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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.”

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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."

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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.