Rauuuuuuuul helps Felix to take out Chicago

King Felix Hernandez took the mound tonight for the Mariners looking for his seventh win of the season. In his last outing against the Chicago White Sox, Felix took the loss as he went 6.1 innings and gave up 4 runs. Tonight almost looked like it was going to be the same at the start. Alejandro De Aze started things off by singling on the third pitch from Felix, following that De Aze was able to move to third on the single by Gordon Beckham and on the single Beckham got into a rundown that would've scored De Aze but thanks to the Mariners defense paying attention to De Aze they were able to rundown Beckham without De Aze scoring. Conor Gillaspie grounded out to Nick Franklin that allowed the first run to come into score for the White Sox. After that, Felix was able to get Alex Rios to strikeout to end the inning.

Endy Chavez got things started for the Mariners in the bottom of the first by singling to lead off his day. Both Jason Bay and Kyle Seager flew out and on both fly outs Chavez moved up to second and third base. Kendrys Morales continued his tear by singling in Chavez to tie the game at 1, following Morales's single 41 year old Raul Ibanez stepped up and after last night's 13 pitch at bat homerun he figured "Why wait 13 pitches? I'll jump on the first pitch instead." and indeed he did as he drove it out for his eleventh homerun of the year tying him with Mike Morse for the team lead and giving the Mariners the 3-1 lead.

Adam Dunn pulled the White Sox within one run as he took King Felix deep to put the Mariners lead to 3-2. In the bottom of the third inning Jason Bay got the inning started off by singling and after Seager flew out for the second time Morales lined one down the left field line that bounce into the stands for a ground rule double bringing up Ibanez. Ibanez jumped out to a 3-0 count and after looking at one lined the fifth pitch into right field that scored both Bay and Morales to put the Mariners up 5-2. Jake Peavey would then leave the game after that pitch in what was revealed to be having pain in his ribs, no word yet on what his condition is. Brian Omogrosso was brought in for Peavey to face the Mariners 2009 draft pick sensation Nick Franklin. Franklin drove one to right field and at first the umpires called it a homerun but White Sox manager Robin Ventura wanted a review on the call, and after review the called was reversed to a double, so on the play Franklin was able to drive one more run for the Mariners increasing the lead to 6-2.

Felix would continue to pitch brilliantly through 7 innings, and in the top of the eighth inning would be the inning the White Sox got to the Mariners ace. Alexi Ramirez would lead off the inning by singling and then Tyler Flowers would double to right field that would score Ramirez and after that Eric Wedge would come out to relieve Felix of his duties and would hand the ball off to Oliver Perez. De Aze would single off of Perez to score Flowers and the lead was then cut down to 6-4. Perez would then settle down and get Gordon Beckham to ground into a double play to end the inning for the White Sox.

In the bottom of the eighth Michael Saunders would draw a walk from Hector Santiago. Kelly Shoppach would then come up looking to move Saunders over or scored him from first, Shoppach wouldn't need to move Saunders up as Michael was able to swipe both second and third base and after he stole third Shoppach did his job by flying out to left field that allowed Saunders to score easily from third extending the Mariners lead to 7-4. After Brendan Ryan struck out to end the eighth for the Mariners, Tom "The Bartender" Wilhelmsen entered the game and with much doubt from not only myself but other Mariners fans was hoping to get his second consecutive save. Tommy Boy couldn't find the strike zone on his first batter as he walked Conor Gillaspie on four straight pitches and on that note Eric Wedge called his bullpen and asked for Charlie Furbush to get warmed up. Tommy Boy managed to get Alex Rios to pop out and following that he got Paul Konerko to ground into a game ending double play.

During the post game I heard something out of the ROOT Sports analyst that I haven't heard in a long, long, LONG time "The Mariners take the series from the Chicago White Sox." That's right, the Mariners have finally taken a series from the White Sox in I don't know how long its been. With this win the Mariners moved back into third place and put their record to 26-33.

NOTES: Kyle Seager extended his hitting streak to 8 games. Felix Hernandez has now struck out at least 5 batters or more in 11 straight games. Kendrys Morales extended his hitting streak to 6 games. Jesus Sucre exited the game earlier after being hit on the hand on a swing by Alexi Ramirez, he's been cleared to play and will not go on the DL.