g14 | A L m o s t (yeah, I know, grenades and horseshoes)

Mariners 5 | Royals 6

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

on the mound
Erik continues to struggle ... (106P - 4.2 - 7H - 4ER - 3BB - 6K)
To be expected when one has had three surgeries in the past two years - it's going to take some time.  The main thing is, he feels good and continues to build up his arm strength.  Obviously, he'll have to get deeper into games eventually but, this is the first time he went over 100 pitches.

The bullpen was decent...
Pauly and Laffey combined for 2.2 innings, allowing one run on two hits and one walk with one strikeout.

at the plate
Okay, this late inning stuff makes things a bit exciting, but can we please stop being too late to the party?
Today was actually the first time ALL SEASON the M's have scored in the first innning - Cust grounded out scoring Ichiro who had lead off with a double.  That double would stand as the ONLY hit until the EIGHTH inning.  In the 8th and 9th inning, the M's scored FOUR runs on FOUR hits and FOUR walks.  But alas, TLTL is becoming an all to familiar refrain.

Get this - the M's have scored just 19 runs in innings 1-6 and THRITY in innings 7-9.
Maybe they should play several innings simulated game prior to each real one .... argh!

of base paths and leather works
Not a whole lot here other than a steal of 2B by Luis - who, (surprise, surprise) was left stranded.