Taking two of three from Tampa would be a fine way to open a home stand and maintain a little momentum carried over from Kansas City.

To do so, Seattle will have to beat Scott Kazmir, which the league has done routinely this season - he's 6-10 with a 6.10 earned run average and still throws too many pitches per inning.

Still, Ryan Rowland-Smith must pitch to estalish his spot in the rotation after lasting four innings against the Royals.

Two pitchers trying to get it right.

That helps

One out into the first inning, Rowland-Smith hit Carl Crawford, gave up a double, then a walk to load the bases.

Pat Burrell lined into a double play to bail Rowland-Smith out of the jam.

And on offense

Ichiro led off with a double to center field, and a Jose Lopez jam-shot single into center scored the run and gave Lopez his 66th RBI.

With two out, Adrian Beltre singled off the glove of Evan Longoria to get to Russell Branyan. Branyan stuck out.

After one: Mariners 1, Rays 0

The Rays move ahead

Willy Aybar singled and one out later Dioner Navcarro hit one into the Tamopa bullpen for his seventh home run.

With two outs, Jason Bartlett walked, and Crawford struck out.

In the second: Rays 2, Mariners 1

Mariners take another lead

Jack Wilson walked, but two outs later was still sitting on base, having been moved up just 90 feet.

Ichiro singled Wilson home and Kazmir couldn't end it there - giving up the 14th home run of the season to Franklin Gutierrez.

After two: Mariners 4, Rays 2

Rowland-Smith on a roll

In his last start, Rowland-Smith was gone after four innings. Today, he's given up two runs, but struck out five in the last two innings and six through four innings.

Rowland Smith is painting corners with his fastball, doing the same with his breaking stuff, and the Rays are swinging and missing wildly - or taking strike three while watching a good pitch.

He seems to have settled happily into a rhythm, and the Mariners will try to ride him deep into the game.

Kazmir's woes
Kazmir is struggling mightily with the strike zone, falling behind and then centering his fastball - and it's cost him.

Gutierrez singled, Lopez doubled and Kazmir wild-pitched one run home, then gave up Mik Sweeney's sacrifice fly for another.

This is not the pitcher of last year or 2007. Kazmir of 2009 is a mess. Nine hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings? Yikes. He hasn't gone beyond seven innings yet this year.

Jeff Bennett now pitching for Tampa, and he walked Michael Saunders with the bases loaded. Ichiro followed by swinging at the first pitch, and grounded out.

After five: Mariners 7, Rays 2

Branyan blows it open

Mariners loaded the bases with one out on a Gutierrez single, a walk and a hit batter - Beltre!

Russell Branyan unloaded them with his 26th home run and first grand slam of the season - an opposite field shot into the visiting bullpen.

That gave Branyan 66 RBI, tying him with Lopez for the club lead.

After six: Mariners 11, Rays 2

Ovation for Rowland-Smith

Clearly tiring in the seventh, Rowland-Smith got two outs, then gave up back-to-back singles - and after 107 pitches was lifted in favor of Shawn Kelley.

As he left the game, Rowland-Smith got a standing ovation. Kelley got out of the jam.

After seven: Mariners 11, Rays 2

And in the ninth:

Kelley worked a scoreless 1 1/3 innings and handed off to Miguel Batista.

Batista finished it off and the Mariners took the series, 2-1.

For those who haven't been keeping tabs, this leaves the Mariners 21-13-1 in series this season, and 12-3 in the rubber-game of a three-game series.

It's a final: Mariners 11, Rays 2

Doug Fister, the 25-year-old right-hander who worked his first major league inning last night, will make his first big-league start for Seattle on Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.

On the day Fister starts, veteran Carlos Silva - on the disabled list since May 9 - will throw his first bullpen session since being sidelined by inflammation.

Fister worked a scoreless inning in relief against Tampa, using his changeup and breaking pitch effectively. On Tuesday, he'll step into the spot vacated by lefty Jason Vargas, who's now in Tacoma.

Should Silva's bullpen session go well, barring a setback, the right-hander could pitch again this season, almost certainly in September, once the rosters expand.

A new looking lineup with Franklin Gutierrez back at the No. 2 spot, while Russell Branyan drops to No. 6.

Rays
Bartlett SS
Crawford LF
Longoria 3B
Zobrist 2B
Burrell DH
Aybar 1B
Kapler RF
Navarro C
Upton CF
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LHP Scott Kazmir

Mariners
Ichiro RF
Gutierrez CF
Lopez 2B
Sweeney DH
Beltre 3B
Branyan 1B
Wilson SS
Johjima C
Saunders LF
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LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith

BOX SCORE

Not exactly a stellar showing by the Mariners pitching staff tonight. They walked 10 hitters and of those 10, six of them scored runs.

The oft-used cliche is "there's no defense for a walk." But cliche holds some level of truth. And manager Don Wakamatsu wasn't above using the cliche after the game.

"“You cannot defense walks,” Wakamatsu said. “You talk about playing fundamental baseball and that’s a key one. You have to make them put the ball in play.”

The free passes started with starter Ian Snell, who walked the first batter he faced - Jason Bartlett - on four pitches. From there things only got worse. Snell walked four hitters in the first inning, including one with the bases loaded.

To be fair, I thought Snell looked a little tight in the first inning. He was making his home debut for his new team and he wanted to have a good outing. Instead it worked in the other way.

"To be honest I was a little nervous, a littler jittery, probably a little too excited and the adrenaline was rushing to much. That caused me to keep the ball up in the zone," Snell told the AP. "I dug us a hole that we couldn't get out of."

Wakamatsu thought Snell needed to adjust in the first inning.

“He was trying to force a pitch he didn’t have,” Wakamatsu said of Snell's fastball “I think the first inning was 35 fastballs or so out of the 42 he threw. It’s recognizing when you might need to got to another pitch.”

Pitch FX had Snell at 41 pitches, and look at the location of the fastball from the Pitch FX tool from Baseball by Brooks

Snell didn't make it out of the second, getting an out, then giving up a walk, a double, another walk.

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