No, not just because of the weather, which has closed the roof at Safeco Field.

Look at Seattle's starting lineup or its roster, and it's like looking at a gaggle of kids just brought up from the minor leagues.

The bottom third of Seattle's lineup vs. New York tonight is Jack Hannahan, Josh Wilson and Michael Saunders - none was with the team before the All-Star break.

Add in the starting pitcher, Ian Snell, and Luke French and Doug Fister ... you get the picture.

Tonight, Snell and a bullpen a bit short because of the 14-inning game Wednesday take on the team with the American League's best record - though tonight, Alex Rodriguez is not in the Yankees lineup.

Feel free to insert your own A-Rod joke here.

It's C.C. Sabathia vs. Snell, and a Mariners victory would match their win total of 2008.

Yanks strike first
Hideki Matsui singled and Nick Swisher walked on four pitches before Robinson Cano flied out.

Snell got a second fly ball, this one hit shallow to Ichiro, and the runners couldn't advance.

Jerry Hairston was jammed and blooped one toward center field where Franklin Gutierrez momentarily froze, then dove and had the ball kick off his glove and toward left field - an RBI double.

Snell's wild pitch eluded Johjima as Swisher scored. Jose Molina struck out.

In the second: Yankees 2, Mariners 0

Yanks strike again

On the first pitch of the third inning, Derek Jeter hit his 14th home run. Johnny Damon doubled and took third on a ground out.

Hideki Matsui hit his 18th home run.

With two outs, Robinson Cano singled and Melky Cabrerera walked on Snell's 56th pitch.
He's throwing hard - 93 to 95 mph with the fastball - but being hit just as hard.

In the third: Yankees 5, Mariners 0

Um, more Yanks!

Snell can't quite get through a clean inning, and New York has all but put the game away.

With one out, Jeter singled. With two outs, Teixeira doubled him home.

Snell has to eat some innings, and has thrown 67 pitches through four. With the bullpen a bit chewed up, it's probably Snell and Miguel Batista.

In the fourth: Yankees 6, Mainers 0

There's a surprise!

Josh Wilson, the utility middle infielder picked up by Jack Zduriencik on waivers, hit his first American League home run in the fifth against Sabathia - just the Mariners second hit.

It's the Mariners second run in 19 innings.

After five: Yankees 6, Mariners 1

Goodnight, Mr. Snell

It won't go down as his favorite start of the season, but Snell got the Mariners into the seventh inning before he ran out of steam - and command.

Damon doubled, again, and Teixeira walked on Snell's 109th pitch of the night. That was enough for manager Don Wakamatsu, who brought in not Batista but left-hander Garrett Olson.

Matsui singled home Damon with New York's seventh run and, given the fact that Mariners are averaging one run every 10 innings the last two nights - and have just two hits tonight - the suspense seems to have left Safeco Field tonight.

Both of Snell's runners scored after he departed, so he's on the hook for the loss and eight earned runs.

In the seventh: Yankees 9, Mariners 1

Yanks - yawn! - strike again

Matsui connnected for his second home run of the night and 19th of the year.

In the eighth: Yankees 11, Mariners 1

Two spring trainings ago, I was talking with Adrian Beltre about a few different things when he mentioned casually that he didn't wear a protective cup when playing in the field.

Naturally, I was flabbergasted about the situation and even wrote a fun story about it.

But there is nothing fun about what I have to say, Beltre has been placed on the disabled list with "a severely contused right testicle" after getting hit on a hard ground ball by Alexei Ramirez in the ninth inning. Infielder Josh Wilson has been recalled from Triple A Tacoma.

"We will know a little bit later if it will require some surgery," Manager Don Wakamatsu said. "He's had some bleeding in there. He could be out till who knows when."

As I type this, it makes my stomach ache. Probably not as bad as the stomach ache Beltre experienced.

Still, he injured the teste and just kept playing the next five innings.

"He's awfully tough, I couldn't even imagine," Wakamatsu said. "When he dove back into first base and when he tackled Podsednik at third base (pictured above) he felt it again."

Apparently there may be a tear in there and some bleeding.

"I thought he might have tweaked something on that play, but most guys would have been on the ground for an hour," Wakamatsu said.

The best case scenario is 10 days, but it could be longer. If he requires surgery, it could be a month or more. Beltre is meeting with specialist later today.

If the tear is significant he would have to have surgery within 72 hours.

"If it's a major surgery, it would be at least a month," Wakamatsu said. "There's some coagulation in there already, so it's healing already, it's just a matter if it needs to go in there and fix it surgically."

While it isn't funny, Beltre has been teased by his teammates and even Wak chuckled a few times.

But the question that has to be asked is whether he would have been hurt as bad wearing a protective cup? The answer is most likely not.

"The rule is wear a cup," Wakamatsu said.

But Beltre isn't alone. A few other players, particularly Latin American players don't wear them either. Jose Lopez didn't wear one early in his career.

"I think sometimes you think your hand are so good it will never happen to me," Wakamatsu said. "No matter how good you are, that one chance isn't worth taking."

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UPDATE: No booing tonight as he is out of the line-up

Alex Rodriguez returns to Safeco Field tonight. This time he returns for the first time since his admission of steroid use. He hasn't been warmly greeted in the past, and I'm certain it won't be any better tonight. He is booed and booed lustily.

A quick story about the man pictured. It's safe to say, I'm not what you call a big fan of his. I can probably list 30 reasons off the top of my head why I dislike him.

One of the reasons came back in 2000 when I was fresh-faced, wide-eyed intern for the News Tribune. It was the first time I'd come to Safeco as a member of the media and I was following around Corey Brock, who used to work for the TNT and now covers the Padres for MLB.com. Obviously, I was nervous, excited, intimidated, overwhelmed and awestruck. This was a big league clubhouse. Edgar Martinez was wandering about. Jon Olerud was at his locker. Jay Buhner never seemed to stop talking. A-Rod was simply one of the most impressive physical specimens I'd ever seen.

Anyway, Alex was hurt after getting hit in the knee on a play at second base during interleague play, if I recall correctly. He took a helmet to the knee while trying turn a double play. He'd been out for three or four days and was doing workouts on the field getting ready to come back.

Corey sent me down to the clubhouse to get an update on how he was feeling. Obviously, I was nervous. I grabbed my digital recorder and headed down there. So there I stood and waited, along with another guy, hoping to talk to Alex. And Alex basically ignored us for a good 10 minutes, telling us to wait and he would talk. Then 10 minutes turned to 20. Finally, it seemed like he was ready to talk. But before he could do that, he walked over to the clubhouse stereo and played his then horrendous walk-up music song of "Who Let the Dogs out?" by the Baja Men at ear splitting decibels.

So he stands there and is semi-dancing and grooving to this song as my ears bleed not only from the volume but because of how truly awful it was. And I thought to myself, "he actually thinks he's cool." While in my mind, he was going from superstar shortstop to overgrown dork in that time span.

So when the embarrassment to music that is that song finally ended and my ears were starting to recover, I figured the worst was behind me. I could get the interview down quickly and forget that any of this ever happened. All of the sudden "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!!!!" came ripping through the speakers again. He'd put that damn song on repeat! More dancing and shimmying. If it was supposed to be funny, I wasn't laughing. If it was supposed to be entertaining, I was annoyed.

Finally, when I was just about to take one of his bats and start beating the stereo system into tiny pieces, he looked at us and said, "Ok, I'm ready."

So did he turn down the volume on the stereo before talking to us? Come on. Not hardly. He took three questions about his knee with the responses being, "It's fine." "I'm doing better." "I'm not sure when I'll be ready." All while that song was playing at ear-splitting decibels, rendering my recorder useless, not that I would need it for such thoughtful answers.

In all, I heard that song nine straight times in that span. Just agonizing.

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BOX SCORE

Wow. What else do you really say, but, wow. A fantastic game that had a little bit everything, good pitching, solid defensive plays and the dramatic ending.

Be honest, did the hairs on the back of your neck and arms stand up when Ken Griffey Jr. strode to home plate with his signature pigeon-toed strut as the remaining crowd at Safeco Field roared and flash bulbs exploded? It was one of the better moments of a seasons, filled with good moments. Think about the good moments last year. Right now I can't remember one.

"It's just destiny when he's up," said Chris Jakubauskas, who got the win in relief. "It's 20 plus years in the big leagues. He's been in every situation at least twice and probably knows what pitch is going to thrown before the pitcher does."

Junior provided the heroics as only he can. And of course, he could only comment on it as only he can.

"The first eight innings was going along nicely and then all of sudden the brakes got put on," he said. "A couple guys started to get hunger and I just decided to send them home at a reasonable hour."

He let that be known to manager Don Wakamatsu.

"Griffey said that if I had been a little smarter and gotten him into the game a little sooner, we could have all gone home earlier and had a nice dinner," Wakamatsu said. "A guy like him is made for the spotlight."

But for as much as Junior wanted to make light of his game-winning single in the bottom of the 14th, he also tried to keep things perspective.

"In all seriousness, these guys battled all day," he said. "It's the least I can do is go up and give them a good at-bat. From 7 p.m. till 10:50, they made some great plays defensively. It was an unbelievable game."

For a game to reach 14 innings at 0-0, two things need to happen - 1. good pitching, 2. solid defense.

"I don't think people realize it," Griffey said. "We were sitting up here talking about all the amazing plays that were being made."

The good pitching was apparent from the start as starting pitchers Felix Hernandez and Mark Buerhle both gave solid outings.

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