g96 | thiiiiiis close

Mariners 6 | Red Sox 8

Crazy one!

Nearly no-hit by Lackey ...
the M's scored a run without the benefit of a hit in the second inning (walk, steal, ground out, passed ball) and continued to go hitless until two outs in the bottom of the 8th when Josh Bard singled but was stranded when Ichi flied out.

Meanwhile, the BoSox were racking up the hits vs. RRS ...
Ryan would go six giving up eight hits and five runs.  Brian would give up one run in his inning of work and the Red Sox would go to the bottom of the ninth up 1-6...

And then it got interesting ...
't was really quite amazing, I'm tired, so I'll take the easy route (courtesy YaHoo!)...

- M. Delcarmen relieved J. Lackey

- C. Figgins singled to left center

- F. Gutierrez homered to deep left, C. Figgins scored

- J. Lopez walked

- M. Bradley safe at first on shortstop M. Scutaro's fielding error, J. Lopez to second

- J. Papelbon relieved M. Delcarmen

- J. Smoak struck out swinging

- C. Kotchman doubled to right, J. Lopez scored, M. Bradley to third

- R. Langerhans ran for C. Kotchman

- J. Bard walked

- M. Saunders ran for J. Bard

- J. Wilson grounded into fielder's choice, M. Bradley scored, R. Langerhans to third, M. Saunders out at second, R. Langerhans scored, J. Wilson to second on second baseman B. Hall's fielding error

- I. Suzuki intentionally walked

- C. Figgins struck out looking

The offense would have their golden opportunity to win it in the 12th ...

Single, single, sac-fly, walk - and then then the balloon burst - foul out, popup

The pen would hang in their for longer than expected ...
Jamey, David and Garrett combined for FIVE innings of NO hit, NO run ball, but Garrett lost the magic in the 13th ... single, out, out, walk, double

And that was all she wrote on a Thursday evening in Fenway Northwest.

By the way, nice catch by Ichi to rob Ortiz of a home run in the first inning....

hoto by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

g89 | was the break too long or not long enough?

Mariners 3 | Angels 8

The break certainly seemed to agree with the Halos ...
banging out 16 hits (5 for 9 w/RISP) to get their 8 runs

on the mound
Doug definitely was not Mister Fister tonight (giving up 12 of those 16 Halo hits for 6 of the runs)
Garrett had a clean 8th but, Brian and newly aquired Jamie Wright ... not so much

at the plate
things were looking up in the 5th when Joel lost it for a bit (we Mariners fans remember all too well that "big inning" that Joel was prone too) and the M's had 3 singles in a row and Ichiro comes up with a big double to score 3 - but that would be it

leatherworks
Ichiro made a great throw to nail Aybar at the plate in the 2nd
A nice DP as well but, also an "error that wasn't an error" by Jose that could have been the 3rd out but instead ended up being a 2-run double


Good news for the future ... Dustin Ackley homered in his first AAA Tacoma at bat tonight!

g47-g50 | while I was away...

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that I missed much while in Austin ...

Seems the M's catching woes continued, prior to the short road trip - Josh Bard was placed on DL  and Alphonso was called up from AAA.  Jack Hannahan was designated for assignment.

The series started out with a bang with a convincing win over the Halos on Friday night in the land of Disney...
Mariners 8 | Angels 3

Then, despite a large, early lead, the Halos managed to tie up the second game and win in "grand" fashion with a grand slam off Brandon in the 10th (although, they lost their star first-baseman, possible for the season as he suffered a broken ankle as a result of the celebration at home plate)...
Mariners 1 | Angels 5

And, once again, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory in the third game of the series, as the Halos hit another walk-off homer.  This time in the 9th, with DA pitching with a one-run lead...
Mariners 7 | Angels 9

Maybe things would improve at home?  Nope.  Looked like maybe they could pull out some late-inning magic of their own, but it proved to be too little, much too late..
Mariners 4 | Twins 5

Apparently, bullpen composition will be a bit different come tonight's game as  Jesus and Tex were designated for assignment in favor of Sean White and Garrett Olson.  Shannon seems to think it will help - here's hoping she's right.  Certainly can't hurt at this point.

G102 | the house of horrors that is Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

M's 1 | Rangers 7


First the M's are out-homered at home 11-0 during a sweep by the Tribe.
Then (after winning a series vs. the Blue Jays) they give up FIVE homers in one game in Arlington.

I've mentioned before that Garrett seems to be more suited to the pen, but I guess they wanted to give him one more shot at starting (tough draw with Rangers at the plate).


Tip o' the cap to Mr. Holland.





AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Exciting bookends, middle, not so much | Home Highlights

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BoSox and Halos and Giants, oh my! (5-5)


ROSY RAPTURE

left bookend of the home stand the Sox...
~ great to take 2 of 3 from the Bostons (and I got to see both wins in person!!)
~ whodathunk the the combination of Vargas, Olson and Jaku could hold the Sox to only 11 runs and get two team wins? Way to step up!
~ and talk about shutting the door via the pen ... ZERO runs given up by the bullpen all weekend!
~ game one: Ichi two homers and Yuni two walks - likely never to happen again ;-) ~ game three: 9th inning victories are fun and exciting!

right bookend of the home stand the Giants...
~ game one: best of both worlds, Randy pitches well and gets to pay his respects to the fans, but the M's win
~ game three: Felix was more like Felix (though he had one rough inning) and nice to see Jr. and Adrian's power displays (and Yuni walked twice more!)
~ series win = always good



PALLID PONDERINGS

Halos in the middle...
~ the hitting finally shows up (in the first two games) but then the pitching falls A-part
~ Ichi hits lead off home run in the third game of the series on Wednesday and the M's would not score again (shut out on Thursday) until the bottom of the 6th vs. the Giants on Friday




Only 8 wins so far in the month of May and no back-to-back wins for the entire month.