The Condor helps end the road skid

Its been 5 long days since I have posted anything! Man, this recap has been a long time coming. The Mariners were looking to end both a 4 game/road game losing streak as they sent out Erasmo Ramirez to try and give them plenty of innings and help get a win as well. If you remember Ramirez has only pitched once against the Orioles and in that he went 8 innings and gave up only 2 runs, but the M's lost that game in 18 innings. Things looked good the first two batters for the M's as Brad Miller singled and then Nick Franklin walked, but after that the M's went 1-2-3 to end the inning, then Ramirez had an easy 1-2-3 bottom of the first. 

Justin Smoak hit his tenth home run of the year with one out to give the M's the early lead but Matt Wieters tied things up in the bottom of the second with a home run of his own, it was his 15th of the year. 

In the top of the fourth inning Mike Morse lead things off with sharp line drive double and then Smoak drew a nine pitch walk. After Humberto Quintero singled Brad Miller hit a blooper into left field that allowed Morse to come home to score but on the play Nate McLouth threw Smoak out at third. Manny Machado came right back for the Orioles in the bottom of the fourth with his tenth homer of the year and so the O-Birds tied up the game again with a home run. Kyle Seager lead things off in the top of the fifth with a walk and stole second. After the following two batters crapped out (so to speak) Mike Morse came through in the clutch for the Mariners by singling to right field that allowed Seager to score and the M's took the 3-2 lead.

Smoak kept the inning alive by singling as well and then after a pitching change by the O's Michael Saunders drove his ninth home run of the year into the right field seats to put the Mariners up 6-2. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning the Orioles started a little rally, with both Nick Markakis leading off the inning with a single and then former Mariner Adam Jones doubled. Robby Thompson then brought in Charlie Furbush to try and get out of this jam, Chris Davis drove in one with a sacrifice fly and then Wieters singled home another run but after that Furbush got the next two batters out to end the inning. The top of the eighth ended in a weird fashion as with only one out Raul Ibanez lined one off the right field wall and on the exchange Nick Franklin was throw out at home and because of a base running error by Ibanez he was thrown out going back to first. 

In the top of the ninth Smoak added to his night by doubling with one out, it was the fifth time he was on base for the night; he ended his night by going 3 for 3 with a home run, a single, a double, and two walks. Michael Saunders then tanked his second home run of the game and drove in his 4th and 5th run of the game and put the M's up 8-4. Danny Farquhar then came back out in the ninth after getting the third out in the bottom of the eighth and struck out Chris Davis and Wieters and got Henry Urrutia to ground out to end the ball game and earn his first career save.

NOTES: Nick Franklin went 0 for 4 tonight to push his 0-fer streak to 0 for 24. The Mariners are still within a good margin in the American League Wild Card standings as they are only 10 games back of the Cleveland Indians. Kendrys Morales extended his hitting streak to 8 games and is now 19 for 26 (.730) on this road trip. Kyle Seager batted .396 in the month of July and is batting .435 to start this month and is batting .400 for this road trip.