leaping catch against the wall. I'm sure Indians fans cringe a little bit at seeing him do so well the Mariners, yes they have Grady Sizemore, but you're telling me that an outfield of Gutierrez in left, Sizemore in center and Choo in right wouldn't be better, especially since Cleveland got Joe Smith and Luis Valbuena in that trade.

Second inning
Wlad Balentien delivers a "seed" to gun down Victor Martinez by 13 steps as he tries to leg out a double.

Third inning
Tomo Ohka is not good. He's done. He's been done. He tried to pitch for the Rainiers and got rocked last year, I was on hand to witness the abuse. Of course would it surprise me if the Mariners struggled to hit him. No, nothing surprises me about Seattle offensively. They've blown two good scoring chance already

Fourth Inning
Remember how I said that the Indians might miss Gutierrez, there was a pretty good sized groan at Progressive Field when Gutierrez just ripped a homer to right-center with Griffey on to give Seattle a 2-0 lead. It was an estimated 403 feet.

Hmm Gutierrez at .296 with 12 homers and 40 RBI, or Francisco .235 with six homers and 25 RBI.

Don't mess with Jack Z --- His new theme song should by "Eye in the Sky" by the Alan Parsons Project.

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind

Fifth Inning
Oh that Ronny Cedeno, he's threating to get over .200 soon. He hits a lead off double and later scores on Russell Branyan's sac fly.

Washburn meanwhile is on cruise control.

Sixth inning
Grady Sizemore robs Jack Hannahan of a sure double with a nice leaping catch at the wall in left-center. THat's two nice catches this game.

Washburn gets into his first little bit of trouble with runners on first and second with two outs. He fell behind 3-1 to Shin-Soo Choo, but got the former Mariner to ground out to end the inning.

Seventh Inning
The Indians are on the board, albeit a bit questionably. Washburn gives up a lead-off double to Victor Martinez and then walks Travis Hafner. But he got two quick outs. With two outs, Washburn left a pitch out over the plate and Jamey Carroll dumped it into center. Gutierrez came up throwing and made a good throw home. The ball bounced just slightly but catcher Rob Johnson made a good play and a good tag, but home plate umpire Dana DeMuth ruled him safe, saying he slid under the tag. Wakamatsu chatted with DeMuth and didn't seem pleased. He won't pleased to see that replays showed Johnson getting Martinez by about six inches.

Wak then lifted a miffed Washburn and went the Sean White, who ended the inning by getting Ben Francisco to ground out.

Eighth inning
A nice uneventful inning for Sean White.

Russell Branyan will get tomorrow off. The tweaked back that he suffered on Thursday still isn't exactly 100 percent. And while it isn't hurting him, it's uncomfortable enough to where he's afraid to do some things to make it worse - a perfect example would be the 3-6-3 double play where he seemed to be running at 3/4 speed to first base.

There was some thought that Branyan would be sitting today. And it was something that manager Don Wakamatsu considered.

"We talked about him coming in early and getting some treatment and making the decision at that point," Wakamatsu said. "But yeah, we talked about giving him the day off and making it three days. He reassured me he wanted to be in there, and his back was going in the direction we wanted it to, rather than getting worse."

Branyan has clearly been struggling of late, even before the all-star break. He's 1-for-9 on the road trip and has just three hits in his last 30 at-bats.
"
He knows he's been struggling of late, in combination with his back," Wakamatsu said. "From our standpoint, what we're more concerned about is it a point where it's getting worse. Today he said it was getting better. Tomorrow we'll probably give him a day off, that would give him two. Obviously, we had the All-Star break, we don't want him to sit out too long."

Branyan lobbied to play telling Wakamatsu he wanted to "fight through some of the offensive struggles." It's a commendable attitude that Wakamatsu appreciates. But remember Branyan is on pace to start more games and log more at-bats than ever has in his career.

"He's done so much for this club," Wakamatsu said. "Every player gets to a point, especially a player in his situation where you keep telling everyone on this club. It's not a matter of holding on, it's a matter of continuing to push and do whatever you can for the club."

So what is wrong with Branyan exactly?

"Offensively, it's hard to put your finger on what he's going through the last couple of weeks. Is he pressing too much? Is it his swing mechanically?," Wakamatsu said. "There's a lot of different factors, but the biggest thing for him is just try to retain the routine he had in the first half, and push it through the second half. The back doesn't help. That's what we're juggling right now."

Part of the reason for Branyan's struggles on this road trip may be playing Cleveland itself. The Indians were the organization that drafted him, groomed him for the big leagues, hyped him for stardom and then washed their hands of him when it didn't happen. For the first time, Branyan is having the success expected and on some level he may be trying a little too hard to justify it to his old club. At least Wakamatsu thinks it's a possibility.

"Absolutely. There's always going to be some anxiety to try to prove, 'hey you let me go,' or whatever it is, coming back to where it all started for him," he said. "Obviously, it would bring back memories for a lot of people. Those are all things he needs to go through, grow, and continue on. We believe in him as a player and what he can do. I think he can be a premiere hitter. But half a season doesn't make a season, and that's what we're trying to tell him right now. Just keep pushing. You've got to fight through things like this.

Mariners (47-43)
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B
Griffey DH
Gutierrez CF
Johnson C
Hannahan 3B
Balentien RF
Cedeno SS
----------
LHP Washburn

Indians
Sizemore CF
Cabrera SS
Choo RF
Martinez C
Hafner DH
Peralta 3B
Garko 1B
Carroll 2B
Francisco LF
------------
RHP Ohka

BOX SCORE

(Sorry for the delay, thought it posted earlier, but there was some reason it didn't)

When you need a win after a loss, you turn to Felix Hernandez. And Ronny Cedeno?

Obviously, Felix is a guy you think can turn things around after a loss.

Why?

Because he's done it all season long. Of all the numbers that Hernandez has put up thus far, and there are some impressive ones …

• a 10-3 record, a 2.51 ERA
• a 6-0 record over his last 10 starts with a 1.30 ERA
• a scoreless streak of 22 innings
• throwing at least seven innings in his last eight starts.

Perhaps the most impressive number is that Hernandez is 9-2 in starting games following a Mariners loss.

“That's an ace, that's an All-Star,” Wakamatsu said.

The stat was a surprise to Felix.

“It’s good,” he said. “I didn’t even know about that.”

How good is Felix? Ask one of his teammates, who used to have to face him.

“Not very fun,” Hannahan summed up the experience. “I’m very happy I won’t have to face him anymore.”

Instead, Hannahan stood and watched Cleveland hitters go through what he used to.

“He throws three pitches for strikes anytime he wants to and he throws 97 mph with sink,” Hannahan said. “Nothing the guy throws is straight. You think you’re in a hitters count next thing here comes a changeup or a curveball.”

=> Read more!

Kind of an interesting graphic for when they announce Mariners hitters. I wonder how big the license plate is when Jarrod Saltalamacchia steps into the box.

Well, I will say that David Huff's warm-up music wasn't bad. He decided to go with "The Stroke" by Billy Squier. Who can go wrong with the opening lyric being -- "Now everybody have you heard, If you're in the game, then the strokes the word."

Here's Don Wakamatsu's scouting report on Huff:

Just the report I read on him. He’s a short arm guy that tops out at 92. HE’s got four pitches,a guy that had a rough outing, but strung together some good outings before that. His change-up is a plus pitch for him. His fastball run away from righthanded hitters is good. He struggles a little bit trying to challenge guys inside and struggles against lefties.

First inning
Huff gives up a soft single to Lopez, but the shift works against Griffey as he grounds out to second baseman Jamey Carroll in shallow right.

Felix has no trouble going 1-2-3 and whiffing Shin-Soo Choo with a 96 mph fastball.

Second Inning
The Mariners have a lead as Franklin Gutierrez leads off the inning with a solo homer to right-center - a shot measured at an estimated 393 feet. Langerhans follows with a double, but he's stranded at second as Johnson pops up, Hannahan strikes out and Cedeno grounds out meekly.

No no-hitter for Felix tonight as Hafner dumps a single to right, but not much else as Felix cruises.

Third inning
Not much going on except for a rare air by Gutierrez, who then threw out Sizemore as he stupidly tried to go for second.

Fourth inning
The Mariners go up 3-0 as Rob Johnson rips a two-out double to left-center and later scores on Ronny Cedeno's RBI single to left (that's not a typo). Ichiro extends his hitting streak to 13 games with a single to center to score Cedeno. This team is a juggernaut.

Huff is at 90 some pitches already. WE'll be seeing the Indians bullpen soon, which makes Indians fans cringe at the possibility.

Cleveland had its best chance to score with Shin-Soo Choo at second but Felix froze Hafner with a 96 mpn fastball on the corner.

Fifth inning
Felix as they say is dealing. Garko and Valbuena looked clueless against him in that inning.

Sixth inning
I know a few of you won't believe it, but if Ronny Cedeno keeps hitting he's going to get over .200. He comes up with an RBI single making him 2 for 3 for the night and raising his average to .181. The Mariners tack on another run on an error by Ryan Garko on an Ichiro single.

Well, no shut out for Felix as he leaves a fastball out over the plate that Grady Sizemore rips for a triple to right-center. Asdrubal Cabrera follows with a deep fly to left to score Sizemore for the Indians' first run. But Felix comes right back and strikes out Choo to end the inning.

Seventh inning
Lopez doubles to lead off the inning and Junior comes up with his first RBI since July 1, slapping a single to short in the weak spot of the big shift the Indians have been using on him.

Felix carves up the Indians in the seventh, finishing the inning with eighth K, overwhelming Jhonny Peralta. He's over 100 pitches, but nobody's moved in the M's bullpen so we'll see him for the eighth.

Eighth inning
Felix proves that he is human as he gives up a single and a walk to start the inning, which got the bullpen up and moving. But he got a big 5-3 double play. However, Sizemore drove in a run with a double off the wall. Felix ended the inning getting Asdrubal Cabrera to ground out.

I'm sure we'll see Aardsma in the ninth.

Perhaps Don Wakamatsu is reading what the writers and the bloggers have posted on the possibility of Garrett Olson being replaced in his start on Tuesday in Detroit because that was the second thing he mentioned in the pregame meeting with him today.

"As of right now, we’re still planning on pitching Oly (Olson) on Tuesday," he said in his second sentence.

He later said he and his staff hadn't even considered pulling him.

"Right now, we haven’t even talked about it," he said. "Obviously it happened yesterday. But I think you get to a point where you have to be able to work through some things and not just vacate on him. We already have some depth and we have a plan on the guys that are down there already. From our standpoint, we don’t want to create an environment or a feeling that it’s do or die. And granted we know the trade deadline and we know the situation of everything going on right now, but still we’re trying to stick the plan that’s got us here."

Wakamatsu said he didn't think there would be much over the next few days to sway his decision.

"Not right now, that’s where we’re headed," he said. "The way it’s slotted in the minor leagues, where if we wanted to expedite that (July) 25th guy. But right now, that’s kind of the plan we were going forward. Olson’s thrown some good games for us. He threw a bad game yesterday. We’ll get him back throwing a bullpen and see if he can go back out and give us another start like he did in LA."

=> Read more!

Update: I'll be going on around 2:20 p.m. Just listen for this ....

I'm going to be doing my weekly segment on KJR with Ian Furness sometime after 2 p.m., if you are interested in listening to my stuttering, stammering, blatherings.

Here's the podcast.

Pretty typical line-up for the M's. It may seem strange to have Griffey, Langerhans and Hannahan all in against the lefty David Huff. But lefties are hitting .395 (34-for-86) against him and slugging .640 against him.

As for Felix against Cleveland -- he's 2-1 with a 3.94 ERA in five starts. He's allowed 29 hits, given up 13 runs, walked 16 and struck out 26 in the games against the Tribe.

Jhonny Peralta and Grady Sizemore have the most ABs off of him. Sizemore is 5-for-10, while Peralta is 4-for-14.

Mariners (46-43)
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B
Griffey DH
Gutierrez CF
Langerhans LF
Johnson C
Hannahan 3B
Cedeno SS
---------
Hernandez (9-3, 2.65 ERA)

Indians (36-54)
Grady Sizemore CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Victor Martinez C
Travis Hafner DH
Jhonny Peralta 3B
Ryan Garko 1B
Luis Valbuena SS
Ben Francisco LF
---------
LHP David Huff (4-3, 6.71 ERA)

... maybe Cleveland isn't quite so boring.

If you look at these pics, you'll see it is raining in Cleveland. The tarp is on at Progressive Field.

Here's the view out the hotel lobby, the thunder and lightning that came with the downpour were pretty impressive as well.

Not sure if batting practice will be canceled, but it seems like a safe bet. The game? That seems likely to be played. These types of storms happen all the time in the midwest and it looks as though the skies are ready to break up.

A few things, I mentioned it last night. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Ryan Rowland-Smith on Tuesday instead of Garrett Olson. It's something that I'm sure we'll ask manager Don Wakamatsu in the pregame session.

We just got the announced starters for the series against the Tigers. And the Mariners get a huge break by avoiding Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson in the three-game series in Detroit.

Here are the preliminary match-ups ...

Tuesday --- July 21 --- Garrett Olson (LHP)vs. Armando Galarraga (RHP)
Wednesday --- July 22 --- Felix Hernandez (RHP) vs. Rick Porcello (RHP)
Thursday --- July 23 --- Jarrod Washburn (LHP) vs. Luke French (LHP)

A quick note on the M's draft picks ---
The Mariners have now signed 29 of their 52 picks, including 10 of their first 14 selections. The highest picked signed was catcher Steven Baron, who made his debut last night in Clinton Pulaski (playing DH)and scored two runs.

Obviously that means that 1B/OF Dustin Ackley, IF Kyle Seager, 1B Rich Poythress and RHP Tyler Blandford have not signed yet. No word on Ackley.

UPDATED: thanks to David H for pointing out that SS Nick Franklin hasn't been signed yet either.

BOX SCORE

Perhaps manager Don Wakamatsu summed tonight's loss perfectly when he said: “Not exactly the game we were looking for to come out and start the second half."

No, skip it was not. It was ugly four errors, two wild pitches, seven runners left on base but it all started with Garrett Olson's outing of 2 2/3 innings.

"I think we've talked all year long the importance of the starting pitcher establishing a tempo," Wakamatsu said. "I think it was two-fold. No. 1, I didn't think Olson came out and had much of a feel. I thought he pitched a little defensively and his tempo was poor."

Poor? Olson grinded that game into a mind-numbing halt, agonizing between pitches and basically pitching like Miguel Batista with Rickey Henderson on first base.

“It just was one of those unfortunate days when I could not find a rhythm, even in the first inning,” Olson said. “I just really had a hard time finding the zone consistently.”

And the lack of rhythm led to the extended moments between pitches, between hitters, between breaths.

“I feel like I forced myself to kind of slow down,” Olson said. “I think when you do that, you can continue take yourself out of a rhythm instead of just attacking hitters. Looking back, I should have just grabbed the ball, get the sign and attack the hitters.”

Wakamatsu said Olson was being defensive and trying to be too perfect.

"That's where we talk about sometimes guys want to be too perfect," Wakamatsu said. "We talked about it after the first inning. I said you don't have to be too perfect out there. It's not for lack of care or anything else. It's probably caring too much. I think he put a lot of emphasis on him being outstanding today, instead of going out and doing like he does out of the bullpen. At least he's done such a tremendous job. I saw a little different body language and maybe trying to carry a club out there the first two innings."

Olson admitted that he wanted to help the team get off on a good start in the second half, but didn't think he was putting too much pressure on himself. He did think he might have been trying to be too fine.

"It seems to be like I was trying to make good pitches out there instead of letting it just go through the zone like I have been doing most of the season," Olson said. "I guess its another way of putting it, definitely."

So what happens next for him? Well that's a good question. Can the Mariners afford to start him again in their four man rotation and have an outing like that. They are going to be five games back on Friday with the Angels winning.

It should be noted that the Rainiers rotation slotted out with Steven Shell pitching tonight, Ryan Rowland-Smith starting on Friday, followed by Gaby Hernandez, Brandon Morrow and Jason Vargas. But watch to see if they shake-up the rotation, or limit Rowland-Smith so he could possibly make that start on Tuesday in Detroit, or even Vargas for that matter.

Let's get to Russell Branyan. I must offer a bit of an apology for saying that Branyan got into his home run trot on that first inning double. Apparently he tweaked his back when he was running to first and that's why he didn't get a triple.

Branyan says its nothing major, and it must not be because he played the rest of the game.

“I think it was just maybe the three days off and it just was tight getting back into the swing of things,” he said. “It was just when I started running. It was a little bit tight all day. It got a little bit better as the game went on and I think it will be a lot better tomorrow.”

If Branyan doesn't tweak his back, he swears he would have gotten a triple and the Mariners would have had another run on Jose Lopez's grounder to second.

Still the Mariners got a hit in every inning, but only the one hit. Ronny Cedeno got the only run with a solo homer.

Perhaps, but maybe a day off wouldn't hurt since the Indians will start another lefty and give Chris Shelton more than a token pinch hit appearance.

As for the error in the second inning, he lost the ball in the sun, which we all figured.

Branyan was honest about the team's efforts on Thursday.

“Coming back form three days off, teams respond differently,” Mariners first baseman Russell Branyan said. “We came out a little bit flat today.”

It is still way too early for the Mariners or the fans to begin panicking about such a uncharacteristic outing. It is after all the first game after the all-star break.
No one on the Mariners is fretting.

“I think we’ll get it out of our system this one game, and tomorrow we’ll come back and we’ll start to see a more polished ball club,” Branyan said. “I don’t think anyone here is really worried.”

Let's hope so.

Well, we're here in Cleveland where the temperature is in the 80s and pretty humid. But still a good night for baseball. A pretty decent sized crowd is filling considering the Indians are not a good team in the least.

The Mariners are four games back in the AL West and beating teams like the Indians are a must if they have any hope of contending for a division title. Of course, it won't be easy against the reigning Cy Young winner Cliff Lee. Last year he beat the Mariners twice, throwing a complete game win Safeco and beating the Mariners in April as well.

In two starts, he pitched a combined 15 innings, allowing 19 hits, 5 runs with seven K's and no walks (not a surprise from last year's team).

Also a few former Mariners on the Indians in Asdrubal Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo and Luis Valbuena.

First inning
Russell Branyan did a nice job of turning that triple into a double. Branyan belted a Lee offering off the wall in left-center. Jackson grad Grady Sizemore tried to make a leaping catch but the ball bounced away. Branyan trotted in with a double, replays made it look as though Branyan thought it was gone off the bat and he got into his home run trot early. Either way, he's stranded there.

Well former Mariner Asdrubal Cabrera, who was traded for Eduardo Perez on June 30 of 2006, doubles home Sizemore. Inexplicably, Cabrera bails out Garrett Olson by trying to steal third and getting thrown out by Johjima. Really Asdrubal, one out, Victor Martinez (your clean-up hitter) at the plate and you try and steal third?

Olson gets out of the inning by taking an eternity between each pitch and basically boring the Indians hitters into making outs. He threw 25 pitches in the inning, not exactly an ideal start.

Second inning
How ugly was that inning. Olson has grinded the pace of the inning down to Batista-like levels. Honestly, there are people falling asleep in the stands in between every pitch. Olson gives up two more runs as as Ben Francisco reaches on an error when Branyan lost a throw from third in the sun. Jamey Carroll doubles him home and Sizemore scores Carroll with a single to right. Cleveland leads 3-0.

Third inning
At least we can close the book on Olson after he issues a two-out walk to Travis Hafner. Jakubauskas is in.

Olson pitches 2 2/3 allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits, while walking three and throwing 69 pitches. Jakubauskas immediately gives up a hit and then tosses a wild pitch, but does get them out of the inning with minimal damage.

Ronny Cedeno hits a ball hard to the wall that is robbed by Grady Sizemore with a nice leaping catch. Tough break for a guy that can't buy a hit, not even with a major league salary.

Fourth Inning
A 1-2-3 inning for a Mariners pitcher, it's a refreshing change.

Franklin Gutierrez gets a one out double but is stranded. Shocking.

Fifth Inning
Cedeno shows a little more power hitting his fifth homer of the season, so when he does hit, it appears to be a home run.

Jakubauskas commits an error so when that player later scores, he isn't charged with an earned run. Which is weird cause he's the reason the runner was on.

Sixth inning
Jose Lopez singles to lead off the inning and moves no farther.
Well the Mariners aren't playing good baseball, pretty simple. Branyan committed another error at first - Seattle's third of the game. Shawn Kelley still finds a way to get out of it though. Really is it only 4-1, it feels like 40-1.

Seventh inning
Mark it down, the 6-4-3 double play turned by Asdrubal Cabrera will be a web gem, perhaps No. 1. He fielded the slow roller up the middle off the bat of Cedeno (see no home run) and then flipped it behind his back to Jamey Carroll to start the DP.

Conversely, if you need any evidence of the Jose Lopez's lack of fielding range, the infield single Travis Hafner just got is the perfect example.

The other day Jon Shields over at Proball NW, formerly Bleeding Blue & Teal, had a excellent and detailed post on the changing mechanics of Felix Hernandez, complete with video.

So we asked Manager Don Wakamatsu if he noticed these changes and here's conversation about it.

"He’s done that at different times," Wakamatsu said. "Early in the year, we were more concerned about it because he would turn and leak down the hill. Now he turns and comes back and is back and squared up. That’s fine if we’re talking about the Luis Tiant thing. His ability to get back square before he goes down the hlll – it’s not problematic. It’s when you try to combine them all is where you get in trouble. It’s been more prevalent in his last three outings."

Wakamatsu compared it in a way to Ichiro and his unique batting stance and swing. Felix is just trying something that will help him.

"They are so athletic they can add some personality to their delivery and add some maybe deception to it and still be fine and not lose anything," he said. "That’s what we will monitor."

Wakamatsu liked what he saw from the delivery in the all-star game.

"To do it against some of the greatest players in the game and he did it in the all-star game maybe you look at it as both growth but also try to monitor it also," Wakamatsu said.

So Felix is adding deception to his other-worldly stuff, is that really fair?

"I don’t mind it," Wakamatsu said giggling. "Again, it’s nice to see a player have that comfort level. Again it takes a lot of athleticism and a lot of ability to be able to control the body to do those kind of things. As long as he’s able to command the pitches, we’ll allow him to continue down that road."

As for Felix, the rotation is slotted as Olson, Felix, Washburn, Bedard.

So here it is over the next few days
Today - Olson vs. Lee
Friday - Hernandez vs. Huff
Saturday - Washburn vs. Ohka
Sunday - Bedard vs. Laffey

So when the game comes around July 25th when the need for a fifth starter would arise, Wak said he would choose from Morrow, Vargas or Rowland-Smith.

"We'll have played Cleveland five games," Wakamatsu said. "It will give us a much clearer picture of what we might need with our choices down in Triple A. Whether it's Rowland Smith, or bringing back Morrow, or Vargas. It will depend on how they're pitching and what we need." at the time.

UPDATE: Third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo has rejoined the Tacoma Rainiers and is in the line-up tonight in Las Vegas. So that's some good news for Tui as he returns from having bone spurs removed from his elbow.

Don't be misled by the title. Yes, Adrian Beltre is back with the team. But he's still not close to returning to the field. But he's rejoined the team and plans to stay with it while he continues rehabbing and working out as he recovers from surgery on his left shoulder to remove bone spurs.

"It feels better than I thought it would," Beltre

He even played catch today. But because it still pains him to raise his arm, the person playing catch has to deliver the ball low.

Beltre still doesn't have very good range of motion in the shoulder so raising the arm and moving it out in front of him are pretty painful.

Still, the shoulder has progressed to the point where he hopes to be fielding ground balls by some time next week and swinging the bat in two weeks.

"It depends on how I feel," he said.

When asked if it was ahead of schedule, he said he didn't know and he has no target date for a return.

"It's too early, I still don't have a lot of motions that I can do yet and there is some pain in there," he said. "Until the pain goes away and the range of motion comes back, I will pretty sure I will be able to come back quick, but there is some movements that I can't do without pain. And I don't want to rush it."

Beltre had surgery June 30th, and the prognosis was a six to eight week absence. So mid August might be the earliest we could see him.

As for the surgery it was pretty standard, but Beltre said that Dr. Lewis Yocum was surprised by the amount of scar tissue in his shoulder. It was that scar tissue that was right up against the bursa sac and causing the pain and inflammation.

"There was no room between the bursa sac and bone spur," he said. "They said that's what caused the pain, there was no room for the bursa sac to move."

Still, doctors told Beltre the surgery went well.

"The surgery is supposed to be so I can be pain-free," he said. "Who knows? You never know with surgeries. As long as I can do everything baseball-wise, offensively and defensively, without major pain I’ll be all right. Sometimes surgery takes a little longer than six weeks or a year to get better. Sometimes it takes a lot longer, and you have to play through it.

He also watched every Mariners game on television.

"I watched all the games," "I saw all of them, didn’t miss a beat. I saw the Gutierrez homer. I’m proud of him. He went through some struggles at the beginning, but his swing looks so nice. He was really big the last two weeks. Hopefully he can stay like that. He was really the guy, the last couple of weeks, that’s been the big hitter."

So the next question had to be what it was like watching the games on TV like Mariners fans do.

"Sometimes as a fan, you get a little mad at some plays," he said. "You’re a fan, you’re not really there. Sometimes I had to get up and walk away a couple of innings and then come back."

As for Mariners' fans seeing Beltre again this season. He didn't hesitate to say yes.

"No doubt," he said. "That’s why I did it this year, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to be back. Hopefully, it will be 100 percent, and I’ll be able to help the team, because our team is doing really good now. We have a really good chance to win the west. The race is really close, and it’s wide open That’s what made my decision tougher. I know our team is winning, playing good, and we have a really good chance to get really hot the last 2 ½ months of the season, and who knows what will happen."

Mariners (46-42)
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B
Griffey DH
Gutierrez CF
Langerhans LF
Johjima C
Woodward 3B
Cedeno SS
---------
LHP Garrett Olson (3-2, 4.42 ERA)

Indians (35-54)
Grady Sizemore CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Victor Martinez 1B
Travis Hafner DH
Jhonny Peralta 3B
Ben Francisco LF
Jamey Carroll 2B
Kelly Shoppach C
----------
LHP Cliff Lee (4-3, 3.47 ERA)

First of all a big thanks to Jerry Allen in the TNT IT department for getting me set up with a new laptop and also thanks to Shelly Wiseman and Mike Bainter, who got my Verizon aircard activated so I could check my email and scan the net from the scenic Detroit airport (no I haven’t been mugged yet).

The second part of the season begins today in Cleveland. And to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what to expect. Why? Because this team hasn’t been anything like I expected when the season started. Obviously it’s been better than most of could have imagined way back in April.

And because of that, we’re entering a time of the season, where we fully expected the Mariners and general manager Jack Zduriencik to be reshaping the roster by dealing the likes of Erik Bedard, Jarrod Washburn, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Batista and anybody else not named Felix, Franklin and Ichiro for younger talent.

Instead, the Mariners are 46-42 and four games behind the Angels, who are at 49-37

So we’ve been stuck in a month-long debate of whether or not the Mariners are “buyers” or “sellers.” But I’m not a believer it has to be one or the other. Just ask Yuniesky Betancourt about that. You can trade established parts and yet still be trying to win. It isn’t simple. Yet it’s possible. And if any GM could do it, I have faith in Jack Zduriencik based on what he’s done so far. It’s kind of an odd feeling not viewing midseason deals as disasters waiting to happen like in the past, but as potential improvements for a team.

On the Mariners roundtable discussion on KJR the other day, we discussed the second half and tried to predict what’s going to happen. However, those predictions should all be predicated on what happens over the next few weeks as the trade deadline approaches and where the Mariners sit in the AL West standings. But it’s still kind of fun to predict what’s going to happen. Rarely do I get things right (I picked the Arizona D’Backs to win the NL West at the beginning of the season.) But its still fun to pick and pontificate.

Here’s a few questions – some based on readers comments and e-mails and others I came up with myself - that I answered as well. Feel free to answer them and offer your opinion as to why you think this way …

Will Erik Bedard be a member of the Seattle Mariners at the end of the season?
My answer: Probably not. As I said the other day, if he has two good starts coming out of the break, he could command enough to really help the Mariners in the future. I honestly think he could help the Mariners more in the players he could return than he could in the second half of the season.

Don’t get me wrong, if they keep him, he’ll help. If he’s even at 80 percent of himself, he’s better than 2/3 of the pitchers in baseball. But I don’t think he will make or break the Mariners in terms of making a push in the second half of the season.

I know people have talked about Washburn being the more coveted pitcher on the market. Talent still wins out in my mind and Bedard has more talent, which Washburn wouldn’t disagree with. Also, the Mariners could look to deal Bedard simply because he could command more in return than Washburn would.

=> Read more!

The International League just put it away, 6-5.

Estaban German of Oklahoma City hit a two-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to pull the PCL close. But Eric Young of Colorado Springs struck out to end it.

German won the PCL's Top Star Award, going 3-for-4 with a single, double and the two-run homer. Indianapolis catcher Erik Kratz won it for the International League, going 2-for-2 with a home run, a double and two RBI.

Winning pitcher was Andrew Carpenter of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs -- not joking, I'm afraid. Loser was Yorman Bazardo of Round Rock.

LaHair's eighth: After walking in his first appearance, Tacoma's Bryan LaHair just struck out swinning on a 2-2 count in the bottom of the eighth.

The International League leads, 6-3, heading into the ninth.

LaHair's sixth: Tacoma's lone player representative, Bryan LaHair took over at first base in the top of the sixth inning. And he came up to bat in the bottom of the sixth, working a walk.

IL leads, 6-3.

Crowd of 16,637 is the largest Triple-A All-Star crowd since 1991 in Louisville and the third-largest since the game's inception.

=> Read more!

Still no laptop as of yet. I'm using one of the copy desk's computers to type this. The laptop situation needs to be rectified soon since I'm flying out tomorrow noon.

I'm hoping to get it by tonight so I can post a couple things.

Obviously the all-star game is the news of the day, and of course I'm disappointed that Felix didn't get the start but Roy Halladay is the only pitcher that I felt would be worthy to start ahead of him. The Ichiro-Tim Lincecum at-bat could be special. But it won't be the first time they've faced each other. I saw it earlier this season.

As I alluded to last night, I was up in Seattle this afternoon at the KJR studios in the ClearChannel Building and appeared on the Ian Furness Show for about an hour. We talked a lot of baseball about the first half and what to expect for the second half. You can listen to that here.

Also I was on Q it Up sports the other night with Aaron Levine. TV is tough. I've done that show three times and I always get nervous. You can watch that video here. No making fun of my double chin.

... for my laptop computer which appears to have expired after a few solid years of work. Because of that I could not post the links to Jim Riggleman to becoming the Nationals manager or my embarrassing appearance on Q it up Sports. This post is via blackberry.

Just a heads up that I will be doing a midseason Mariners roundtable with on KJR today with Ian Furness, Jason Puckett and possibly Steve Sandmeyer. Not sure of the time yet but it will be a few segments between 1-3.

When Don Wakamatsu insisted in spring training that he and his staff would be satisfied - no matter what the Seattle Mariners record - with a season in which they helped players improved, he was viewed as something of a naive maniac.

Today, it makes a lot more sense.

What the Mariners coaching staff has been able to do with players like Russell Branyan, Franklin Gutierrez, David Aardsma, Sean White and Jarrod Washburn is little short of spectacular.

Branyan kicked around baseball for 13 years, and this season has broken out with 22 home runs before the All-Star break.

Gutierrez was benched in Cleveland last season, but this year is batting .292 and playing great defense in center field.

Aardsma was the perennial project, a hard-throwing reliver who made stops with the Giants, Cubs, White Sox and Red Sox before turning 26. Today, he's a closer wih a 1.96 earned run average and 20 saves in 22 chances.

White was a former prospect taken off the 40-man roster last year, and now he's a setup man with a 2.63 ERA in 34 appearances.

Washburn? A lefty who never quite worked out in Seattle, he embraced new pitches this spring and, while he's just 6-6, has a 2.96 ERA and has pitched more innings, more quality starts, than anyone on the team not named Felix.

Wakamatsu and his staff come from instruction end of the game, and they've been teachers since the first day of camp.

They've taught baseball, yes, and they've taught attitude. What they've done has pushed the franchise further in three months than it had any right to expect.

They rarely get recognition, so let's give 'em a little here. These men have helped journeyman and rookies, veterans and rejects, turn a 101-loss team into an exiting group that actually believes it can win.

Bench coach - Ty Van Burkleo

Hitting coach - Alan Cockrell

Pitching coach - Rick Adair

Bullpen coach - John Wetteland

Third base coach - Bruce Hines

First base coach - Lee Tinsley

They open the final game before the All-Star break 45-42 and four games out in the American League West.

Winning today might not reduce that number - the Angels could win, too. But winning would inch the Seattle Mariners to within 2 1/2 games of Texas and second place. A loss would leave them 4 1/2 back.

That's no small swing.

What the Mariners have done in the first half is remarkable, given the season they're coming off and the roster they have. Inexplicably, this team believes in itself, and a growing fan base has come to appreciate it's maximum effort approach.

Today, it's Erik Bedard vs. Dustin Nippert.

Why defense matters

Erik Bedard sruck out Ian Kinsler on a nasty curve to open the first inning, then lost command of the pith and couldn't throw it for strikes - walking Michael Young and then Josh Hamilton.

In a world of trouble, Bedard then threw a fastball in the wheelhouse of Adam Jons - who lined it into center field.

Franklin Gutierrez back-handed the ball with a diving catch, threw to second for the double play and Bedard was in the dugout instead.

Big play, indeed.

Mariners take advantage

Saved by the defense, the Mariners offense didn't have to play catch up - so it took the lead, instead.

Ichiro singled and with one out scored on a Jose Lopez double, just beating the throw to the plate.

Ichiro's hit, by the way, extended his latest hitting streak to 11 consecutive games.

After one: Mariners 1, Rangers 0

Living on the edge

Bedard has had one 1-2-3 innings in the first four, and the fourth wasn' it.

An error and a walk put him in trouble yet again, but with his 61st pitch, Bedard struck out Hank Blalock.

Miguel Batista began warming up in the bullpen.

Bedard got Marlon yrd to ground into a force play. Nelson Cruz banged a ball up the middle - right to where Lopez was playing him - and Bedard was out of it again.

Through four innings, he's labored with men on base in three of them and still has a shutout. His pitch count may not allow him to start the fifth inning.

After losing him for a month with shoulder inflammation, the Mariners aren't about to push him beyond his comfort zone.

In the fourth: Mariners 1, Rangers 0

Small ball and hustle

Gutierrez and Langerhans open the fourth with singles but two outs later hadn't moved. Ronny Cedeno - batting .157 - the beat out an infield single with a dive into first base that loaded he bases.

Ichiro rolled a ball up the first base line about 40 feet for an RBI single and Russell Branyan walked to force home another run, his 49th RBI of the year.

After four: Mariners 3, Rangers 0

Rangers comeback

Keep giving them chances, the Rangers - or any team - will score runs.

Bedard walked Adruw Jones with one out in the sixth inning, his fourth walk, and Hank Blalock unloaded his 19th home run. Byrd struck out, and that was it for Bedard.

Batista took over, and on his first pitch allowd a home run to Nelson Cruz.

In the sixth: Mariners 3, Rangers 3

Tiebreaker!

With two outs in the seventh, the Mariners had an improbable rally that began when Griffey legged out an infield single.

Gutierrez followed with a single, and pinch-hitter Chris Shelton - atting for Langerhans - singled hom pinch-runner Josh Wilson to break the tie.

Rob Johnson singled home Gutierrez

Mark Lowe now pitching for Seattle.

After seven: Mariners 5, Rangers 3

Aardsma time

Ninth inning, two-run lead, David Aardsma inherited a two-run lead lookiing for his 20th save.
Ground ball, fly ball, a walk to pinch-hitter David Murphy, strike out.
It's a final: Mariners 5, Rangers 3

When the Mariners take the field tonight, six of the nine men in their lineup will be players who weren't here last season - as will eight other players on the roster.

That's not a bad thing, apparently.

After 86 games last season, this team was 34-52, not 44-42. Oh, and they were 18 games behind the Angels in the American League West.

Against right-hander Kevin Millwood, the Mariners will send left-handed hitters Ken Griffey Jr., Russell Branyan, Ryan Langerhans and Jack Hannahan - all of whom were with different teams a year ago.

The tail end of the lineup appears to be an offensive void: Rob Johnson (.199), Hannahan (.193) and Ronny Cedeno (.152), but it's a strong defensive group.

That, in turn, should help Jarrod Washburn, who looks to even his record (5-6) despite carting around a rock-solid ERA (3.08).

It's Texas vs. Seattle, game three of a four-game series.

Rangers strike first

Nothing good ever comes of walking a No. 9 hitter.

Washburn did it one out into the third inning, and it burned him when Ian Kinsler doubled to score Elvis Andrus. It's the only run of the game so far, and the man who scored it was given a free pass to first base.

In the third: Rangers 1, Mariners 0

Branyan gets 'em even

Mr. Branyan tied the game with his 22nd home run of the season - and 12th at Safeco Field - a shot off the signage of the second deck in right field.

This guy never hits cheapies.

After three: Mariners 1, Rangers 1

Guess who's pitching?

Let's see, if the the Mariners can't score but their starting pitcher is working on a gem, it must be Washburn.

Through six innings, Washburn has allowed four hits a run and that's earned him ... a tie. Millwood has allowed only three hits and a run.

Through six, Washburn has thrown 80 pitches. By now, he probably doesn't expect a run scored behind him.

And the Mariners lead

Langerhans singled to left field and everyone - including Rob Johnson - expected Johnson to bunt. He tried, and failed.

So on a 1-2 pitch, swinging away, Johnson hammered his first home run over the Seattle bullpen.

Hannahan doubled, chasing Millwood after 114 pitches, and ex-Mariner Eddie Guardado came in.

Cedeno bunted Hannahan to third base and, with the infield drawn in, Ichiro singled home a fourth run.
Mark Lowe is in to pitch the eighth inning.

After seven: Mariners 4, Rangers 1

And in the ninth

David Aardsma - who else? - gets the save and the Mariners knock the Rangers out of first place in the AL West.

Seattle (45-42)now trails Los Angeles by four games.

It's a final: Mariners 4, Rangers

The roster move made to get third baseman Jack Hannahan on the team came as a surprise to pitcher Brandon Morrow - because it was Morrow sent out.

After six starts, Morrow will stay with the Mariners through the All-Star break, then step into the Rainiers starting rotation.

There, he'll join Ryan Rowland-Smith and Jason Vargas, who have also started in Seattle and Tacoma this year.

"We don't need a fifth starter after the break until July 25," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "We fan slide Garrett Olson into the rotation after the break until we make any other decision.

"We're sending Brandon out with specific goals, to improve his secondary pitches and continue to work on pitch efficiency. As I told him a few minutes ago, he's a big part of our close future. We stretched him out up here, he worked with (pitching coach) Rick Adair. Now he's got a definitive plan to work on."

In his six starts, Morrow was 0-1 and went beyond five innings only one time.

Hannahan is expected at Safeco Field momentarily - he's flying in from Sacramento - and is in the starting lineup tonight.

Jack Zduriencik was at it again today, moving a Class AA pitcher to Oakland for a slick-fielding third baseman that should improve Seattle's infield defense.

Jack Hannahan, 29, isn't a third baseman who'll make anyone forget Mike Schmidt or George Brett, but he's better than the .193 he was hitting with Oakland.

Built on pitching and defense, the Mariners have felt the loss of Adrian Beltre at third. Hannahan isn't a stop gap, as Chris Woodward was - he's a third baseman by trade, and a good one. If you can't improve the offense immediately, help the pitching by improving the defense.

The key to this deal was almost certainly the fact that manager Don Wakamatsu and bench coach Ty Van Berkleo knew Hannahan and his potential. They liked his makeup, his approach to the game and yes, his upside.

A left-handed hitter in Safeco Field is never a bad thing, and in the past few weeks Jack Z. has added two - outfielder Ryan Langerhans and now Hannahan.

On the perfect team, both would likely be bench players. On a team trying hard to hang on in the American League West, they're viable pieces who fill holes.

Is Trader Jack done? No. In fact, he's not even resting. There are deals to be made this month - large and small - and the Mariners will be building again, piece by piece, soon.

I'm on my blackberry but here's the release

SEATTLE, Wash. - Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President & General Manager of Baseball Operations Jack Zduriencik announced today that the Mariners have acquired third baseman Jack Hannahan from the Oakland A's in exchange for minor league right-hander Justin Souza.Hannahan will be in uniform and available for tonight's 7:10 game versus the Texas Rangers. Seattle will have to make one other roster move prior to tonight's game.

"We had the opportunity to acquire a premium defensive player who swings a left-handed bat," Zduriencik said. "Jack will become part of our mix at third base. He's a great make-up guy, and a well above average defensive third baseman."

Hannahan, 29, appeared in 52 games with the A's this season, and was hitting .193 (23x119) with 6 doubles, 2 triples and 1 home run. Hannahan started the season with the A's but was optioned to AAA on April 4. He returned to the big leagues on April 24 where he remained until June 29. In 21 games with the Sacramento River Cats (AAA - Pacific Coast League), Hannahan was hitting .222 (18x81) with 7 doubles, 2 home runs and 11 RBI.

Last season Hannahan ranked second among American League third basemen in fielding. He made his Major League debut in 2006 when he appeared in three games for Detroit and hit .278 in 41 games with Oakland in 2007. Hannahan led the International League with a .422 on-base percentage at Toledo in 2007. He was originally a third-round draft pick of the Tigers in 2001.

In his Major League career, he's appeared in 239 games with Detroit (2006) and Oakland (2007-09), hitting a combined .223 with 13 home runs.Souza, 23, spent this season with Double A West Tenn in the Southern League. He compiled a mark of 6-6, 3.35 in 20 games, 14 starts, with the Diamond Jaxx.

High Desert outfielder James McOwen had his 45-game hitting streak snapped on Friday night by the Modesto Nuts. McOwen went 0-for-3 with a walk. In his first at-bat, McOwen struck out. In his second, he walked. In his third at-bat, he grounded into a double play. McOwen came up in the ninth with one last chance to get a hit. But this time, he struck out swinging off of Modesto closer Craig Baker.

Here's the story from the Victorville Daily Press.

Here's the AP Story.

The game was in Modesto and here's the story from the Modesto Bee

Here's a story from Yahoo from before the game with some video.

McOwen’s streak was the longest in minor league baseball since 1954. Only seven other players in the history of minor league baseball had a streak longer with the longest being Joe Wilhoit’s record of 69 straight for Waco in 1919.

Here's alist of the top hitting streaks in minor-league history
69 -- Joe Wilhoit, Wichita, 1919
61 -- Joe DiMaggio, San Francisco, 1933
55 -- Roman Mejias, Waco, 1954
50 -- Otto Pahlman, Danville, 1922
49 -- Harry Chozen, Mobile, 1945
49 -- Jack Ness, Oakland, 1915
46 -- Johnny Bates, Nashville, 1925
45 -- Jamie McOwen, High Desert, 2009
43 -- Howie Bedell, Louisville, 1947
43 -- Eddie Marshall, Milwaukee, 1935
43 -- Orlando Moreno, Big Spring, 1961
43 -- Brandon Watson, Columbus, 2007

Why are these guys smiling? Well, two of them got free rides to first and the other hit an opposite field bomb (doesn't he always do this once a series) to help propel the Rangers to a 6-4 win.

Brandon Morrow was well Brandon Morrow. There were moments he would look great and others where he simply couldn't throw one in the zone even if it was worth $10,000,000 per strike. He goes 5 innings, gives up four runs, walks four guys, doesen't strikeout a batter and gives up two home runs. He now drops to 0-4 on the season and the team is 1-5 in his starts.

The worst of it came in the third inning when Morrow got two quick outs and then walked Omar Vizquel and Ian Kinsler and then served up the opposite-field homer to Michael Young.

"After I walked Vizquel, I just lost it against Kinsler," Morrow said.

It's something we've seen before, and it wasn't lost on manager Don Wakamatsu.

"We've seen it in different starts this year where he has a tendency to lose it for a little bit and we're trying to figure out what causes that," Wakamatsu said.

Morrow doesn't quite have an explanation or an immediate cure for it, but does have an idea.

"You have to slow it down for a second and get back to what you were doing when you were throwing strikes," Morrow said.

But apparently that easier said than done.

“The game plan was to get at him early," Rangers manager Ron Washington said of Morrow "We know what type of fastball he has and we are a fastball-hitting team and when he threw something in the zone, we tried to get on him.”

Realistically, the Mariners were still within striking distance at 4-2, but the absolute crush job of a two-run homer by Nelson Cruz - a 2009 home run derby participant - into the left field upper deck made things slightly more difficult.;

Seattle had chances in the late innings but couldn't capitalize, but Wakamatsu was concerned with the early innings.

"The big thing for me was we had Feldman with 24 pitches in the first inning and we allowed him to go 6 2/3 innings," Wakamatsu said. "Our strength is to put pressure on the opposing pitcher and get to their bullpen like anybody else."

Wakamatsu was happy with the 11 hits, but the Mariners didn't get the big hit, and they simply can't wait till late in games for the one big hit to rally them. It needs to be a progression, throughout the game. They get two early runs on Feldman but don't knock him out of the game. Basically, they are trying to score runs with a sure out every third inning, since Ronny Cedeno is barely hitting -- one hit tonight.

RANGERS NOTES:
• Texas has now won 8 of 10 and 11 of 16…are 18-6 vs. AL West (21-22 vs. rest of AL)… remain a half game ahead of the L.A. Angels for the AL West lead.
• Scott Feldman pitched his 3rd consecutive quality start (10 in last 13)…lasted 6.2 innings and has now thrown 6 innings or more in 12 of last 13 starts…at 8-2, his .800 winning pct. ranks 4th in AL…despite allowing 7 hits, opponents are batting just .222 (72x325) against Feldman, 3rd-lowest mark among AL starters.
• Hank Blalock knocked in the 1st Texas run of the night with a 435 ft solo home run in the 2nd… has hit safely in 5 straight games (.429/9x21) and is batting .400 (14x35) with 4 HR, 2 doubles, and 8 RBI in last 9 games, raising his average from .237 to .260.
• Michael Young extended his hitting streak to 7 games with a 3-run HR in the 3rd… has hit safely in 12 of last 14 (.360/18x50)…later added a single, finishing 2x5 with a HR and 3 RBI…3rd in the AL with 34 multi-hit games…a career .455 hitter against the Mariners (15x33).
• Nelson Cruz was named to the All Star team on Friday and followed with a 2x3 performance including a 2-run home run in the 8th.

MARINERS NOTES:
• Despite out-hitting the Rangers 11-9 as well as scoring 2 late-inning runs, the Mariners fell to the division-leading Rangers, moving to 4.5 games out of first place.
• Brandon Morrow allowed 4 runs in 5 innings of work, all of the runs coming as a result of the long ball…in his last 2 starts, all 7 runs have come via the home run, including 4 consecutive solo shots and one 3-run HR by Michael Young…Morrow, who is averaging 7.2 strikeouts per 9 innings (45 K, 46.0) failed to record a strikeout in a start for the first time in his career. Kept his pitch count low, tossing 74 pitches in 5.0 IP.
• Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 515th career double, passing Edgar Martinez for most career doubles, tying Joe Cronin for 38th on the all-time list…also had his 12th multi-hit game on the season (last: July 1 @NYY), finishing 3x4 with a double and 2 runs scored.
• After hitting the go-ahead home run in previous night’s game, Franklin Gutierrez doubled in his first AB, scoring Ken Griffey Jr. from 1st base… also extended his career-high hitting streak to a career-high 13 games (.462/24x52)…has hit safely in 21 of his last 23 games, batting .389 (35x90) with 7 HR and 18 RBI…raised his batting average from .251 to .297 during the 23 game stretch.
• Ichiro extended hitting streak to 9 games with a lead-off single in the 1st …later added a double (18) and a stolen base (19)…now averaging a multi-hit game for every other game played (39 multi-hit games in 78 games).
• Kenji Johjima caught Nelson Cruz attempting to steal 2nd base in the 2nd inning…has now thrown out 5 of his last 9 runners and 8 of last 17…despite spending time on the DL and starting only 32 games, Johjima is tied for 4th in AL with 13 CCS…Johjima later added a 2-out, RBI double in the 8th to score Ken Griffey Jr.
• Russell Branyan snapped a 3 game hitless streak with an RBI double in the 1st, scoring Ichiro on the play…was his longest streak of games without a hit this season.
• Chris Shelton had his first career AB as a Mariner when he pinch hit for Chris Woodward in the 8th, resulting in a 5-3 PO to end the inning.

Brandon Morrow's transitions from reliever to starter to reliever to starter - et al - have been well documented.

For all that, he's making his sixth start of 2009 tonight, and the 11th start of his big-league career.

On the trade:
“I wish Yuni the best, obviously. I think we talked about this back in November, the ability for Jack to be able to acquire depth in our minor league system as we move forward is paramount. This trade is part of that. One guy is real close and adds some long-term value.”

On Yuni making progress.
“I think you saw signs of it. I don’t know about long-term. There were certain games I thought he played outstanding out there and made some great strides. But the inconsistency is what we saw more than anything.”

Was it a challenge working with him?
“No. He’s an awfully nice kid and regardless of the perception, we had a good relationship. This isn’t as much about Yuni as it is about we are trying to do as an organization and the direction we are going. This allows us to=2 0add arms and one of those arms is not that far away. We went through a lot of injuries this year and need depth.”

Can Yuni get to a higher level as a player?
“I think he has a better understanding after going through this year and what he needs to do to be a consistent play. He is talented.”

On perception of giving up starter for two unknown pitchers.
“We have discussed it enough, starting in spring training, what our philosophy is and we’re going to do whatever is possible to help us win h ere. We will continue to give guys an opportunity and we’re giving Ronny Cedeño an opportunity right now. What allowed us to do this trade is the belief system that Ronny gives us a better defensive shortstop right now. There are a lot of dynamics to the trade and that is definitely one of them.”

Can you afford to have Cedeño hitting the way he is and in the line-up every day?
“Ronny has hit in the past and on this last road trip he hit a couple of big home runs for us. We know the potential is there offensively and the rest is just to give him the at-bats he needs to get to that point. We can’t afford to have him hitting what he is now, but he has shown signs of doing some damage.”

Will Cedeno be able to relax perhaps a little now that he's the starter?
“I think it’s similar to Russell Branyan. You have heard Russell speak about it since day one of spring training that he never really had an opportunity to be a starter. Ronny came into spring training competing for a job and now it’s his and I would like to think he feels a lot more comfortable knowing that he has a supporting case around him.”

On Lopez at third
“Not as much as we were before. No. we are still going to have him take ground balls over there but I don’t foresee it.”

Are you disappointed that Yuni didn’t work out here?
“We try to create an environment that allows people to succeed. Again, I think he has a greater understanding and sometimes a player goes to another organization with the benefits of what they just went through. That’s what I hope we hope we’ve done for him.”

How much did Yuni's inability to get the direction they wanted from him influence the decision to trade him.
“I don't want to talk negative about any player. It just got to point where we were really happy with what Ronny was doing out there. We're very happy with his defense. We're hoping that (offense) comes around a little bit. It was just time to move on.

We got a couple nice arms. When you have a chance to get someone's Minor League Payer of the Year I think you have to weigh everything in balance. At this moment in time, we think that was the right thing to do.

How quick did this trade come about?
We always have these discussions. You have these names that are discussed. In this particular case, probably the last 48 hours it came to a head.

I think when you say you get two arms with it, that's nice. I think it goes back to Ronny playing so good defensively right now. I think when Yuni came back here, the role would have been a little bit undefined.''

Acquiring talent is your first priority. Sometimes it's in the way of arms and other times it may be a position player. At the end of the day, everybody needs arms never have enough arm. That wasn't necessary a priority. We exchanged names that because the name we were intrigued with.

We said from day one we wanted to accumulate talent.

Character is preached with the M's, did Cortes' recent legal troubles come into consideration?
“He stubbed his toe a couple times. I had a discussion with him today and told him that's not acceptable. But everything we know about him and all the discussions we've had, and we've dug in to a reasonable deep level, is he's a good kid. He had an issue here. It's behind him. He's aware of his mistake. It's behind him and here we go.''

So it being his third organization doesn't raise a red flag?
Look who he was traded for in the past. Tyler Lundstrum is a first round pick. Sometime you have players who are desirable for other clubs. It was probably the case there and it's certainly the case here.

On Dan Cortes and Derrick Saito
“I don't want to build expectations but he's got a power curveball and a power arm. He's 6-6, 220. so it's not too back. The left-hander is not a big guy but he's real crafty. His strikeouts rate back in college he averages 14 strikeouts per nine innings So we thin he has a chance to be a big league pitchers as well.

Does talent sometimes trump minor character questions?
“Sometimes you take a step back in terms of a certain player's behavior. Then you move forward. I've made mistakes just like all of us have. You learn from them. At the end of the day, we have a good kid here who has talent. He's 22-years old and he's pitching in double-a. That's not bad.

“It they (Royals) were thinking of that (moving to AAA), then he's probably pretty close. Our guys will get a chance to look at him. When you have a player come in you want him to get his feet on the ground, have that comfort level for him. If he progress es like we hope then we'll certainly move him as well.''

The state of the left side of the infield?
“You know, it's the land of opportunity. Chris (Woodward) is an experienced big-league player He's got seven years behind him. Ronny's is getting a chance to play every day now. Langerhans has come in and contributed just about every game he has played in. You ask played to step up and you hope they do. In this case, you hope for that as well.

You always keep ear open. Always try to improve your ballclub. Sometimes you go with what you have. I don't think a point in time that I'm' not going to try not to pursue talent.

Would you like to get (Josh) Fields, Phillippe Aumont, Cortes on the same team to push each other?
“Yeah, I think every player has his own timetable. So when you look at talent, there more to it than that. One kid is 22, the other is 22, the other is 20. So some have more experience than others. It's nice to think of that concept of the three pushing each other but in the same sense talent will dictate when you make a move.

As the media entered the Mariners clubhouse, there was Yuniesky Betancourt still boxing up his personal belongings and packing up his gear. Noticeably missing was his usual look of amusement - be it a smile or smirk.

For all of the criticism I've leveled at him on the field, he's always been extremely personable to me. Even last night at the Rainiers game, he greeted me with a handshake and was friendly when talking to me.

He was also gracious enough to speak with the media with the help of Fernando Alcala. During the interview, he seemed a little sad and even got a little choked up. About the only time he smiled was when Felix Hernandez walked by and screamed "Yuuuuuunnnniii!!! I love you, I'm going to miss you. I'm going to throw you a fastball!!"

Felix did the same thing later, this time saying, "first pitch - curveball, second pitch - change-up, third pitch -- nothing.

Yuni has never been the best quotes, even with an interpreter, but here's the transcript.

Was he surprised he was traded?
Once I got taken out of the line-up yesterday, I thought something was going to happen.

Why do you think it happened?
It's just part of the game. Trades happen. If it was going to happen then it’s suppose to happen.

On his level of disappointment?
I understand it’s part of the game. But it is sad to leave the city that he’s been in four years, my teammates, the front office executives, it is sad to leave all the people here in Seattle.

Who would he miss most?
I’m going to miss everybody, I’m going to miss Lopez, Felix, Beltre and Silva cause the guys helped a lot with the language barrier and helping become a big league player.

Is he looking it as a new start?
It’s part of life. You have ups and downs, it is a new beginning have to keep your head up high and keep working.

Did he feel like he was making progress on what Wak wanted?
I felt I made a few strides now I’m going to Kansas City and see what they expect from him and go from there.

On his schedule with the Royals
I’m going to play in AA from Sunday until Wednesday and then I’m going to be back working out with the team on Thursday.

Did he expect to be here long-term?
When I signed the deal, I did expect to be here long term. I knew trades were part of the game, but I did expect to be here.

When did he find out?
I didn’t know officially last night, but I knew something was up when I was pulled from lineup a few minutes before the game.

I want to thank the Mariners for giving me four years and letting me show my talents at the major league level.

What went wrong in his time here?
It’s something you just work hard and see if things work hard, and in this case it didn’t work out here. But you just keep working hard.

Looking back could you have improved more?
I’m just going to focus on giving a 100 percent with my team. That’s all I can do.

How close did he come to reaching his potential?
The main thing I just try to give 100 percent and keep working hard. In terms of potential, I just wanted to do the best I can.

On playing second base for the Royals?
I don’t know what’s going to happen where I’m going.

Did he even think was a possibility a week ago?
You always know it’s a possibility. But a week I ago was injured and just focused on getting healthy.

The Royals are in Boston and Yuni is presumably on his way there as well, longtime Royals beat writer Bob Dutton of the Kansas City has this story in which some of Betancourt's former Mariners teammates now on the Royals - and there are plenty of them - seem happy about the deal.

But Royals fans? Well not so much. If you are looking for bitterness, anger, frustration, stunning disbelief and vitriol check out some of these links.

I went over to KC Star columnist Joe Posnanski's personal blog --- a must read. But it seems to have crashed, perhaps for the amount of words he's going to crank out demolishing this trade. I wait for it in anticipation.

The Star's fan blog Upon Further Review has this post, with this passage.

This is a head-scratcher. I don't understand -- or approve of -- this trade on any level. To me, this seems like another example of the Royals dealing for a player because of what they think he can be, rather than recognizing what he actually is

.

Over at Royals Review, the comment section of their post, which is growing quickly, is quite humorous to read. I love this comment.

Seriously, this is a bad dream. I’m going to wake up. I’m going to wake up. I’m going to wake up.

Royals Authority has this post

With this passage:

Can't hit, can't run, doesn't take a walk, can't play defense... Holy crap.

and this passage:

As much as I didn't like the Freel trade, this deal has me irate. How in the world the Royals could commit to a player for so long with such limited skills baffles me to no end. Of course, I say this knowing we're talking about a team that has allowed Tony Pena Jr to stick around for so long. I guess the joke is on me for being a fan and hoping that someday, this regime would understand how to build a better ball club.

And finally Royals Radio etc. has this post.

Check out the title of it.

Jack Zduriencik saved his team a minimum of $5 million Friday and moved shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt in the process - a win-win decision by the Seattle Mariners general manager.

Yuni was no longer part of the future here, although he was under contract through 2011 at a cost of about $10 million.

Yes, the Mariners had to eat a big bite of that in sending Betancourt to Kansas City with between $3-$4 million, but the savings might just motivate ownership to allow Zduriencik to add salary this year.

Make no mistake, this wasn't the only deal in the works. The minor league pitchers the Mariners got? That's nice. But Jack Z. is looking at helping Seattle this season.

Moving Yuni did that in two ways: It got him out of the clubhouse and off the field where he had driven teammates, coaches and manager Don Wakamatsu crazy - and it saved money.

It almost certainly won't be the last deal the team makes this month, or perhaps even this week.

How fed up were the Mariners with Betancourt? It was made clear the team didn't want him at shortstop in 2010, but that was the tip of this Yuni iceberg.

In Baltimore not long ago, I wanted to interview Betancourt, and there was no translator on the road with the team.
I asked Adrian Beltre if he'd translate for me. He said no. I asked Jose Lopez. He said no. Finally, Guillermo Quiroz did the honors.

The point is, Yuni's teammates had had it with him, with the excuses and the lack of focus on team.

After Wakamatsu benched Yuni last month - for not working hard enough before games - the shortstop spent three consecutive days standing alone in the outfield during batting practice.

He didn't take one ground ball. He didn't take one swing.

He lost those teammates who had been in his corner - or tried to be - over the years.

There was a message sent to the Mariners with this trade. Not only did Zduriencik back his manager, he showed the team that it could count on him to take care of problems once players found them unresolveable in the clubhouse.

Yuni's smile and personality will be missed. His game will not be.

Well, it wasn't the Pirates like everyone speculated and I did see a Royals scout at Cheney Stadium the last two days. Perhaps, not the haul or the impact that you expected giving away an every day, but it shows how far Yuni has fallen off in the Mariners eyes. Remember not long ago, there was a proposed trade with Royals sending DH Billy Butler for Betancourt that never happened.

But anyway here's what we have:
Yuniesky Betancourt traded to the Royals in exchange for RHP Danny Cortes & LHP Derrick Saito.

Cortes will report to AA West Tenn in the Southern League and Saito will report to A Clinton in the Midwest League.

"The opportunity presented itself for us to acquire a pair of talented arms and as we move forward we felt this was the right thing to do at this time," Zduriencik said in press release. "We want to thank Yuni for all he has done for the Mariners and wish him the best of luck in Kansas City."

Cortes recently had a minor run in with law in Arkansas.

My new buddy and top Tacoma Rainiers intern Drew Samuelson shot this video and gave me permission to use it.

From the release...

Cortes, 22, is 6-2, 3.12 (20 ER, 57.2 IP) in his last 11 games, 10 GS, dating back to May 7 after beginning the 2009 season 0-4, 5.96 in his first five starts. He was invited to Royals big league camp this spring, and has spent the season pitching for Northwest Arkansas in the AA Texas League, compiling an overall 6-6, 3.92 mark in 16 games, 15 starts. In 80.1 innings pitched, he has allowed 77 hits and struck out 57.

Cortes was the Royals Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2008 (the Paul Splittorff Award) and was rated by Baseball America as the Royals top pitching prospect entering the 2009 season. Prior to the 2008 season, Baseball America tabbed him as the second-best prospect in the Royals system, as well as naming him as the owner of the system's Best Fastball and Best Curveball.

The 6-foot-6, 216-pound right-hander is a native of Pomana, Calif. Cortes was originally drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 7th round of the June, 2005 draft after pitching for Garey High School in Pomona, CA. He was traded to the Royals on July 24, 2006.

Saito, 21, is 2-6 with 1 save and a 4.26 ERA (24 ER, 50.2 IP) in 21 games, all in relief, with A Burlington in the Midwest League. He allowed 8 earned runs in his first four games (8.1 IP), but has allowed just 16 ER in the 17 games since (42.1 IP) for a 3.40 ERA. For the year, Saito has struck out 52 in 50.2 IP, while walking just 14. Saito has limited left-handed batters to a .200 (11x55) batting average.

Saito spent his first professional season (2008) with Idaho Falls in the Northwest League, where he was 3-4, 4.36 in 18 games, all in relief.

The 5-foot-9, 155-pound left-hander is a native of Wailuki, Hawaii. Saito was drafted by the Royals in the 16th round of the June, 2008 draft after pitching for Col Poly San Luis Obispo University. As a sophomore, he set a school Division I record by averaging 14.13 strikeouts-per-nine-innings pitched.

Betancourt, 27, was hitting .250 (56-for-224) with 10 doubles, 1 triple, 2 home runs and 22 RBI with Seattle this season. He is currently on rehabilitation assignment at AAA Tacoma. Betancourt was signed as a non-drafted free agent on Jan. 26, 2005. In 588 games (2005-09) with Seattle, he hit .279 with 123 doubles, 27 home runs and 202 RBI while walking 70 times and striking out 186 times.

UPDATE: I went on the Mitch and the Morning show with Steve Sandmeyer this morning to discuss last night and the Mariners in general, you can listen to it here. My apologies to my boy Ian Furness, whose show I normally frequent on Fridays. I will never cheat on you again, especially since you play the my favorite song as entrance music.

A quick piece of advice before we discuss Yuniesky Betancourt yet again: Never eat Tim's Cascade Jalapeno potato chips after 2 a.m. There is nothing good that can come from it. No matter how delicious they taste.

Ok let's get to talking about Yuni.

Yesterday was definitely interesting for me and I'm sure for Yuniesky Betancourt. I outlined some of it in my Rainiers story for today's paper.

Here's a rundown of the events ...

* Yuni showed up early in Tacoma did some individual work and took part in Rainiers infield, team fundamentals and batting practice -- all with no problems.

* During his pregame meeting with the media, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said Yuni was to start at shortstop and play seven innings.

* 35-40 minutes before the 7 p.m. game Rainiers manager Daren Brown received a phone call from the Mariners higher-ups, saying to pull Betancourt, which leads to several questions that can't be answered. So I was at Cheney trying to figure out why he was pulled and what was going on. From my sources, we were able to find out it didn't hamstring related.

* So then I had Larry, who was up at Safeco, ask Jack Z and the Mariners for a comment on the situation. From Jack Z, we got "no comment" and officially "an organizational decision."

* Basically I'm stuck dugout watching and any time that Yuni retreated to the clubhouse, I would go down and wait at the clubhouse door to see if he was leaving (I really felt like a paparazzi or one of those creepy autograph dealers). On Wednesday, he played five innings and left after the sixth inning. Yuni never left early and I went back and forth from the press box to the clubhouse door about five times.

* After the game, Daren Brown confirmed that Yuni wasn't hurt and he was told by the organization to pull him from the line-up.

* Yuni, despite my constant criticisms, is pretty friendly, immediately shook my hand when I saw him and said hi.

So I talked with him -- without an interpreter -- which can be tough.

And he genuinely did not know why he wasn't playing and didn't seem to understand the possible insinuations that stem from that. When I asked his if he had talked to his agent about a possible move, he seemed genuinely surprised.

Here's what we know ...
* Betancourt is healthy. He told me so. And I actually wonder if playing Yuni at second base isn't just for the Mariners, but as a possible showcase for other teams.

At one point this season, the unhappiness and frustration with Betancourt and his play from the coaching staff was higher than was let on publicly. They may not want to get rid of him immediately, but they have shown they can move on without him.

* Jack Zduriencik's refusal to say anything other than "No comment" may say more than not saying anything at all.

Because the Pirates are in town, does it mean that Betancourt is going to be traded for Freddy Sanchez or Jack Wilson? Not particularly. There are parts that seem like a match, but I don't think it would be a one for one swap. The Pirates may want Greg Halman, they may want a young reliever like Mark Lowe. Remember the possibility of a multi-team deal is real. Jack Z's first trade as a GM was a three-teamer which may be a reason for the delay in anything happening.

Plenty of teams want Sanchez and plenty of teams have contacted the M's about possible deals. One thing I found with Jack Z is that he's honest about what happens but he plays his cards close to the vest. Remember with JJ Putz most of the rumored deals were with the Cardinals and Tigers and then Jack pulled the three-teamer with the Mets and Indians.

* According to Larry, Wakamatsu was genuinely surprised and unaware that Yuni had been scratched from the line-up.

* I will be back at Cheney Stadium again tonight on Yuni-watch again.

UPDATE 10:36: OK, as far as I know, nothing has happened with Yuni on the trade front. Does that mean it isn't being talked about? Not at all. In fact, I do think they are or were possibly close to a deal and that's why he was pulled.

It wasn't because of his hamstring. I asked him about it and he said, "I'm good, it feels good."

Betancourt took part in batting practice, team fundamentals and infield.

"He did everything with us," Rainiers manager Daren Brown said.

Brown said he got the call about 35-40 minutes before the game starter.

When I asked Betancourt about being pulled from the line-up he said: “I was in the line-up and then they said I wasn’t playing,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

Of course, I had to ask if he'd talked to his agent about today about any possible moves, he seemed genuinely perplexed and just said, "No."

So I asked again, since he doesn't have the best grasp of English: "So your agent hasn't called you?" He shook his head.

Really, though would he know what's going on? Probably not.

The speculating is not fun. It sometimes drives me insane. We've heard the report about the Pittsburgh Pirates scouting the Mariners. I didn't see the Pirates at the Rainiers game yesterday when Yuni played second, but to be honest I wasn't looking. I will say that there are at five or six scouts here today along with Mariner exec Jim Na here the last two games.

What does it all mean I don't know.

But when he left the clubhouse at Cheney Stadium tonight Betancourt believed he was a member of the Mariners organization. And for the moment that appears to be true.

With the speculation of possible trades taking place, Betancourt being scratched 15 minutes before game time seems like more than a coincidence.

Does it mean he's been traded? No. After all, he is coming back from a hamstring injury. But he looked perfectly healthy last night, and he was at Cheney for early work in the field and took batting practice.

The Mariners official comment is that "it was an organizational decision" whatever that means.

We'll keep digging.

With 2 1/2 months of baseball left, it's a bit early to call any series 'critical,' so let's just say the Rangers-Mariners series that starts tonight could tighten the divisional race in the American League West.

It opens with Seattle 4 1/2 games behind Texas, and the Mariners set their rotation up to start Felix Hernandez, Brandon Morrow, Jarrod Washburn and Erik Bedard.

That's the best they have, with no offense intended to lefties Jason Vargas and Garrett Olson.

No matter what happens in the next four games, there will be time for the Mariners to make runs at the top. But making a move by taking three of four games would be a feel-good finish to the traditional first half of the season for a team that's played hard to get and stay above .500.

Win three of four and Seattle gets to the All-Star break with a 46-42 record. The Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians and Toronto Blue Jays would all take those numbers.

Tonight, it's Felix vs. Tommy Hunter, in the last start before Hernandez heads for the All-Star game in St. Louis.

The center fielder can hit

Ken Griffy J. drew a walk, his 41st of the season, and Franklin Gutierrez banged a single into left field - extending his career-best hitting streak to 12 consecutive games.

With runners at first and second and no one out, the Mariners had the first point-blank scoring opportunity - but never moved those runners as they went down 1-2-3.

After two: No score.

This Felix kid can pitch

Five days before his first All-Star game, Mr. Hernandez is pitching like an ace.

Against a tough Texas lineup, he's allowed one hit in four innings and no other batter has reached base.

The one problem? Seattle hasn't scored for him. This isn't the kind of pitching you can waste, not at home, not against a team you're trying to catch.

The Mariners need to scratch out a run, get Felix a lead, and ride their horse.

After four: No score.

Playing Wak-ball

The Mariners clearly are pushing every chance they get.

Ichiro singled in the third inning, his second infield hit of the night, and promptly stole his 18th base.

Now in the fifth, Rob Johnson singled and Ronny Cedeno bunted him to second base. Ichiro grounded out. Russell Branyan was intentionally walked. Lopez popped out.

After five: No score.

Rangers score first

With two outs, Ian Kinsler walked and Michael Young singled - then the two pulled a double steal.

On a full count to Josh Hamilton, Felix unleashed a wild pitch - ball four - and Kinsler scored from third base.
Hamilton and Young tried a double steal, but Young was caught off base.

In the sixth: Rangers 1, Mariners 0

Getter stronger by the inning

Felix has thrown 111 pitches in eight innings, but just struck out the side in the eighth.

Great game, but not enough, so far. Hunter and the Rangers bullpen have been dominant when it mattered.

In the eighth: Rangers 1, Mariners 0

Oh, the humanity!

Ichiro opened the eighth with his third hit, a looping double to left field, setting the stage for a dramatic rally that almost never happened.

Reliever C.J. Wilson retired Branyan, Jose Lopez before Ken Griffey Jr. drew his second walk of the night, 42nd of the season.

The inning prolonged, Gutierrez hammered his 10th home run of the season, then had to take a curtain call as the crowd stood until he came back out of thre dugout.

After eight: Mariners 3, Rangers 1

That's a final

Back on the mound, David Aardsma threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Seattle is 3 1/2 games back.

It's a final: Mariners 3, Rangers 1.

The announcement hasn't been made, but the Seattle Mariners have brought up first baseman Chris Shelton and starting pitcher Jason Vargas to Tacoma.

The move was made to bolster Seattle's depth off the bench and essentially replace Mike Sweeney, who's on the disabled list.

Asked if Shelton would play third base, manager Don Wakamatsu said: "No. The reports from Tacoma were not good, but we know he can give us a professional at-bat."

And Vargas, the No. 5 starter in Seattle's rotation, won't be needed after the break until July 25th - so he'll move into the Rainiers rotation until then.

Shelton, 29, batted .319 in 76 games with Tacoma, with 23 doubles, 12 home runs and 64 RBI.

He's played most of his games at third base, but wasn't pretentious about his skills there.

"The manager told me he didn't expect much, so that took the pressure off me," Shelton said. "I did the best I could, but it was still a shock to hear myself introduced as a third baseman."

A right-handed hitter, Shelton will get at-bats at designated hitter, sharing time in a platoon there with Ken Griffey Jr.

Vargas was 3-3 wih a 3.82 earned run average in 13 gaames, 11 of them starts.

There were a lot of folks wondering why the Seattle Mariners didn't heed their advice and trade Erik Bedard last month before he went on the disabled list.

The answer is simple: No one made an offer.

Scouts following the Mariners and Bedard from late May through mid-June were impressed with his stuff, but not his durability.

Bedard was, as a Phillies scout pointed out, a 'five and dive' starting pitcher - a man who'd give you five marvelous innings, could strike out the side in the fifth and then ... quit.

You can live with that in a fourth or fifth starter, but not in a top-of-the-rotation guy. And Bedard is considered the latter, not the former.

The market in June did not exist. Not unless the Mariners and GM Jack Zduriencik had sweetened the deal from their end and dropped the kind of talent they were willing to take in return.

That wasn't going to happen.

Now, Bedard is building up arm strength and lengthening his pitch count, but at the All-Star break he's unlikely to have shown anyone he can pitch deep into games.

Trading Bedard now would be like trying to deal third baseman Adrian Beltre. Damaged goods don't get moved at the deadline.

And when they only give you six innings in June, teams don't line up for the chance to acquire you.

UPDATE: It's confirmed, Shelton will be with Mariners on Thursday.

UPDATE: Expect to see Shelton in Seattle tomorrow. No word on who will be sent down.

Well, I'm at a horrifically boring Rainiers game tonight and Chris Shelton, who was 1-for-3 going into the ninth inning as the DH, and surprisingly, he was pinch hit for in his last at-bat by Prentice Redman.

Yes the game is 7-1, but Shelton being pinch hit for? Hmmmm.

We talked earlier today that the Mariners would most likely make a roster move and send a pitcher down and bring up a bench player. Garrett Olson pitched well out of the bullpen, Jason Vargas started today and Shelton pinch hit for? If I had to give guess on the move it would be Vargas being sent down and Shelton being called up. But that's just a guess.

Hmmmmmmm

Unlike last night where he waited till his last at-bat to get a hit, High Desert outfielder James McOwen didn't wait for any possible drama surrounding his lengthy hitting streak.

McOwen beat out an infield single in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 45 games.

High Desert's manager, Jim Horner, a WSU grad, was on KJR today with Mike Gastineau, talking about McOwen and the impressive streak.

You can listen to the interview here.

My afternoon was Safeco Field and my evening will be at Cheney Stadium where I'm also covering the Rainiers tonight. Normally I wouldn't post from the Rainiers unless something major happened, but since the Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt is playing second base for the first time in several years.

Also in an added treat tonight, Jeff Clement is playing first base, which I've never witnessed before and my boy Cha Cha Sizzle (Cha Seung Baek) is throwing a rehab outing for Portland.

Anyway, Yuni has looked decent so far at second, fielding two ground balls smoothly and also a pop up in shallow right. He also had a Yuni moment after ripping an RBI double in the first. With one out, Chris Shelton hit a fly ball to right, and Betancourt obviously forgot how many outs there were and took off from second, hustling to score. The Portland right fielder caught the ball and tossed it to second for the inning ending double play.

UPDATED 8:09 -- some things never change with Yuni. He goes back on a shallow pop fly with centerfielder Jerry Owens also coming in. Owens appeared to call for it, but Yuni caught it anyway and nearly took the legs out of Owens, who had a semi-collision with him. Sound familiar?

Yes, after three months of hitting for power in the fifth spot in the lineup - then the second spot - Russell Branyan is batting third today.

Though he hasn't hit in the No. 3 or No. 4 slots, his production (46 RBI) ranks second on the team to Jose Lopez (48 RBI).

With the chance to win the series against Baltimore today, and with Mike Sweeney on the disabled list and Ken Griffey Jr. sitting with a tender knee, Branyan agreed to hit third.

It's been Branyan's personal preference not to hit in the heart of the order that's had manager Don Wakamatsu scrambling to find somewhere Branyan can do the most damage.

If anyone gets ejected or injured today, it could get interesting. The Mariners bench is Junior, catcher Rob Johnson and Josh Wilson, the infielder who never plays.

It's Jason Vargas vs. David Hernandez

Play ball.

Mariners long ball

Chris Woodward dropped a parachute single into short left field and, with two outs, Jose Lopez hit his 12th home run of the season.

It's just the fourth time all year Lopez has batted fourth, and the team has gone 0-3 in his first three stints there.

For now, he has the Mariners ahead.

After one: Mariners 2, Orioles 0

Not an easy day

Vargas has pitched into and out of trouble in each of his three innings, but it may catch up with him.

Through three innings, he's thrown 64 pitches, and that pace is not going to get him deep into the game.

The theory for manager Don Wakamatsu isn't just to count pitches, but to determine how much they're taking out of a pitcher. Vargas isn't laboring so much as having to work hard every inning to get out of a jam.

He needs a quick inning or two.

After three: Mariners 2, Orioles 0

Five and dive

Vargas is done, and no one in Safeco Field doubts it.

After walking the first man he faced, the lefty got a thank-you-thank-you double play on a hard hit ball off the mound that caromed right to Lopez at second.

The third batter of the ining, Aubrey Huff, hit a seed down to first base for another out, coming on Vargas' 97th pitch.
He qualifies to win if the bullpen can hang on the last four innings.

Miguel Batista now pitching.

After five: Mariners 2, Orioles 0

Oh, Miguel ...

Batista worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning, then seemed to lose interest in this game.

Catcher Gregg Zaun singled and Batista walked the No. 9 hitter, Robert Andino. Woodward then made a great stop on an Adam Jones ground ball, but bobbled it after the catch for an error - and the bases were loaded.

Goodbye, Mr. Batista. Hello, Garrett Olson.

Olson got a strikeout, then a double play and got out of the jam.

In the seventh: Mariners 2, Orioles 0

And in the ninth

Mariners added a run on an error, but this game got away thanks to some shoddy defense and an off-day by David Aardsma.

Mark Lowe and his 98 mph fastball - with pinpoint control - blew through the eighth inning.

Aardsma was asked to save the game and the shutout, but couldn't preserve either.

Aardsma gave up a leadoff double, walked Zaun and was touched for another single, by pinch-hitter Felix Pie, that loaded the bases for Adam Jones.

Yikes!

Jones beat out a 60-foot infield single, scoring Melvin Mora. Lopez bobbled a perfect double play ball for an error as another run scored.

Ty Wiggington singled up the middle for two runs and a Baltimore lead.

With no one out - still! - Sean White came in to relief Aardsma. He got a ground ball fielders choice, picked Aubrey Huff off first base and then gave up a run when Lopez threw low to first base.

The worst ninth inning of the season for Seattl, which allowed five hits, a walk and committed two errors in allowing five runs.

Yikes, indeed!

In the ninth: Orioles 5, Mariners 3
It's a final

The Mariners got one last passion play in the ninth, when Icihro singled with two outs to bring up pinch hitter Griffey.

On the first pitch, he grounded out.

Final score: Orioles 5, Mariners 3

I mentioned last night that Orioles manager Dave Trembley had a second tantrum of sorts with the postgame media after the one pictured above. Obviously with the Orioles scuffling, he's under a fair amount of criticism and heat, and it might have just came out last night.

Here's Jeff Zrebiec's story from the Baltimore Sun and Doug Miller's story from mlb.com, but both writers told me you can't really grasp how angry and how red Trembley's face was during the postgame exchange.

Doug's story has most of the postgame exchange and video of the on-field tirade.

Here's my favorite quote ...

When asked if he's expecting to hear from the Commissioner's office for his antics on the field, he nodded.

"Oh, I'm sure I will, because I threw my hat and I got it dirty," Trembley said. "So what, you know? They made a mistake. People need to be accountable when they make a mistake. All I want is for somebody to say, 'I made a mistake. I didn't get it right.' Don't cover for one another. We're big boys here, you know?

A few pregame notes ...
As expected Ichiro Suzuki is getting a "day off" by being the designated hitter. This is something the Mariners have done in the past to keep him from wearing down, and it came at a pretty good time.

Yuni Betancourt will be in Tacoma tonight to play with the Rainiers at Cheney Stadium. He will start at second base and play five innings. He'll play seven innings tomorrow at short and probably play another game at second base before the Mariners reevaluate his situation.

To manager Don Wakamatsu's knowledge, Betancourt has never played second base, but he thinks its necessary for versatility.

The rotation after the break is tentatively slotted out. Brandon Morrow will start the series opener in Cleveland on July 16, Felix Hernandez would go the next day on July 17th, and then Jarrod Washburn would go on Saturday, July 18th, then Erik Bedard would go on Sunday, July 19th, that means that either Jason Vargas or Garrett Olson would be the No. 5 starter, and one would be kept in the bullpen and the other sent to Triple A to keep starting on a regular basis.

Washburn would be on his fifth day of rest to start the opener instead of Morrow, which Wakamatsu said is still a possibility. But he said given Washburn's age and earlier aches and issues, the extra days might be good for him.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Vargas sent down after he makes this start and either Chris Shelton, Bryan LaHair or Jeff Clement brought to be a bat off the bench, with Shelton obviously being the favorite.

Orioles
Adam Jones CF
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 2B
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nolan Reimold LF
Luke Scott DH
Melvin Mora 3B
Gregg Zaun C
Robert Andino SS
-----------
RHP David Hernandez (37-47)

Mariners (43-40)
Ichiro Suzuki DH
Chris Woodward 3B
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Ryan Langerhans RF
Kenji Johjima C
Wladimir Balentien LF
Ronny Cedeno SS
------------
LHP Jason Vargas (3-3, 4.14 ERA)

BOX SCORE

Well that was just ugly in many ways, particularly for the Mariners bullpen. Apparently the unexpected day off that Jarrod Washburn provided didn't help as much.

Before we talk about the bullpens struggles, let's talk about Erik Bedard for a moment.

Bedard pitched four innings, gave up two earned runs (with a little help from Franklin Gutierrez's throwing error) and two hits, while striking out eight and walking just one.

For a guy that hadn't pitched in a game since June 7th, he looked pretty strong. His curveball was sharp and his velocity was solid.

According to pitch F/x from Brooks Baseball, Bedard's velocity on his fastball was around 92 mph and he hit 94.

Bedard was typically quiet and unimpressed with his outing, of course, he didn't seemed thrilled with some incessant questioning from one person either.

Here's a modified transcript of the 1 minute, 50 seconds of goodness

Did it feel like a month away? Yeah, the first inning I was a little off, but then I started throwing strikes and started getting them out.

What he changed after the first? I don’t know. Just throwing strikes. That’s about it.


How this felt compared to sim game? I felt the same. My arm feels good, so I’m ready to go. I don’t know. You never forget what you’re gonna do, so I just try to throw strikes and hope my team wins.

On what he did differently? You just try to make adjustments as you’re throwing. If I wasn’t getting on top of curveball, I’d try to get on top, and fastball, same thing.

On his next outing? Just the same, and I’ll just have a higher pitch count. This is a game of adjustments and you have to adjust while the game’s going on.

How different was this compared to sim game? it’s just more adrenaline. You’ve just got to control that and pitch your game.

Bedard was really just a sidenote in this game since, the Mariners relievers combined to throw five innings and give up 10 runs on nine hits. Of the four relievers only Sean White didn't give up a hit or a run.

Bedard left with a 3-2 lead, and it was 12-3 deficit going into the ninth.

“We had a good ballgame going and then the wheels fell off,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said.

Kind of slightly.

Chris Jakubauskas relieved Bedard in the fifth and looked solid, but Wakamatsu thought that in the sixth after Jakubauskas gave up lead-off single, he got very defensive in his pitching, trying not to make a mistake to Aubrey Huff with one out and a runner on first.

"We talk about the success of our pitching staff being based off of how aggressive we are," Wakamatsu said. "I thought Jak came out in the sixth and tried to protect the lead. For me it really came down to getting behind on Huff 3-0, that was kind of the turning point of the game. I felt he should have challenged him a little more."

Look at the mlb.com pitch sequence (right) to see what Wak is talking about.

Instead, down 3-0, Jakubauskas intentionally tossed ball four. It would prove to be costly as Nolan Reimold singled up the middle to tie the game at 3-3. But the dagger came on the next at-bat when Luke Scott hit a shot to center field that Franklin Gutierrez first took a couple steps in on only to realize it was going to be over his head. He retreated but couldn't glove it. Scott got a triple and two runs scored to push the lead to 5-3 and chase Jakubauskas. From there it just snowballed. The Orioles finished with four in the sixth and then tacked on six in the seventh, including a three-run homer for Scott, who finished 3-for-4 with 7 RBI.

“In two innings, the game was basically out of control,” Wakamatsu said.

Here's the lines on the Mariner relievers ...
Jakubauskas -- 1 1/3 IP 4 hits, 4 runs, 1 BB
Kelley --- 1 IP, 4 hits, 5 runs, 2 BB,
Corcoran --- 1 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 HR
White --- 1 IP, 1 K

Obviously, Shawn Kelley is still fighting off the rust, which Wak alluded to after the game, saying he's fighting his mechanics a little and Roy Corcoran was trying to be aggressive but just left a pitch up.

Offensively though, Jeremy Guthrie was not feeling well and was bothered by light-headedness and a queasy stomach and the Mariners missed out in the second and early in the third when he had some walks to put runners on base.

"We had a chance to blow it open," Wakamatsu said.

Another quick note Orioles manager Dave Trembley followed up his meltdown on the field with another one in the clubhouse, including a bit of a rant and some tossing of things. I haven't gotten quite the details, but I'll keep you posted.

=> Read more!

James McOwen extending his hit streak to 44 games tonight as he picked up as single to left in the eighth inning of High Desert's game in San Jose.

McOwen had been 0-for-3 coming into the at-bat.

Greetings from Safeco Field. They had the Longball Bombers just out hitting softballs into the stands. If you've never seen them before they are four slowpitch players roughly the size of football linemen that absolutely obliterate softballs. One guy almost hit the "S" in the Safeco Field sign above the upper deck in left field.

Anyway it's pretty impressive (even though it's slowpitch, and they couldn't hit my rise ball) and all the players from the Orioles and Mariners were enjoying the show. One player in particular Russell Branyan seemed amused. He has the same swing as those guys and the same build. I think we've found a post-baseball career for Russell. He can go by Russell the Muscle as Angie the Annoying calls him during pre and postgame shows.

Top of first -- not a great start
Brian Roberts is out of the line-up tonight. He's been battling some sickness and also some criticism for his lack of effort from Orioles fans. Adam Jones is hitting lead-off something I haven't seen him do since his days as a Rainiers. Well there will be no no-hitter tonight as Jones leads off with a bloop single to right. Maybe Ichiro would normally get there, but I really think he's fighting some fatigue and with tomorrow being a day game, I would expect him to DH.

Erik Bedard seems to have decent velocity, but he barely scraped Markakis with a pitch to put runners on first and second. He struck out Ty Wigginton with a 94 mph fastball and then made Aubrey Huff look silly with a nasty curve for a strikeout. He appeared to throw the same pitch on 3-2 to Nolan Reimold but it was called a ball by home plate umpire Tom Hallion. With bases loaded, Bedard then gave up a single up the middle to Luke Scott. Franklin Gutierrez's throw to the plate was less than stellar and it skipped off the mound and bounced left of Rob Johnson and past Bedard, who was supposed to be backing up, into the stands.

Jones and Markakis scored on the play, but manager Dave Trembley argued that Reimold should have also been awarded home. But after about five minutes, the ruling stayed.

I'm guessing we won't be getting this game done in two hours and nine minutes.

In between the inning Trembley was arguing with Hallion about the play and was tossed. Trembley, who's usually mild mannered, went insane. His face was beat red and he was absolutely screaming at Hallion. He then tossed his hat to the ground and stormed off. Lou Piniella would be proud.

Bottom of first
Bedard threw 28 pitches in that inning so his day could be done early if this pace keeps up. Ichiro leads off with a single. Griffey is rocking some Billie Jean by Michael Jackson as his walk-up music in memory of the deceased pop star. He's also rocking one white glove in honor of Michael. Junior draws a walk. But does not moonwalk to first base, thankfully.

And now Guthrie is bothered by something and we have another game break. This game is destined for four hours and nine minutes.

Gutierrez atones for the throwing error by crushing a Guthrie pitch into the left field for a three-run homer. Mariners lead 3-2 and Gutierrez has a career high 10 game hitting streak. It is Gutierrez's ninth homer of the season.

Second inning
Bedard strikes out Wieters, Andino and Jones with ease. He's at 45 pitches after two innings. Meanwhile, his counterpart Jeremy Guthrie is still all over the place. He walked Rob Johnson to lead-off the inning, but managed to get out of it. Mariners 3, Orioles 2

Third Inning
Well Jeremy Guthrie's night is over with. He walked Russell Branyan, got Jose Lopez to ground out and then walked Junior. That was enough for bench coach Dave Jauss, who brought in big lefty Mark Hendrickson, who hails from Mt. Vernon and played hoops for WSU. Hendrickson struck out Gutz and Langerhans to end the inning.

Fourth inning
Bedard strikes out his seventh hitter of the game and then gets out of the inning. He's at 75 pitches. He may start the next inning and Chris Jakubauskas will be in for him shortly thereafter.

Ronny Cedeno bunts for a hit, when his bunt hits the bat on the ground, it seems like either bunts for a hit, strikes out or hits a homer. The only three options.

Fifth Inning
Sorry for the delay, my computer was acting sluggish and had to reboot and run the virus scan. Anyway, Bedard is out after four, having allowed two runs on two hits with eight strikeouts.

Mark Hendrickson has shut down the Mariners bats, particularly the left-handed hitters. The Mariners need to add some runs, because I don't think a one-run lead is safe.

Sixth inning
The wheels have fallen off for the Mariners. Jakubauskas gave up soft RBI single to Nolan Reimold and then Gutierrez uncharacteristically misplayed a ball in center resulting in a three-run triple.

The Mariners get nothing as Woodward is robbed of a double by Melvin Mora.

Seventh inning
A rare miscue from Gutz opens the floodgates for a long inning in which the Orioles get seven runs and the bullpen doesn't look so good.

Not a bunch of a lot things, but some decent stuff coming from the pregame meeting with manager Don Wakamatsu.

* Yuniesky Betancourt is doing drills right now and at Wakamatsu's suggestion is taking ground balls at second base(pictured above). He'll probably head to his rehab assignment with the Rainiers in the next few days. Tacoma returns to Cheney Stadium for five straight home games starting tomorrow. Wakamatsu said that they aren't sure what Betancourt's schedule would be but they want him to play at least one game at second base.

* We listed the roster move earlier, Wakamatsu said that the move is precautionary for the Mariners and Mike Sweeney and he will see a doctor and possibly get some x-rays. With the move, it leaves the Mariners with 13 pitchers on the rosters. When asked about the possibility of another roster move to add a position player, Wakamatsu said its being discussed.

We’re dialoging with that right now," he said. "We’ll see. If there’s a need, we’re going to have to make that move. The biggest thing right now, we go through each game and see where it takes us."

Wakamatsu then mentioned that the won't really a need a fifth starter until July 25th. Right now, the Mariners have seven starters - Felix, Bedard, Washburn, Morrow, Vargas and Olson.

So who is the fifth starter?
"They've all pitched great, it's more about looking at different things and usage and where guys slot out and what's best for the team," Wakamatsu said.

Logically, one will go to the bullpen (Olson) and Vargas would go to Triple A and continue to stay stretched out. But Wakamatsu wouldn't commit to that yet.

"Depends on who it is and are dialogue in the next couple of days," he said.

* If you notice below, Kenji Johjima is out of the line-up for the second straight day. The Japanese media asked if it was a question of the match-ups. My inner cynic says, "Yeah, it's the match-up of having Johnson catch Bedard. Since we know Bedard has had minor issues with Joh's game calling in the past."

But Wakamatsu, who's been adamant about not having personal catchers, said the decision was based on a little bit of everything.

"I look at a lot of different things," he said. "I think Rob's done a good job, and Joh's done a good job. I do look at just about everything. I look at opposing teams and match-ups and every day we try to go with the best chance of winning and today Rob gives us the best opportunity."

* Until something changes Ken Griffey Jr. will handle the bulk of the DH duties, unless a roster move is made. But expect to see Ichiro to DH at least once in the Texas series, or perhaps even tomorrow.

Orioles (36-47)
Adam Jones CF
Nick Markakis RF
Ty Wigginton 2B
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nolan Reimold LF
Luke Scott DH
Melvin Mora 3B
Matt Wieters C
Robert Andino SS
------------
RHP Jeremy Guthrie (6-8, 5.20 ERA)

Mariners (43-39)
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Russell Branyan 1B
Jose Lopez 2B
Ken Griffey Jr. DH
Franklin Gutierrez CF
Ryan Langerhans LF
Rob Johnson C
Chris Woodward 3B
Ronny Cedeno SS
------------
LHP Erik Bedard (5-2, 2.47 ERA)

Well, it's not quite at that level as the headline suggested. But Jarrod Washburn has been the talk around town for the last 15 or so hours - and with good reason - following his scintillating one-hit performance last night against the Orioles.

Here's my game story from last night.

Here's Jeff Zrebiec's game story from the Baltimore Sun.

Washburn made the local radio rounds today doing interviews with Brock and Salk at 710 ESPN (listen here) and Ian Furness at KJR(listen here).

Perhaps the most interesting things of those interviews were that Washburn admitting that he was considering retirement next year, but that now after the way he's pitched this season, he wants to keep throwing. More specifically, he wouldn't mind throwing for the Mariners next season.

On both interviews he said he was amenable to re-signing with the Mariners. In his interview with Brock and Salk, he mentioned pitching coach Rick Adair and the work he's done with as a big reason for him wanting to continue pitching in the future and pitching for the Mariners.

"If I do play past this year, I would love to be able to work with him some more," Washburn said.

Washburn also went into more detail about the mechanical change he talked about last night. It isn't anything in his wind-up, in fact, it's before he starts his delivery and it is just sticking his butt out. It helps him stand tall and gets his hips in better position on his delivery. Something so simple apparently has paid off.

As for Washburn, he admitted to Furness that he doesn't want to be traded and if he is traded that would mean the Mariners took a major nosedive over the next few weeks. Washburn believes this team can win now and he wants to stay ... which is a much different feeling that last year.

Buster Olney was ESPN TV today and said that right now Washburn has the highest trade value of he'll ever have and possibly of any pitcher in baseball right now ... well except for Roy Halladay, who is apparently and unbelievably is available for a possible trades.

So with Washburn's value being so high, Jack Z can't trade him can he? Probably not right now with the M's still in it. But that doesn't mean big Jack should stop taking calls or offers on Washburn, Bedard, Batista or Branyan or anyone not named Felix or Ichiro. So much can change in three weeks that he has to keep all bases covered. Realistically Zduriencik can be play both sides as a buyer and a seller right up until the deadline.

We all knew that the Mariners had to make a roster move today when they activated Erik Bedard off the DL, but the decision to place Mike Sweeney on the 15-day DL wasn't something we were completely expecting.

Sweeney has been battling back spasms since the Boston road trip and manager Don Wakamatsu said Sweeney was "day-to-day" on Monday. It's retroactive to July 6th, so he'll be eligible to come off on July 21st.

By my rudimentary count, it leaves the Mariners with 13 pitches and 12 position players. Seems strange to carry that many pitchers especially since the Ms were carrying 11 pitchers for a long time. Of course with Bedard being on a pitch count, the extra relief may help, but bringing up another position player and send down Olson to keep him throwing in Triple A. I guess we'll find out when we meet with Wakamatsu later today.

High Desert outfielder James McOwen extended his hitting streak to 43 games with a solo home run to right in the fifth inning of High Desert's 10-9 win over Visalia. McOwen wasn't done adding a two-run triple later in the game.

McOwen finished 2-for-4 with a two runs scored and three RBI and a walk. He's now hitting .354 on the season.

The 43-game hitting streak tied him with three other players most recently Brandon Watson (2007). It's the longest minor-league streak since 1954.

McOwen has aways to go.

Check out this story and list from AOL Fanhouse

Top Minor-League Hitting Streaks
Player, Year Games
Joe Wilhoit (Wichita), 1919 -- 69
Joe DiMaggio (San Francisco), 1933 -- 61
Roman Mejias (Waco), 1954 -- 55
Otto Pahlman (Danville), 1922 -- 50
Jack Ness (Oakland), 1915 -- 49
Harry Chozen (Mobile), 1945 -- 49
Johnny Bates (Nashville), 1929 -- 46
Brandon Watson (Columbus), 2007 -- 43
Eddie Marshall (Milwaukee), 1935 -- 43
Howie Bedell (Louisville), 1947 -- 43
Orlando Moreno (Big Spring), 1961 -- 43
James McOwen (High Desert), '09 -- 43

Think about that, Joe Dimaggio hit in 61 straight in the minors and 56 straight in the majors. Unreal.

photo from milb.com

BOX SCORE

Jarrod Washburn became the first Mariners pitcher to toss a one-hitter in Safeco Field since it opened in 1999. Notice Mariners pitcher is in italics. The first pitcher to throw a one-hitter at a Safeco was another little lefty - Ted Lilly, who tossed a one-hitter against the M's on April 27th, 2002. Only Lilly lost that game 1-0.

Washburn didn't lose the game. He got plenty of run support. Really all he needed was Russell Branyan's moonshot to left-center in the first inning, which manager Don Wakamatsu said was key.

"Offensively, a big, big thing tonight was Russell putting on the board early," Wakamatsu said. "That sets the tone, a big home run like that."

The Mariners tacked on five more with Ichiro picking up a big two-out RBI single and Chris Woodward delivering a big two-run double after Orioles manager Dave Trembley walked Rob Johnson of all people to load the bases.

Washburn did the rest, tossing nine innings and allowing just one hit, while striking out three and throwing just 110 pitches

"In this game, things can go south in a hurry," he said. "I knew early on I had good stuff and good command and I was just concentrating on keeping it that way.

"Rob called a great game. I think I only shook him off five or six times the whole game. We were in a great rhythm there. Everything worked tonight."

Anything specific?

"Fastball that was it," he said. "We threw one change-up the whole game. The four seam and two seam were working great, both sides of the plate I was commanding them with the fastball."

Any bets if Johnson is going to catch Washburn's next start?

Washburn was perfect through three and gave up his only hit and baserunner with two outs in the fourth when Nick Markakis dropped a soft single to left on a 2-2 pitch.

“It was a sinker in, and it was actually a pretty good pitch,” said catcher Rob Johnson. “He left that one up just a little bit. He didn’t barrel it up, and got jammed a little bit. But it’s part of the game.”

Ryan Langerhans, who was playing left field, took a bit of ribbing for teammates for not getting to the ball, but it landed about 15 feet from him.

“With two strikes I moved a couple steps closer to the line,” he said. “I always do that with two strikes. Maybe if I don’t, I have a chance at it.”

I doubt it. But I haven't gone back and looked at replays again. Still, it was the fourth inning, the Mariners were only leading 1-0, it's not like you want Langerhans to dive for that ball and have the possibility of extra bases. It's not as if you worry about saving a perfect game or no-hitter that early in the game.

After the Markakis hit, Washburn never gave up another hit or a baserunner, and looking at my scorebook, I don't remember a ball being hit particularly hard after that. The at-bat before Markakis, Adam Jones hit a bullet that Branyan speared.

There probably could have been another hit in the seventh. Jones, who showed like he might drag bunt to start his at-bat (a sure sign that Washburn was dealing), hit a busted bat roller to Chris Woodward. And while nobody will ever confuse Woodward with Beltre defensively, he did make a Beltre-type play, barehanding the ball and firing off-balance to first to get Jones. It's one of the better plays I've seen live all year.

But the night belonged to Washburn.

“I don't know if you can throw a better game than that,” Wakamatsu said.

“He pitched one of the best games in Major League baseball all season,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “I give the guy credit. He was on his game and certainly pitched a gem.”

To be fair Washburn has pitched well all season, maybe not this good, but better than he's been in a while.

“I think he's pitching as good as I've ever seen him,” Wakamatsu said. “Even back in the World Series in 2002, I thought he tried to power past guys, but he pitches now. He has more command of certain pitches. You see a lot of lefthanders as they get a little older, they get a little more crafty, but he still has good velocity on his fastball, and he's startingt to understand to maybe soften it a little, use his sinker, use his breaking ball to pitch.”

Washburn credits a mechanical change in spring training at the urging of pitching coach Rick Adair and bullpen coach John Wetteland that also made the difference.

“This year is the best stuff I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve always had a two seam fastball but it never sunk before. The mechanical adjustemnt I made in spring training with the help of Rick and Wette has paid off. My two seamer sinks and I’m getting out a little farther on the ball. It helps my breaking ball too. That’s what I owe it all too is that mechanical adjustment.”

Washburn also had a little incentive since his dad, Mike, was in town tonight to watch the game.

Washburn said his parents have only seen him pitch in person twice this season – once in Minnesota, where he threw eight shutout innings and Monday’s game. And Washburn showed he isn’t above superstition.

“He’s here till the all-star break,”Washburn said of his dad. “If I throw another shutout against Texas on Saturday, I might have to make him do some traveling.”

Also one thing that's important to remember about Washburn's start. Not only did it get the Mariners a win, but it gave the bullpen a much needed day off. We've talked about how many inning some of the relievers logged early in the season, and on this last road trip. Washburn gave them an extra night of rest.

"It's awfully important to give our bullpen a break," Wakamatsu said. "Any time we can get a performance like this it invests in our future down the road, where we can not tax the bullpen as much. Those are the signs you're looking for on a winning club."

Washburn is always cognizant of keeping the bullpen fresh, but he also knew that with Erik Bedard starting on Tuesday and on a limited pitch count, the bullpen was going to get some work.

"We got Bedard throwing tomorrow and he's not going to be able to go very deep in the game because he's been out for a while," Washburn said. "They're going to have to work tomorrow."

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A few quick things. Today is salute to Japanese baseball night at Safeco Field, and since my mom is full Japanese descent, meaning I'm half Japanese, the Mariners gave me one of Ichiro's bats and one of Joh's red catcher's gloves. Okay I totally made that last part up. But I am half Japanese and it was a big deal to some of my relatives when Japanese players started showing up in the big leagues. I would think they've helped enhance major league baseball.

A quick note on the nights festivities -- Ayumi Kataoka is a female professional baseball player, who plays for the Ibaraki Golden Golds in the Japanese minor leagues and she threw out the first pitch. While standing around during batting practice, the diminutive player got a wave from Ichiro Suzuki as he was preparing to get in the cage which brought tears to her eyes. Later Kenji Johjima asked if she wanted him to catch the first pitch and she also began tearing up. I guess there is crying in baseball.

First inning
Jarrod Washburn looks pretty sharp, striking out Adam Jones and Nick Markakis.

In the bottom of the inning Russell Branyan takes out any all-star snub frustrations (very few minimal if any) out on the baseball driving a moon-shot to left-center into the Mariners bullpen. M's lead 1-0.

Second inning
Washburn is still cruising along nicely. Also sorry for the delay, but the scoreboards went out hear at Safeco and it has me playing catch up.

Gutierrez leads off with a double in the bottom half of the inning, but he's later thrown out by about six feet on a bad attempt of a steal at third.

Third inning
Another 1-2-3 inning for Washburn ... meanwhile the M's get another strikeout from Ronny Cedeno. That's 37 strikeouts in 121 at-bats for Cedeno. Um, that's kind of a lot.

Fourth inning
Washburn gives up his first hit - a liner to left from Markakis. I didn't jinx it. I didn't say a word.

The Mariners aren't exactly tearing it up offensively other than Branyan home run. Bergeson has probably been Baltimore's best pitcher this season.

Fifth inning
Washburn works a 1-2-3 inning, while the Mariners scratch across another run. Rob Johnson reaches and advances on a throwing error by shortstop Robert Andino. He moves to second on Chris Woodward's broken bat grounder to the right side. The Mariners try a squeeze play with the anemic hitting Ronny Cedeno at the plate, but he bunts it foul. Cedeno then strikes out... of course he does. But Ichiro bails the M's out with a single through the right side.

Sixth inning
Another 1-2-3 inning for Washburn, he's at 80 pitches after six.

The Mariners get a single from Gutierrez, double from Ryan Langerhans to put runners on second and third with one out. The Orioles then intentionally walked Rob Johnson, which is not a typo, to load the bases and Chris Woodward makes them pay with a two-run double to left. Seattle goes up 4-0 with runners on second and third with no outs. Of course, there's no way they are walking Ronny Cedeno, who pulls a hat trick with his third strikeout of the night. The Mariners almost get a couple more, but Ichiro's sinking liner is glove by Brian Roberts on a short hop and thrown to first for the final out.

Seventh inning
Washburn 1-2-3 again. The Mariners tack on an insurance run as Ryan Langerhans hits a ball deep to left with bases loaded for a sac fly.

Eighth inning
Wash again 1-2-3, this is for you Dave8557. Another note, Kam Mickolio is in the eighth to pitch against the M's, as I mentioned earlier he was part of the Bedard trade, and he's also from my home state of Montana. Two Montana players in one big league game, that doesn't happen very often.

Ninth Inning
Washburn with a 1-2-3 inning for a one-hitter the first for a Mariner in Safeco Field history.

Well, the clouds and drizzle that I had in Tacoma are not evident here at a sunny Safeco Field. The Mariners are taking BP right now.

Let's get to a few pregame notes ...
Yuni Betancourt is progressing nicely from his hamstring strain and will do some drills today and tomorrow to test it. He may get sent out to Tacoma over the next few days for some rehab work, but manager Don Wakamatsu said he doesn't not anticipate that Yuni will be activated till after the all-star break.

Mike Sweeney is day to day with back spasms.

Erik Bedard is good to go for tomorrow and will likely be on pitch count of around 75 to 80 pitches. ON Sunday, he'll be closer to 100.

In the Mariners clubhouse, outfielder Endy Chavez made an appearance in the M's clubhouse, coming on a set of crutches, and still smiling as usual. With the swelling down and the range of motion a little better, Chavez will have surgery on Thursday to repair his torn ACL and MCL.

We talked with Chavez about the play and he said that he did not try to call of Yuni on the play.

"No, no, no," he said. "When I saw the ball, I got it in my mind to dive for it. I saw Yuni at the last (second) and I said I’m not going to dive for it now. I tried to stop but I can't get out of the way in time. So I tried to catch the ball and prepare myself to get hit. The next thing I found out I was in the air."

Chavez is placing no blame on either party involved.

"That’s part of the game," he said. "I know we were playing hard and Yuni attacks the ball pretty good too. There's no way he can call me off and no way I can call him off. It’s something that happens in the game. It’s something you are not expecting. But it’s in the air and anything can happen in baseball games."

As for the injury itself, Chavez lost his smile pretty quickly when talking about the pain.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "I knew something was wrong because it was so painful that I couldn’t even move my leg. I knew something was wrong in there. The pain was terrible. Now it’s just uncomfortable because you can’t do anything with it."

Over on the Orioles side, former Mariner prospect Kam Mickolio was called up from Triple A Rochester today. So that means, four of the six players involved in that much-debated trade last offseason are in uniform --- Erik Bedard, who is scheduled to pitch tomorrow against his old team., George Sherrill, who was named an all-star for the second straight year, Adam Jones, who was named to his first all-star game, and Mickolio. Also of note, Chris Tillman will represent the Orioles in the All-Star Futures game during the all-star break.

LINEUPS
Orioles
Roberts 2B
Jones CF
Markakis RF
Huff DH
Wigginton 1B
Reimold LF
Mora 3B
Wieters C
Andino SS
----------
Bergeson RHP

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Branyan 1B
Lopez 2B
Griffey DH
Gutierrez CF
Langerhans LF
Johnson C
Woodward 3B
Cedeno SS
---------
Washburn LHP

Here's a minor league report for perusing ...

HALMAN & McOWEN NAMED PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
West Tenn OF Greg Halman (left)(Southern League) and High Desert OF James McOwen (right) have been named Player of the Week for June 29-July 5. Halman hit .333 (10x30) with 8 home runs. McOwen has extended his California League record hitting streak to 42 games after batting .545 (12x22) with 2 doubles, one triple, one home run and 7 RBI. The streak is the longest since Brandon Watson (43 G) in 2007.

ALSO --- Here's Jay Yencich's Minor League Report for the USS Mariner, which always has some in depth stuff, plus Jay also does a nice job of answering some questions in the comment section.

Yesterday’s Results Standings Winner/Loser/Save
at Salt Lake 6, Tacoma 2 --- 39-44, 3rd, -10.0 --- L-Steve Shell (1-1)
West Tenn 11, at Huntsville 8 --- 2nd Half: 9-5, 1st, +1.0/1st Half: 27-43, 5th --- W-Luis Pena (1-0)
at High Desert 8, Visalia 0 --- 2nd Half: 7-4, T1st, +1.0/1st Half: 43-27, 1st --- W-JC Ramirez (6-4)
Kane County 8, at Clinton 2 --- 2nd Half: 5-5, T3rd, -3.0/1st Half: 40-30, 3rd --- L-Kenn Kasparek (4-5)
at Everett 15, Yakima 14 --- 10-6, 2nd, -2.0 --- W-Brandon Pullen (2-0)
at Pulaski 8, Danville 5 --- 3-10, 5th, -4.5 --- W-Jean Tome (1-2)

AAA Tacoma Rainiers (Pacific Coast League)
BOX SCORE
Here's Mike Curto's game story
Pitching lines
RH Steven Shell (L, 1-1) 5.0,8,5,5,2,3,HR (92/58)
RH Joey Newby 3.0,3,1,1,2,2
With the Bats:
CF Jerry Owens 2x5
3B Chris Shelton 3x4, R
C Adam Moore 3x4, R, 2 RBI, 2B, HR
Rainiers Notes: RH Steven Shell made his first start with the Rainiers and took the loss allowing 8 this and 5 runs in 5.0 innings as the Rainiers fell to Salt Lake 6-2 on Sunday. C Adam Moore went 3- for-4 with a double and hit his 4th home run in the loss (first since 6/16). All-Star 3B Chris Shelton also added 3 hits and scored a run (7th 3-hit game). Right-handed reliever Joey Newby allowed one run and 3 hits in 3.0 innings. Since being called up from AA, Newby has allowed only one run in 6.1 IP (3 G). Tacoma All-Stars: 5 former Tacoma Rainiers were named to major league All-Star rosters: Felix Hernandez (played for Tacoma in 2005), Raul Ibañez (1996-2000), Brian Fuentes (2001), Ryan Franklin (1997-2001) and Adam Jones (2006-07)
Today’s probable starter:
RH Doug Fister (4-1, 4.20) at Salt Lake

AA West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (Southern League)
BOX SCORE
Pitching Lines:
RH Luis Pena (W, 1-0) 5.0,6,3,3,3,3,HR (91/49)
RH Phillippe Aumont 2.0,1,1,1,1,2,HR
LH Danny Christensen 1.1,5,4,3,3,0
RH Anthony Varvaro (S, 3) 0.2,0,0,0,0,0
With the Bats:
LF Ezequiel Carrera 2x4, R, 2B, CS
CF Greg Halman 3x5, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2B, 2 HR
RF Mike Wilson 4x4, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 2B, HR, BB
3B Matt Mangini 2x5, R, RBI, HR
D-Jaxx Notes: - The Diamond Jaxx belted 5 home runs for the second consecutive game in an 11-8 win over the Huntsville Stars. West Tenn has won 4 straight games to improve to 9-5 in the 2nd half of the season, leading the Southern League North. CF Greg Halman went 3-for-5 with 4 runs scored, 2 home runs and 3 RBI. Halman has hit 2 homers in back-to-back games and leads the Southern League with 20 home runs. Since coming off the DL on June 25, Halman has recorded a hit in 10 of 11 games, including 7 home runs. RF Mike Wilson recorded a season-high 4 hits, including 3 extra base hits (2 2B, HR).
Today’s probable starters:
RH Justin Souza (5-6, 3.42) at Huntsville

A High Desert Mavericks (California League)
BOX SCORE
Pitching Lines:
RH JC Ramirez (W, 6-4) 6.0,3,0,0,1,3
RH Natividad Dilone 2.0,0,0,0,1,5
RH Aaron Jensen 1.0,1,0,0,0,0
With the Bats:
CF Tyson Gillies 3x3, 3 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI
RF James McOwen 1x3, RBI, BB
LF Carlos Peguero 2x4, R, RBI, 2B
DH Joe Dunigan 1x3, HR, RBI
Mavericks Notes: Leadoff hitter Tyson Gillies went 3-for-3 with 2 home runs and RF James McOwen went 1-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 42 games in a 8-0 victory over Visalia. Starting pitcher JC Ramirez fired 6.0 shutout innings and RH Natividad Dilone struck out 5 of the 7 batters he faced in 2.0 innings in relief. DH Joe Dunigan also hit his 18th homer of the season, 3rd-best in the California League.
Today’s probable starter:
RH Steven Hensley (3-1, 4.14) vs. Visalia

A Clinton LumberKings (Midwest League)
BOX SCORE
Pitching Lines:
RH Kenn Kasparek (L, 4-5) 3.2,6,5,1,3,2
RH Ryan Moorer 1.2,2,3,2,2,1
LH Greg Moviel 3.0,1,0,0,2,0
RH Cheyne Hann 0.2,0,0,0,0,0
With the Bats:
RH Steve Moss 1x1, 2 BB
DH Kris Sanchez 1x4, R, RBI, HR
Lumberkings Notes: The Kane County Cougars scored four runs after an error by shortstop Ogui Diaz in the third inning and strolled to an 8-2 win over the Clinton LumberKings. DH Kris Sanchez hit his 8th home run, 3rd in his last 5 games. 2B Luis Nunez has recorded a hit in 5 consecutive games (.400/8x20) and 12 of his last 13 games. Nunez ranks 6th in the Midwest League batting .327.
Today’s probable starter:
RH Maikel Cleto (0-0, 3.52) vs. Kane County

R Everett AquaSox (Northwest League)
BOX SCORE
Game story and notes from the Everett Herald
Pitching Lines:
RH Taylor Lewis 3.1,7,8,8,2,4,3 HR
RH Philip Roy 1.2,3,0,0,0,2
RH Bradley Reid 0.0,4,3,3,0,0,HR
RH Christian Staehely 1.0,3,2,2,0,1
LH Brandon Pullen (W, 2-0) 2.0,1,0,0,1,5
RH Daniel Cooper (S, 4) 1.0,2,1,1,0,0,HR
With the Bats:
1B Gerardo Avila 3x5, 4 R, 6 RBI, 3B, GSHR
DH Juan Fuentes 4x5, 2 RBI
RF Ryan Royster 3x5, 3 R, 3B, RBI, 2 SB
AquaSox Notes: 1B Gerardo Avila (right) hit a grand slam and fell a double short of the cycle as Everett won a wild 15-14 game at home against the Yakima Bears. Avila led the Frogs’ offense (season-high 19 hits) with a double, triple, grand slam, 6 RBI, and 4 runs scored. DH Juan Fuentes chipped in with a 4 hit performance and 2 RBI. After starting the season 5-5, Everett has won 4 in a row and 5 of 6.
Today’s probable starter:
LH Nick Czyz (1-1, 3.31) vs. Yakima

Pulaski Mariners (Appalachian League)
BOX SCORE
Pitching Lines:
RH Jean Tome (W, 1-2) 5.0,6,3,3,3,4
RH Jordan Merry 3.0,2,0,0,0,4
LH Anthony Vasquez 1.0,4,2,1,0,0
With the Bats:
LF Brandon Haveman 2x5, 2 R, RBI, HR, SB
2B Cesar Fuentes 3x4, 2 R
Pulaski Notes: Pulaski recorded a season-high 14 hits in a 8-5 win over Danville. After opening the season 0-5, Pulaski has won 3 of their last 8 games. LF Brandon Haveman, the Mariners 29th-round selection out of Purdue, went 2-for-5 with his first professional home run. University of Washington product Jorden Merry struck out 4 in 3.0 scoreless innings of relief.
Today’s probable starter:
RH Yao Wen Chang (0-1, 5.19) vs. Danville

Here's a look at who'll be playing in St. Louis on July 14th. Actually, there is one spot on each team open that will be decided by on-line van vote, which you can do here. For the American League, you can choose from Chone Figgins, Ian Kinsler, Brandon Inge, Adam Lind and Carlos Pena. For the National League you can choose from Cristian Guzman, Matt Kemp, Mark Reynolds, Pablo Sandoval and Shane Victorino.

As for the hometown club, obviously the two Mariners who should have definitely made it - Ichiro Suzuki (pictured hitting his inside the park HR a few years ago) and Felix Hernandez - did make the team. I'm not so sure Felix shouldn't get the starting nod over Zack Greinke, but with the game being in St. Louis, I'm sure Greinke who plays just down the road in KC will get the nod. (that's a blog post for another day).

Manager Don Wakmatsu lobbied for David Aardsma and Russell Branyan to earn spots. Neither made it, though I thought at least Branyan might get into the final voting. Both are worthy of consideration and columnist John McGrath believes both should have made it, but thinks it might be a good thing they didn't.

Every year, people chime in with who got snubbed and who wasn't deserving. Veteran writer Tracy Ringolsby offers some good thoughts.

As for the rest of the selections, well, I'm not going to go off about the fan votes for the starters. I've always believed the fans' vote should decide the starters. Now, had the fans voted in Manny Ramirez as a starter, my opinion may have changed. In the AL, obviously Dustin Pedroia, Derek Jeter and Josh Hamilton are all great players. But realistically either Aaron Hill or Kinsler , who should not be having to be voted in, should be starting at second, Jason Bartlett at shortstop and Torii Hunter in the outfield instead. A case could also be made for Kevin Youkilis starting over Mark Teixeira, but it's really pick'em there.

As for people left off, besides the two Mariners players, Texas pitcher Kevin Millwood has a legitimate gripe.

Also congrats to Adam Jones, who is making the first of what appears to be many all-star appearances and to classy veteran pitcher Tim Wakefield. The knuckleball pitcher is making his first all-star game at age 42 after 17 seasons in the bigs.

Over in the NL, my only disagreements are at catcher where Brian McCann should have started over Yadier Molina, who isn't even the best of the Molinas, but he might be the fastest, which is like saying a turtle is faster than a snail. But the game is being played in St. Louis and the Cardinals fans voted. In the outfield, Carlos Beltran is deserving every year, but this year he's been hurt quite a bit and the bone bruise on his knee that's sidelined him for the past few weeks will keep him out of the game. Either Justin Upton or Brad Hawpe should get the start instead.

Also Charlie "Cholly" Manuel took a page from the Tacoma Rainiers and added three first baseman to the reserve list meaning, he has four on the roster, which is interesting. And if 1B/3B Mark Reynolds gets voted in that would be five.

Congrats to former Mariner Ryan Franklin, who's now the Cardinals closer and made his first all-star game. Apparently Franklin teared up when his teammates gave him an ovation in the clubhouse upon hearing the news.

As for the NL starter, it should be Tim Lincecum without question.

Full rosters below

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The Seattle Mariners hit the half way point in their 162 game season today, and they do it with the opportunity to do what they have never done before.

Sweep a three-game series in Boston.

The Red Sox are the only American League team the Mariners have never swept on the road, and they've won the first two games of this series.

It's Brandon Morrow vs. Jon Lester, and manager Don Wakamatsu has his right-handed hitting lineup, which means Mike Sweeney is the designated hitter.

Asked about reaching the midway point of the season before the game, Wakamatsu said "I couldn't be happier with this team.

"Our guys have developed relationships with one another, with the staff and with me," Wakamatsu said. "That shows up on the field with the character of this team. They care about one another. It's a special team."

Sox power up

Morrow struck out leadoff hitter J.D. Drew, then threw a high fastball to Dustin Pedroia, who hit it over the green monster in left field.

A solo home run doesn't usually beat you, but this one put Boston ahead and showed Morrow's vulnerabiliy.

Two batters later, David Ortiz crushed one over the Seattle bullpen in right field.

High fastballs - even at 96 mph - may not be the way to pitch the Red Sox.

After one: Red Sox 2, Mariners 0

Junior gets 'em started

Sweeney's out of the game - back spasms again - and Ken Griffey Jr. pinch hit for him.

Junior singled high off the monster, Franklin Gutierrez singled and with one out the Mainers got a break - Pedroia dropped a throw from Kevin Youkillis that loaded the bases.

Woodward struck out. Cedeno tripled down the right field line, bouncing the ball past Drew, for three runs.

In the fourth: Mariners 3, Red Sox 2

Here they come again

As rallies go, this won't rank up there with long home runs, but it'll do.

With one out, Lopez and Griffey walked, and Gutierrez beat a ball off the plate for an infield single that loaded the bases. Ryan Langerhans' sacrifice fly got Lopez home.

Hey, they all count the same.

In the fifth: Mariners 4, Red Sox 2

Morrow breakthrough?

With one out, Morrow got himself in trouble, walking Drew before Pedroia doubled.

With those runners at second and third, Morrow got a shallow fly ball from Kevin Youkillis - then struck out Ortiz on a 97 mph fastball to get out of the inning.

Impressive. If Morrow can give them one more inning, the Mariners will kiss him on the cheek and go to the bullpen happy.

After five: Mariners 4, Red Sox 2

You think it's easy?

Morrow struck out Jason Bay, but on his 88th pitch of the day Jacoby Ellsbury homered to right field.

The Red Sox have six hits against Morrow - half of them home runs.

With his 98th and last pitch of the day, Morrow struck out Jason Varitek with a 98 mph fastball.

Miguel Batista is warming up.

After six: Mariners 4, Red Sox 3

That didn't work

Batista and catcher Kenji Johjima aren't a good working pair.

With one out, Batista walked Drew and Pedroia singled. Youkillis flied out for the second out to bring up Ortiz.

Johjima called four consecutive fastballs, and though Batista was throwing 95 mph, three of those pitches missed the strike zone. On the fourth, Ortiz singled home the tying run.

Bad game management theby pitcher and the catcher.

Mark Lowe replaced Batista and walked Jason Bay on four pitches to load the bases, then walked Ellsbury to push home the go-ahead run.

On a 3-2 count, Mark Kotsay singled hom two runs and Morrow was replaced on the mound by Sean White - the third reliever of the inning to pitch after there were two out.
White's two-strike pitch got past Johjima - a passed ball - and scored another run. Varitek struck out.

After seven: Red Sox 8, Mariners 4

And in the end

Mariners went quietly after that wretched seventh inning, and finished their trip 5-4 - a strong nine-game stretch.

Still, this one galls. This won was there to be won, and a bullpen that's been a strength all year gave it up.

So it goes.

Final score: Red Sox 8, Mariners 4

So how is it, inquisitive minds want to know, that the Seattle Mariners - losers of 101 games a year ago - are winning all these one-run games in 2009.

They did it again Saturday, beating Boston, 3-2, on a two-out single in the ninth inning by Chris Woodward. An ugly little pop fly of a single, at that.

“Not only didn’t I see the ball after I hit it, I didn’t see the pitch that jammed me,” Woodward said, shaking his head. “Until I saw (Dustin) Pedroia going for it, I had no idea where it was.

“Someone said I couldn’t have thrown the ball and have it work out better, but I could have,” he said. “I’d have thrown it far enough so Pedroia couldn’t almost catch it. You always have more line drives caught than bloops drop in, but that one was worth about four line drive outs."
Woodward is the backup infielder who has been playing third base in the absence of Adrian Beltre - and has gone 7-for-17 while doing so.

Asked why the Mariners could beat the Red Sox, for instance, twice in a row in one-run games, he had a thoughtful answer.

“Look at the lineups teams like the Doddgers, Yankees and Red Sox have, they’re used to blowing teams out, getting six, seven, eight runs a night,” Woodward said. “They don’t play these kinds of games that often.

“We play them all the time. We grind for every run, and our pitching keeps the opposition down, sets the tone. We’ve been through a lot of these games, so we might have an advantage in them.”

Now 4-3 on this trip with two games to play, the Mariners are in position to win a series from Boston - on the road - by winning today or Sunday.

Win and they're guaranteed a 5-4 trip through Los Angeles, New York and Boston. It's like gambling with the house's money.

They begin the day 2 1/2 games behind the Angels in the American League West, three games over .500 and feeling good about themselves.

It's Garrett Olson vs. Brad Penny and though no one would say the Mariners are favorites today, the way they've played all season proves they expect to win.

This is a 41-38 team. A year ago after 79 games, the Mariners were 29-50.

Red Sox strike first

Olson walked Rocco Baldelli, fell behind Jason Varitek, 3-1, then threw a fastball the Boston catcher was sitting on.

Varitek got it and hit it out, his 12th of the season. A not-so-subtle reminder to young pitchers: that's why you can't fall behind good hitters.

Olson wobbled after Varitek's homd run, giving up a single and another walk - watched as Jacoby Ellsbury and Julio Lugo pulled a double steal - then got out of it by striking out J.D. Drew.

Long inning, too many pitches thrown, poor results.

Afer two: Red Sox 2, Mariners 0

Another one-run game!

It's a Mariners speciality. With two outs, Ichiro singled up the middle and Russell Branyan doubled to left field.

Ichiro scored on the play, but Branyan was out trying for third base. One run in, Branyan's 44th RBI.

In the third: Red Sox 2, Mariners 1

Mariners small ball

Chris Woodward singled, and Ronny Cedeno's bunt to move him up was so good he was safe at first base.

Ichiro lined out to right field, getting Woodward from second base to third for Branyan. Branyan worked the count full at 3-2, fouled off four straight pitches and then flied to left field, bringing in the tying run with his 45th RBI.

In the fifth: Mariners 2, Red Sox 2

Red Sox small ball

On an 0-2 pitch, Olson hit Rocco Baldelli, and Jason Varitek followed with a hit-and-run single that sent Baldelli to third.

Ellsbury hit back to the mound, and Olson alertly caught lead runner Baldelli in a run down for the first out.

With Red Sox at first and second base, Olson coaxed a ground ball double play out of Jeff Bailey, and the inning was over.

After six: Mariners 2, Red Sox 2

Farewell Mr. Olson, hello Mr. Corcoran

Olson went 6 1/3 innings - his longest start of the season - and left after walking Drew with one out in the seventh.

With the bullpen short because of useage, Corcoran got the call. Pitching to avoid what seems inevitible, losing his job, Corcoran got a ground ball out that sent Drew to second base.

Corcoran got a grounder to shortstop to end the inning. Nice outing - and the Mariners have gotten this one to the eighth inning, tied.

After seven: Mariners 2, Red Sox 2

And in the ninth

Mariners got their leadoff baserunner when Junior walked, and Wladimir Balentien pinch ran.

Gutierrez flied out, Langerhans walked for the second time, pushing Balentien to second base. Kenji Johjima drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases.

Chris Woodward hit a little pop fly over first base, just beyond a diving Pedroia, for an RBI single to put Seattle ahead. It was the kind of hit that pitchers talk angrily about 10 years later.

David Aardsma will get the chance to close.

In the ninth: Mariners 3, Red Sox 2

That's a final

Back strain, smack strain - with the chance to win their fifth game on this nine-game trip, Wakamatsu brought in his closer.
Aardsmsa responded by getting a ground ball out, a fly ball out, a strike out and, oh yes, his 17th save.

The Mariners are four games over .500 (42-38) for the first time since May 4.

It's final: Mariners 3, Red Sox 2

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Happy Fourth of July, and welcome to the a.m. briefing from manager Don Wakamatsu.

Closer David Aardsma has a mild strain in his lower back, says he can pitch but the team would love to give him at least another day off.

It now appears Yuniesky Betancourt won't come off the disabled list until after the All-Star break. The Mariners see no need to rush him to get him back for a few days before the break, and Ronny Cedeno is playing well.

Erik Bedard felt fine after his 54 pitch simulated game Friday, and remains on schedule to pitch Tuesday at Safeco Field.
Want more?

Outfielder Ryan Langerhans is in the lineup for the third day in a row - despite a mild strain in his calf - and the Mariners are more and more impressed with the man they acquired last week from Washington.

"He's a very athletic kid," Wakamatsu said. "He may be a bit like Russell Branyan, a guy who floated around baseball and got bits and pieces of playing time but never had it click.

"He plays solid defense and gives us depth in center field, he hits left-handers pretty well. I like him."

Nothing like having a flair for the dramatic. High Desert's James McOwens (photo from milb.com) extended his hitting streak to 40 games with a single with two outs in the ninth inning of Friday night's game.

He is now 29 games away from the record of 69 held by Joe Wilhoit of Wichita.

Also I forgot to post this the other day, so here it is ....

Tacoma's Chris Shelton and Bryan LaHair were named to the PCL all-star team and will be playing in the 22nd annual Triple A All-Star game in Portland on July 15 and will be televised on ESPN2. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

AUDIO: Shelton was on with Ian Furness about 20 minutes after I did my weekly segment on Friday, you can listen to either interview here.

Shelton was voted the starting designated hitter by league managers, media members, and
fans. He is batting .319 (87x273) with 22 doubles, 12 homers and 61 RBI. LaHair was selected as a reserve and is hitting .283 with 13 home runs and 46 RBI.

The International League will be led by Red Sox prospect Clay Bucholz and Reds outfielder Drew Stubbs. Here's the team.

From the press release ...
The Pacific Coast League roster is filled with league hitting leaders, led by outfielder John Bowker of the Fresno Grizzlies, who second in the PCL in average (.359), fifth in hits (93), first in on-base percentage (.460), third in slugging percentage (.637) and third in runs scored (58). Joining Bowker in the outfield will be Matt Miller (.324, 5 HR, 63 RBI) and Matt Murton (.377, 9 HR, 43 RBI) of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Miller is seventh in the league in average and third in RBI (63), hits (96) and doubles (25). The reserve PCL outfielders will be Terry Evans of Salt Lake, Brendan Katin of Nashville and Michael Ryan of New Orleans. Katin and Evans are tied for second in home runs in the league (17) and are in second and third place respectively in extra base hits (42) and (38). Katin is number two in the league leaders in RBI (65). Ryan is tied for fourth in doubles (23).

Las Vegas 51s first baseman Randy Ruiz (.317, 15 HR, 67 RBI) leads the league in RBI (67), hits (99), extra base hits (46) and doubles (30) and will be joined by Sky Sox second baseman Eric Young Jr. (.292, 3 HR, 21 RBI) on the right side of the infield. Young leads the PCL in stolen bases (46) and runs scored (68) and will be joined in Portland by his dad, former Major League All-Star Eric Young of ESPN, who will serve as the analyst for the broadcast.

Shortstop Alcides Escobar (.294, 3 HR, 27 RBI) of the Nashville Sounds and third baseman Brandon Wood (.302, 15 HR, 45 RBI) of the Salt Lake Bees will anchor the left side of the PCL infield. Escobar is tied for second in the league in stolen bases (27) and fourth in runs scored (56). Chris Robinson of Iowa (.313, 30 RBI) will get the start at catcher. The PCL infield reserves will be catcher Eric Munson of Sacramento, infielder Esteban German of Oklahoma, first baseman Bryan LaHair of Tacoma, infielder Eric Patterson of Sacramento, and infielder Rusty Ryal of Reno. Patterson is tied for second in the league in stolen bases (27) and triples (8). German is third in the league in on-base percentage at (.427).

Four pitchers in the Top 10 for ERA anchor the PCL rotation. Bud Norris (3-5, 2.17 ERA, 88 K) of the Round Rock Express will get the start for the PCL All-Stars in the mid-summer exhibition and leads the league in ERA and strikeouts. Joining him in Portland will be his teammate Yorman Bazardo (7-2, 2.79 ERA) who is third in the PCL in ERA (2.79). They are joined by Kevin Pucetas of Fresno (8-2, 3.17) and Lenny DiNardo of the Omaha Royals (5-3, 3.46 ERA) fifth and seventh respectively in ERA. Pucetas is tied for first in wins (8) with Albuquerque’s Charlie Haeger (8-5, 3.75 ERA), the final member of the PCL rotation.

PCL manager Randy Ready will have a deep bullpen to use, with the top two PCL saves leaders Jess Todd of Memphis (3-1, 2.50 ERA, 17 saves) and Jeremy Hill of Salt Lake (1-3, 4.01 ERA, 16 saves) headlining a solid group of relievers. Oregon native Mike Ekstrom of the Portland Beavers, Bobby Korecky of Reno, R.J. Swindle of Nashville and Jay Marshall of Sacramento round out the PCL bullpen.

Fresh off being named the American League's best pitcher for the month of June, Felix Hernandez takes on the high-flying Red Sox in his first July start.

Hernandez is 3-1 with a 3.05 earned run average against Boston in his career,but the issue tonight - as always - may be offense.

The Mariners don't hit knuckle baller Tim Wakefield.

Ichiro (.240), Ken Griffey Jr. (259), Russell Branyan (.182) have all struggled with him, Ryan Langerhans, Rob Johnson and Ronny Cedeno have never faced him.

So who to look for? Jose Lopez has a .333 career average with three doubles and a home run against Wakefield.

It's Seattle (40-38) vs. Boston (48-30) at Fenway Park on the Fourth of July weekend. This is baseball.

First-inning trouble

Felix is mortal.

Dustin Pedroia singled, David Ortiz walked and Jason Bay - in an 0-for-17 streak - doubled home a run.

Felix then wild-pitched home a second run before sriking out Mark Kotsay. He's down two runs.

After one: Red Sox 2, Mariners 0

Mariners answer

Rob Johnson opened the third inning with a double, and back-to-back singles from Ichiro and Russell Branyan got him home.

With Ichiro perched on second base, Lopez and Griffey each popped out.

In the third: Red Sox 2, Mariners 1

And answer again

Langerhans doubled with one out - and yes, that will probably keep him in the lineup another day - and with two outs, Rob Johnson doubled him home.

No. 9 hitter Cedeno then homered to straightaway center field. Yes, Cedeno.

In the fourth: Mariners 4, Red Sox 2

He's still Felix

This isn't his finest game, but Hernandez can still raise his energy when needed. With two outs and two men on - both in scoring position - Felix threw a 96 mph fastball that absolutely froze Nick Green for a third strike.

Every pitcher gets in trouble. Not many of them can get out of it like that.

After six: Mariners 4, Red Sox 2

Sox get closer

J.D. Drew launched a Felix fastball over the wall in center, his 11th home run of the season, and cut Seattle's lead to one.

One run leads are delicate, anywhere, but in Fenway Park?

Yikes!

After seven: Mariners 4, Red Sox 3

A timely swing

Mr. Lopez provided the Mariners with a two-run lead, courtesy of his 11th home run, which landed in the seats atop Fenway's Green Monster.

Now it's up to the bullpen - and Sean White is in the game.

In the eighth: Mariners 5, Red Sox 3

Not tonight, Felix

Hernandez threw a grueling 105 pitches, didn't seem to have much left and came out after seven innings with a two-run lead.

Didn't last.

Sean White, looking like someone other than the Sean White we've seen all season, got one out, gave up a walk and a single and came out, replaced by rookie Shawn Kelley.

Kelley got the second out, then gave up Nick Green's two-run, game-tying double.

That means no win for Felix, and it may mean something is wrong with White.

After eight: Mariners 5, Red Sox 5

It takes a village

Chris Jakubauskas has thrown two scoreless innings to keep Seattle in this one, and he's throwing harder in relief than he did as a starting pitcher.

In the rotation early this season, Jakubauskas topped out at 92 mph. Out of the bullpen, he's hitting 94 mph regularly.

What the Mariners need now is a run.

In the 11th: Mariners 5, Red Sox 5

That's a record

Much malligned for his hitting, catcher Rob Johnson delivered a one-out, two-run double into right field - his third double of the night.

That ties the franchise record for doubles in a game, and puts Seattle ahead by two.

In something of a surprise, Mark Lowe is on to close. David Aardsma finished Thursday's game in New York but threw a lot of pitches in a long ninth inning.

It's up to Lowe.

In the 11th: Mariners 7, Red Sox 5

And in the end

Lowe was hitting 99 mph on the Fenway Park radar gun and got two quick outs, then gave up a solo home run to catcher George Kottaras.

That not only cut the lead to one, it got the game to outfielder J.D. Drew, who'd homered in the seventh inning.

What to do?

Lowe went to a 3-2 count, then gave up single to right field, bringing up Dustin Pedroia - the reigning American League MVP.

He grounded out.

Final score: Mariners 7, Red Sox 6

For the first time in his career, Felix Hernandez has been named the American League Pitcher of the Month - winning the award for a June in which he went 3-0 in five starts with an 0.94 earned run average.

In those five starts, Felix worked 38 1/3 innings, struck out 35 batters and posted the lowest June ERA in major league baseball.

"It wasn't a surprise, was it?" joked pitching coach Rick Adair. "Along with everything else he did, he saved our bullpen every fifth day. I pretty much left him alone."

The month included his third career shutout, against San Diego, and at one point he threw 20 consecutive scoreless innings.
Hernandez has always loved the month of June, and his career record in it is 11-2 with a 2.55 ERA in 19 starts.

"Since spring training, Felix has just been getting better and better," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "The way he carries himself, on the field and in the clubhouse. It's like a lot of things have clicked.

"He's become more efficient, and his competitive nature is always there."

What's the award get him? A big-screen television.

Rookie right-hander Shawn Kelley came off the disabled list today and will rejoin the Seattle Mariners bullpen tonight in Boston.

"I was having breakfast with my wife in Kirkland yesterday when they called," Kelley said. "They said 'Go pack' and I did. I flew all day and almost missed a connection, but I'm here and I'm ready to pitch."
The move gives manager Don Wakamatsu another power arm to work the late innings in setting up closer David Aardsma.

To make room for Kelley, the team optioned first baseman Mike Carp back to Tacoma, where he'll play regularly.

Kelley made the team out of spring training and had become a reliable seventh and eighth-inning reliever until he was felled in May by a pulled oblique muscle.

"I only had a month in the big leagues, but I learned so much," he said. "The time I missed seemed a lot longer than the time I played. I'm just glad I've got the whole second half of the season to pitch."

The bullpen now has Aardsma, Mark Lowe, Sean White, Roy Corcoran, Miguel Batista, Kelley and Chris Jakubauskas.

According to ESPN's Jorge Arangure and Baseball America, the Mariners have signed 16-year-old outfielder Guillermo Pimentel for an estimated $2 million signing bonus.

There was a minor controversy that the Rangers had gotten a verbal agreement from Pimentel earlier this year, but apparently he changed his mind.

But remember the Rangers are not exactly doing so well financially these days. Though they did have an international signing in Jurickson Profar.

Here's a list and scouting reports of the top Latin free agents this season.

Obviously it's tough to predict what a 16-year-old kid will do, but the Mariners success in scouting and signing Latin American players is pretty substantial. There's this guy, that's a pitcher, his name is Felix Hernandez, seemed to be a pretty good signing. He signed for $710,000. Now he's the AL Pitcher of the Month.

Other players the Mariners have signed include Jose Lopez, Carlos Triunfel, Yuni Betancourt, Jharmidy DeJesus, Michael Pineda

While $2 million seems like a lot for a 16-year-old, the Cardinals dished more than $3 million for outfielder Wagner Mateo.

Columnist John McGrath weighed in with his thoughts on the Mateo signing.

After they acquired him in trade for Mike Morse, the Seattle Mariners let outfielder Ryan Langerhans acclimate to a new team before putting him into a game.

So tonight, against lefty C.C. Sabathia, guess who's in left field?

Not Wladimir Balentien, a right-handed hitter, but the left-handed hitting Langerhans. Maybe it was their history: Balentien had never faced Sabathia, Langerhans had - and walked in his only plate appearance.

"We've been waiting for consistency from Balentien, but he'll have one good game, one bad game," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "We need to see production from him against left-handed pitchers, and I haven't seen it.

"Langerhan's numbers aren't much different against lefties and righties, he'll give you good defense and I wanted to get him some at-bats. So he's in there."

It's Jason Vargas vs. Sabathia, and to make a little more one-sided, Vargas has battled 'flu-like' symptoms all day.

It only looks like the Yankees are licking their chops.

Hey ... a lead!

Ichiro doubled, stole third base and scored when Jose Lopez grounded out - producing the first Mariners lead in this three-game series.

In the first: Mariners 1, Yankees 0

Hey ... a bigger lead!

Franklin Gutierrez led off the second inning with a home run, his eighth of the season. Gutierrez has four of those homers in his last 11 games.

Kenji Johjima followed the home run with a single, and in his first at-bat as a Mariner, Ryan Langerhans singled to right field, getting Joh to third base.

Chris Woodward hit a sacrifice fly to get Johjima home.

Langerhans was caught stealing for the third out, though the umpire was waving 'safe' until Langerhans slid on by the second base bag and was tagged again.

In the second: Mariners , Yankees 0

Hey ... a smaller lead

Yanks used a walk, a doule and a sacrifice fly to push home one - and Vargas looks like a man with flu-like conditions.
When he's had to run to back up a base, he looks gassed.

Hideki Matsui flied to right field, where Ichiro dropped the ball for an error as a second run scored.

Ichiro caught a fly ball for the third out, started to throw it into the crowd and then gloved it and ran off.

Yankees fans booed him all the way to the dugout.

After two: Mariners 3, Yankees 2

Working the horse

Sabathia is a beast, a man who gobbles up innings, but the Mariners are making him labor every inning.

They're taking pitches, working the count, making Sabathia throw often on a muggy night.

In the fourth, Gutierrez and Johjima singled and Langerhans was robbed of extra bases by center fielder Melky Cabera, who made a fine running catch.

Gutierrez took third on that play, then scored on Woodward's single - Woodward's second RBI of the night and season.

Ichiro worked the count to 2-2, then doubled over Cabrera's head for two more runs. The Yankee bullpen is up before the Mariners bullpen - hard to believe, given all the circumstances.

Sabathia has thrown 81 pitches.

In the fourth: Mariners 6, Yankees 2

Yankee power

New York struck back in typical Yankee fashion - using the home run.

Robinson Cano singled, but with two outs Vargas was a pitch away from closing out the fourth inning.

Wrong pitch.

His first offering to Matsui became the DH's 11th home run, a drive well over the wall in right field.

After four: Mariners 6, Yankees 4

Goodnight Mr. Vargas, hello Mr. Batista

Whatever bug nibbled at Vargas all day denied him the chance to win this game. Out after four innings, he gave what he had and now will drink lots of water and watch the results.

Batista came in and worked a 1-2-3 fifth inning.

It's up to the bullpens

Seattle chased Sabathia, loading the bases with two outs in the sixth inning.

Yankee right-hander Alfredo Aceves came in to face Lopez and struck him out.

In the sixth: Mariners 6, Yankees 4

Stalking a win

Batista went two scoreless innings, Mark Lowe worked around a leadoff double in the sevenh inning and Seattle is still up two.

They may wish they'd delivered in that bases loaded sitiuation, though. The Yankees have the heart or the order coming up in the eighth, and the man who usually handles that inning - Sean White - was hit hard two nights ago.

Hold on. Should be a fun finish.

And in the ninth

Don Wakamatsu chose to stay with Lowe for the eighth inning and got a 1-2-3 inning from the right-hander.
Then the Yankees blinked.

Ichiro was safe on a Mark Teixeira error - his first in 107 games - and Russell Branyan followed up three strike outs and a walk with his 20th home run of the season.

That gave Seattle a four-run lead and erased the save opportunity, but since David Aardsma was already working in the bullpen and hasn't pitched in this series, he'll work the bottom of the ninth inning.

In the ninth: Mariners 8, Yankees 4

That does it
Aardsma closed it out and the Mariners are now 3-3 on this trip, 40-38 for the season.
'Dis them all you want, scream agbout their offense, but they are a scrappy bunch.

Batista got the win, Gutierrez and Branyan hit the home runs and Langerhans went 2-for-4 - probably vaulting him ahead of Balentien on the new outfield depth chart.

It's a final: Mariners 8, Yankees 4

Fresh off another loss in which they couldn't get over the great three-run barrier, the Seattle Mariners know what their offensive problems are.

On nights when their top two hitters - Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Branyan - don't reach base, scoring is going to be an issue.

Beyond those two, the Mariners don't have any regular hitting as high as .280.

They do, however, have two batting under .200.

Compare, for a moment, the bottom four hitters in Seattle's lineup Wednesday to the last four in New York's.

The Mariners?

Wladimir Balentien: .225 wih three home runs and 10 RBI. Chris Woodward, batting .333 in six games, no home runs, no RBI. Rob Johnson, batting .187 with no home runs, 13 RBI. And Ronny Cedeno, batting .140 with three home runs and eight RBI.

The Yankees?
Robinson Cano (.300, 12, 42), Nick Swisher (.238, 14, 39) Melkey Cabrera (.287, 8, 32) and Cody Ransom (.190, 0, 8).

Cano, Swisher and Cabrera each have more RBI than all four of those Mariners combined.

The Balentien experiment has run its course, Woodward is a useable reserve infielder, as is Cedeno - but neither is an every day player. And Johnson may be a better catcher than Kenji Johjima, but neither is hitting this season.

The Mariners don't see an outfielder, third baseman, middle infielder or catcher in their system ready to replace anyone currently on the 25-man roster.

After 77 games, including 37 in which they've scored three runs or less, it may be time to push a few of those young prospects and see what the franchise has that's worth keeping.

That might bringing up out-of-position players like Chris Shelton or Bryan LaHair and trying them on for size.

Mike Wilson has played only five games since coming off a sprained ankle? Can he be worse than Balentien?
This team, its general manager and manager have done marvelous jobs thinking outside the norm this season - and it's gotten them to the brink of the All-Star break with a 39-38 record.

It's time to start thinking again, about the second half, about next year, about letting players without a future in the organization move on.

If you're going to lose games by only scoring two runs, you can do that with almost anyone. Why not try doing better with someone else?

Ah, what a fine old month June was for the Mariners, who finished it with a 15-10 record, a 2.98 earned run average and a .270 batting average.

Not surprisingly, Ichiro Suzuki led he way - batting .407 with 44 hits. If you're counting, that's 20 times Ichiro has had 40 hits or more in a month.

How rare is that? Well, the last American League player to do it was named Lou Gehrig.

The Mariners open July with a 39-37 record, 3 1/2 games behind the Angels in the American League West.

They open against New York, Jarrod Washburn vs. Andy Pettitte.

Time for the anthem!

The first threat

Ken Griffey Jr. and Franklin Gutierez singled to open the second inning - and never moved up a base.

That's becaus Pettitte set down Wladimir Balentien, Chris Woodward and Rob Johnson in order.

No score.

First score

Johnny Damon just missed the foul pole with a long drive for a strike. On a 3-2 pitch, Washburn came vack with a fastball and Damon hit it out to right field.

It was Damon's 15th of the season, and it put the Mariners behind again. They haven't had a lead in their two games here yet.

After three: Yankees 1, Mariners 0

Tie game

Seattle came right back in the fourth inning, when Jose Lopez doubled and took third on a fly ball by Ken Griffey Jr.

Gutierrez walked and Wladimir Balentien grounded to first and just did beat the throw to avoid a double play and allow Lopez to score.

Proving he cannot get out of his own way, Balentien was then picked off first base by Pettitte.

In the fourth: Mariners 1, Yankees 1

It's gone - or is it?

Melky Cabrera hit a ball that hugged the foul line all the way into the stands, then watched it called a fair ball - home run.

The Mariners argued and the play was reviewed by the umpiring crew, which returned to the field and agreed with itself - home run!

Seattle is behind again.

After five: Yankees 2, Mariners 1

Just plain gone

With two outs, Junior turned on the first pitch Pettitte threw him and hit his 10th home run of the season.

No, he's no longer a cleanup hitter - although that's what he's is tonight - but Griffey seems to be emerging from a malaise at the plate. Two hits tonight, one of them a game-tying home run.

In the sixth: Mariners 2, Yankees 2

A-Rod hits A-homer

How quickly can a game turn? Mark

Teixeira singled to open the sixth and Alex Rodriguez then hit a knee-high fastball over the fence in center field.

Game changed.

After six: Yankees 4, Mariners 2

Where's the offense?

In 77 games this year, the Mariners have scored three runs or less 37 times - and won just 10 of those games.

The numbers don't lie. If Seattle doesn't improve it's offense, well-pitched games are going to get away all too often.

With weapons like Adrian Beltre and Endy Chavez now off the table, this team needs helps.

Final score: Yankees 4, Mariners 2

This may not stun many of you, but Erik Bedard will not make a start in Boston this weekend.

On the disabled list, the lefty hasn't pitched for Seattle since June 8 - he's down with shoulder inflammation - and has been slowly working his way back.

The new Mariners time table reads like this: Bedard will pitch a simulated game in Boston on Friday before the regular game, and throw perhaps as many as 65 pitches.

Stage Two comes Tuesday at Safeco Field, when Bedard is scheduled to start against the Baltimore Orioles.

Stage Three? Bedard will start the final game before the All-Star break, a Sunday home game against Texas.