Astros get Farq'd Mariners take the series

The Mariners were looking to end the drought of losing series after series to the Houston Astros today on Star Wars day. The Mariners did just that today, Danny Farqhuar was responsible this time for bailing the Mariners out of an Astros attempt at a comeback. So Twitter-verse invented a new hashtag......#MayTheFarqBeWithYou. And boy was the Farq with the Mariners and with Farqhuar himself. The Mariners were able to pull out the win and take the series from the Astros and improve their record to 14-15. Another positive about today's win was that the Mariners got some revenge on Collin McHugh, who earned his first MLB win off the Mariners while striking out 12.

The Mariners got off to a quick start in the top of the first inning. Michael Saunders continued his tear as lead off hitter with a lead off single to begin the game, and on a throwing error on a pick off by McHugh Saunders was able to scoot on down to third. Robinson Cano put the M's up 1-0 on a productive ground ball out for his 17th of the season. The Astros got a run back in the bottom of the second as Alex Presley homered off starter Brandon Maurer and so the game was nodded up at 1-1.

The top of the third the Mariners decided to get a couple runs back. Dustin Ackley started off the inning by drawing an eight pitch walk, John Buck followed Ackley's walk with his first double of the season and after Saunders struck out Willie Bloomquist delivered a nice 2-run double to put the Mariners back in front 3-1. Cano decided to get back into the RBI category by tripling home Bloomquist, and so the M's lead went up to 4-1. Corey Hart decided to get into both the hit and RBI category as well with his first hit of the game and put M's up 5-1.

The Mariners added an extra run in the top of the fourth when Saunders singled home Buck to put the Mariners lead to 5 runs, Buck was able to get a one out double before Saunders singled him home. Maurer though had a tough bottom of the fourth. After getting the first two batters out the Astros strung together a couple hits including a 2-run double by Chris Carter but was able to get the next batter out. Ackley would drive in a run in the top of the fifth, the Mariners would load the bases thanks to a single, a walk, and Stefen Romero getting hit by a pitch. Ackley would draw the M's second bases loaded walk in the series and so the Mariners lead got pushed to 7-4. The Astros got an extra run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to Jonathan Villar.

Maurer's day was done after the fifth inning so manager Lloyd McClendon went to the bullpen again and had to put his faith in his bullpen for the third day in a row.

The M's would get their final run in the top of the eighth inning. After a lead off double by Romero and Ackley moving him over with a productive out John Buck got his third hit of the ball game and drove in Romero to put the Mariners lead to 8-4. Charlie Furbush was brought into the bottom of the eighth and was taken out after giving up two straight hits. Farqhuar was then brought in to not only get out of the inning but to also try and earn a rare 6 out save. Marc Krauss singled on the first pitch Farqhuar threw, that allowed Jason Castro and Matt Dominguez to come around to score.

Farqhuar was able to settle down and get the next three batters out. He would give up a run in the bottom of the ninth but was able to shut the Astros down and secure the win, the save, and the series for the Mariners. The Mariners now will head to Oakland for a 4 game series against the first place A's, including a double header on Wednesday. After the game Abraham Almonte was optioned to Tacoma, no one has yet to be called up but we could see the M's getting a reliever to help out their tired bullpen.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME: John Buck 3-4 2 2B 2 R RBI
                                         Robinson Cano 2-5 3B R 2 RBI
                                         Danny Farqhuar 2 IP 2 K 1 R 1 ER SV

SeaTalk Intenitonal Podcast Mariners Talk Episode 3

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-129537/TS-852261.mp3

Frankly Seattle steals a win from Oakland

The Mariners came into tonight's game one game under .500 for the road trip, so you can guess that they were looking to win tonight to get to .500 on the road trip. With Joe Saunders on the mound the A's decided to get to him in the first inning. After a lead off triple by Jed Lowrie, Derek Norris singled him home and then John Donaldson hit a two run home run to put the A's up 3-0 early in the game. The Athletics added another run thanks to Nate Freiman's fourth home run of the year, after that Saunders walked both Chris Young and Josh Reddick but thanks to Saunders picking off Young and then getting Eric Sogard to ground out he was finally able to end a 40 pitch inning. 

The Mariners were finally able to get their first runs against Sonny Gray in the top of the third, after Michael Saunders drew a four pitch walk Nick Franklin hit his 11th home run of the year and so the M's were back in the game trailing by only 2 runs. Joe Saunders came back though after a 40 pitch 1st inning and gave the Mariners 5 more innings, after that Brandon Maurer came into the bottom of the seventh inning and had a nice 1-2-3 inning with one strikeout. 

In the top of the eighth Gray was brought out of the game and replaced by Sean Doolittle and tonight was not the night for the Athletics bullpen. The inning began with Michael Saunders collecting his first base hit of the night and extending his hitting streak to three games, Henry Blanco then hit a sharp line drive to left that Yoenis Cespedes couldn't hold and on the play Blanco motored into second base. The next two batters came through in a big way for the M's, Brad Miller blooped a curveball into centerfield that allowed Saunders to walk home and then Franklin hit a sharp line drive to left that scored Brendan Ryan (who pinched ran for Blanco) and so the game was all knotted up at 4-4. 

Doolittle was taken out of the game and Ryan Cook was brought in, Cook was able to get ahead of Kyle Seager in the count at 0-2 but then threw four balls in a row and Seager drew a walk. With Kendrys Morales up to bat Cook threw a wild pitch that allowed Brad Miller to hustle home, score, and give the Mariners the 5-4 lead, then Morales ground to Alberto Callaspo who threw home to try and cut down Franklin, but thanks to Franklin hustling hard he was able to score but paid a price for it. 

On the fielder's choice play that Franklin scored on he was accidentally spiked by Derek Norris but thankfully he was able to walk on his own to the M's clubhouse with a gash in his knee and a huge hole in his pants as well. Franklin tweeted (@NickFrank20) that he was ok and only needed 5 stitches and will be back in about 5 days.

The M's weren't finished after Franklin scored, Cook threw one more wild pitch that brought Seager into score and the M's went up 7-4 after the eighth inning. Yorvis Medina went to hill in the bottom of the eighth inning, he began the inning off by walking Chris Young but came back and struck out Josh Reddick and after Callaspo grounded out Medina walked Sogard, he got Lowrie to ground out though to end the inning for the A's. Danny Farquhar then came into the top of the ninth inning to shut the door on the Athletics and secure the M's the win and the best comeback of the year for the team. Farquhar was on his A-game as he struck out Stephen Vogt, got Josh Donaldson to ground out, and struck out Cespedes on a 75mph curveball. 

So, the Mariners are now 4-4 on the road trip, but this win had to be the best victory and comeback of the season, especially taking the fact that Joe Saunders gave up 4 runs in the first and threw 40 pitches in the inning as well. Mike Morse went 0 for 4 tonight extending his 0 for streak to 0 for his last 18 at bats. Tomorrow the Mariners go for the series win as they begin playing at 1:10 and after that they get a day of rest and then start a quick 6 home stand. Hisashi Iwakuma will look to get his 13th win tomorrow. 

A blown save and a loss on the rocks

Before tonight's game the Mariners made a very interesting move. Alex Liddi was brought up and Brandon Maurer was sent down to Triple A Tacoma and Wedge wouldn't say who would start Sunday's game against the Minnesota Twins. We can only guess who will take to the mound on Sunday whether it be Hector Noesi or Jeremy Bonderman. Bonderman's minor league contract will expire on June 1st so the Mariners will have the option of either giving him the start, releasing him, or re-signing him.

Ok, now lets get to the recap of tonight's game shall I? Joe Saunders took to the mound against Eric Stults. The bottom of the first saw Saunders's streak of 22 2/3 innings of shutout pitching against the Padres come to an end as Chase Headley drove one deep into the second deck in left field and the Padres took the 1-0 lead. Stults continued his dominance by striking out 6 through 4 innings. In the top of the fourth inning the Mariners were able to tack on their first run of the game. After Jason Bay struck out to lead off the inning Endy Chavez singled ending the streak of 10 in a row set down by Stults. Kyle Seager doubled advancing Chavez to third, Kendrys Morales then grounded out scoring Chavez from third to tie up the game at one a piece.

After the top of the fourth pitching for both sides dominated. Saunders pitched a brilliant seven strong innings only giving up the one run and allowing only 4 hits. Eric Stults though went 8 really strong innings and striking out a career high 12 Mariners hitters. Going into the top of the ninth inning Stults's night was done and the Padres sent out Houston Street, who has an incredible success against the Mariners. Jason Bay saw three sinker pitches from Street and the third one he saw put the Mariners in front 2-1 as his sixth homerun of the year just sailed over the left field fence and just sailed past Kyle Blanks's glove. Tom Wilhelmsen was brought in to close the game for the Mariners. Tommy boy did not bring his stuff, his control was completely off as failed to locate his pitches and after giving up a base hit Jedd Gyorko he loaded the bases after intentionally walking Yonder Alonso. Wilhelmsen failed to shut the door and gave up a game tying sacrifice fly but was able to get out of the inning without surrendering the game winning run.

The Mariners couldn't muster a hit or a runner in the top half of the tenth inning. Yoervis Medina was brought in for Tommy boy in the bottom of the tenth inning. Chris Denorfia hit a ground ball to Brendan Ryan and on the ground ball Ryan made a beautiful under the legs scoop but couldn't make an accurate throw to get Denorfia at first. The next batter Everth Cabrera hit a hard single to left center field on a hit and run play which also allowed Denorfia to advance to third. So here is another jam for a Mariners pitcher, Medina intentionally walked Chase Headley to load the bases. Will Venable only needed three pitches, on the third pitch he saw he lined a ball passed Morales at first to drive in the game winning run.

NOTES: Nick Franklin on a positive note was able to get his first major league hit out of the way. The Tacoma Rainiers tonight though had better hitting and run success then the Mariners did. The Rainiers destroyed the Colorado Spring Sky Sox 25-6! Not counting the two pinch hitters in the game for the Rainiers all starters for the team had at least two hits in the game, the Rainiers had 30 total hits. Dustin Ackley went 5-6 with a homerun and 3 RBIs. Both Erik Thames and Brad Miller had 6 RBIs. Abraham Almonte went a perfect 6-6.

Padres bash Maurer

Eric Wedge said that this game is Brandon Maurer's last chance at saving his position in the rotation. Maurer knew this and started out his night very well getting out of a few jams and not allowing a run in the first three innings. The Mariners got Maurer a run in the bottom of the second inning and at first it looked like the Mariners were going to win their third game in a row. The inning started off with Kendrys Morales extending his hitting streak to 6 games by getting an infield hit, very shocking huh; a big guy like Morales getting an infield hit. Mike Morse and Michael Saunders were both able to draw walks off Edinson Volquez. Nick Franklin was unable to get a hit as he grounded out and Yonder Alonso threw out Morales at home but Franklin was still able to make it on first to keep the bases loaded for the Mariners. Jesus Sucre drove in the first run in for the Mariners by hitting a long fly ball out to Will Venable scoring Mike Morse from third.

Maurer gave up his first runs in the top of the fourth by giving up a two run homerun to Jedd Gyorko and the Padres took the 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the fourth Morse singled up the middle with one out to bring up Saunders, who has been struggling mightily up at the plate, was able to drive one to right center field and third base coach Daren Brown stupidly sent Morse running home and on that play Morse both was thrown out at the plate and injured himself on running. Morse would leave the game with a left quad strain and will remain in Seattle on a day-to-day injured list. That inning ended after Nick Franklin struck out, Franklin had a tough first MLB start going 0-4 and making a fielding error.

Maurer gave up another homerun but this time a solo shot to Alexi Amarista, putting the Padres lead to 3-1. The Padres finally drove Maurer off the mound and in shame in the top of the sixth. Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal both singled with one out, Maurer threw a wild pitch that moved both runners up. Gyorko walked and following that Mark Kotsay singled to center driving in both Alonso and Grandal putting the Padres lead to 5-1 and after that manager Eric Wedge saw enough and brought in Danny Farquhar to relieve the young blunder of a pitcher. Now as I said in the paragraph above Franklin made an error in the sixth that allowed one more run to come in increasing the Padres lead to 6-1.

The rest of the night speaks for itself. After this game I believe that Wedge and the Mariners are fed up with Maurer's mediocrity and poor control of his pitches. Maurer leads the league in wild pitches after tonight's game along with not even being ranked in the top 105 pitchers in ERA! That means he has the worst ERA in the majors among starting pitchers with a 6.93 ERA. In my opinion Maurer basically screwed himself out of a job with the Mariners for now, I believe that Maurer will not make the trip down to San Diego tonight with the team and Jeremy Bonderman will be brought up from Triple A Tacoma along with Horacio Ramirez being brought up from Double A Jackson. Maurer was brought up too early and needs to spend more time to develop.

Changes must be made

The Mariners have now dropped 6 games in a row at the hands of horrible pitching from their starter. The Mariners pitching have now allowed 46 runs in the past 6 games. During this losing streak the Mariners have shown us that they have lost team unity. In quoting Danny Glover from Angels in the Outfield "I have never ever seen a worst group of 25 players! You don't think as a team, you don't play as a team, you don't even lose as a team!". I swear if Lou Pinella was still managing the team he would have had 8 heart attacks, 10 strokes, 36 aneurisms, and would have been restrained from killing the players. This team has also had a lot of anger from the fans including myself, I'm not going to lie I'm pissed off as well. The Mariners are just making fans in Seattle wish football season would come even faster. The Mariners thank God have an off day tomorrow to get their heads out of their asses and make some call ups to improve the team.

The Mariners called a team-member only meeting after the game to probably discuss their problems and to probably discuss the problems that they are having with each other. Now, during this upcoming day off the Mariners front office need to make some decisions both managerial and roster wise. To me Eric Wedge is not a manager that I want managing this team. He is constantly making excuses for poor performances from the players, he does nothing but keep his thumb up his ass and just watches his team lose, lose, and lose in a horrible fashion, and I never see him stand up for the team. If Pinella was managing the team he would have been ejected in about 15-20 games, all Wedge does is just stare and says nothing to the umpires when they make mistakes or horrible calls. 

The roster moves that the Mariners could/should possibly make are these. Robert Andino should be DFA'd and call up Carlos Triunfel. Why not Nick Franklin you ask? Because rushing Franklin is a bad idea, look what happened to Dustin Ackley. The same goes with Mike Zunino, with how bad Jesus Montero has been producing the Mariners may have no choice but to give Zunino the call up. Another move the Mariners have to make is to improve the pitching staff. Aaron Harang and Brandon Maurer must be sent down. Maurer struggles with both his control and consistency to pitch deep into the late innings, while Harang has struggles from day one since the Mariners signed his washed up has been ass! 

Jack Zduriencik once again made me scratch my head when he signed a worthless pitcher when he had plenty of free agents to choose from. One more pitcher that should be sent down should be Lucas Luetge. Now the best candidate's for the call up should be Jeremy Bonderman, Blake Beaven, and Andrew Carraway for the starting pitching or call all three and place Beaven in the bullpen. Logan Bowcom is another great choice for a bullpen pitcher.

All of these moves are possible in the next two days but I hardly doubt that Eric Wedge has the brains to make the moves.

Mariners are up to their usual self

The Mariners have now lost their last 5 games. During their this losing streak the Mariners pitching have allowed 39 runs. The hitting has been just as atrocious, as the team has struggled to hit with runners in scoring position and that has cost them plenty of games. Now the Mariners have been hitting homeruns like crazy but hitting these homeruns has been a problem because most of them have come with no runners on base. Homeruns will win you games but you must have runners on to win and the Mariners for some reason just take a dump when it comes with runners on. This team has been one of the worst teams in the past few years with hitting with runners in scoring position and that is why this team hasn't been in the playoffs as well. 

Now, the pitching has been just as bad, the Mariners have the best 1-2 pitchers in the game in Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma but the M's 3-4-5 pitchers have been one of the worst in baseball. Brandon Maurer has been terrible in his consistency and has control problems, Joe Saunders is horrible on the road and cant win a game unless he's at home, and Aaron Harang is.........well he's Aaron Harang.

Thanks to last night's 12- embarrassment Harang's ERA rose to 8.58 and Lucas  Luetge's ERA jumped to 8.10 as well. The Mariners bullpen must improve if this team has any hopes of trying to get back to .500 or above. Charlie Furbush, Lucas Luetge, Joe Saunders, Aaron Harang, and Brandon Maurer all have ERA's above 5. During the 5 game losing streak the Mariners pitching staff, starting and bullpen, have had an ERA of 7.60 and the Mariners defense has also made some critical errors including a dropped ball by Tom Wilhelmsen that would've have been the final out of the game. The Mariners hitting has been just as bad as the M's have gone 4 for 32 (.125) with runners in scoring position and have left 36 runners stranded on base as well.

The Mariners have done this in the last three years, when they have been on a winning pace or at least have had success they have blown it. 2010 they started out 11-11, they then responded by losing 15 of their next 18 games and finished the season 61-101. In 2011 they finished the first half at .500 by posting a 43-43 record, they then opened the second half of the season by going on their historic not to remember 17 game losing streak and finishing the season at 67-95. Finally last year, the Mariners posted a successful 11-10 April and followed up the next month by losing 13 of their next 18 games and finishing off the season 75-87. The Mariners don't want to finish off the season again bellow .500 and have the seats of Safeco Field to be empty.

Now with Harang's horrible night he is a big target for demotion along with Brandon Maurer, who keeps showing us that he is not yet ready for the big leagues. Now if Eric Wedge is smart enough (hardly doubt it) he will make a move and in my opinion there are three excellent selections for the call ups. Jeremy Bonderman is the first; he made the team thanks to a great Spring Training and has posted some great numbers down in Triple A Tacoma going 2-3 and has posted a 3.79 ERA. Blake Beaven is the next choice in the three possible call ups. Beaven had a tough time while up in Seattle but has had some positive stats in Triple A posting a 2-2 record with a 3.70 ERA. Finally, Andrew Carraway is the last call up that is a great possibility. Carraway was drafted in 2009 by the Mariners and got the call up to Triple A after Brian Sweeney was placed on the DL. Carraway has posted a 4-1 record with a 3.19 ERA. Now for the bullpen I suggest demoting either Lucas Luetge or Charlie Furbush and calling up either Logan Bawcom or Bobby LaFromboise.

The Mariners must either make managerial changes or come together as a team and play as a team again. Wedge to me has to go he's not a great manager or Dave Hansen has to go. What ever the Mariners are going to do they have to do it now to try and get their season back on track.

Maurer gets birdbashed

Brandon Maurer entered last night's game on a great roll posting a 2-1 record with a 1.89 ERA in his last 3 starts so you know he felt great going into the game. Well, Nate McLouth decided to say hi in the rudest way possible, a lead off solo homer to right and the Orioles took the early 1-0. In the last 3 starts Maurer would've brushed off that lead off homerun, but unfortunately Maurer didn't brush it off, instead Maurer gave up a double to Manny Machado on the next pitch and following that Maurer threw two wild pitches that enabled Machado to move to 3rd and then score. After giving up a single to Nick Markakis and walking Chris Davis, Matt Wieters doubled home both Markakis and Davis and the O-birds took a 4-0 lead, Maurer finally got out of the inning but after one inning his ERA jumped from 5.61 to 6.75. The Mariners hitters had some work to do now as they faced Jason Hammel. The M's hitters would only muster two hits from Kendrys Morales and Mike Morse but couldn't get anyone in. Maurer was able to get over his rough first inning and threw three shutout innings. After the 4th inning manager Eric Wedge brought in Blake Beaven to relieve Maurer. 

Beaven was able to keep the Orioles at bay until the top half of the 6th, the inning began with J.J. Hardy singling and Ryan Flaherty doubling, Chris Dickerson then singled home both runners and the Orioles now took a commanding 6-2 lead of the Mariners. The bottom half of the 6th was where the M's tacked on their first runs. Mike Morse got ahold of one and took Hammel deep for his 8th homerun of the year. Jason Bay continued his hot streak by singling off of Hammel along with Justin Smoak. After a pitching change Dustin Ackley put his hitting streak to 10 games with a single and loaded the bases for Kelly Shoppach. Shoppach grounded out and was able to leg out to first and on the play Bay was able to score the Mariners trailed by 4 runs. Brendan Ryan continued his reliability by grounding into an inning ending double play. The Orioles added an extra run in the top of the 7th inning and extended the lead to 7-2. After that the M's would not get another run and the O's bullpen shutdown the Mariners to close out the game.

NOTES: Brandon Maurer took the loss in the game and put his record to 2-4. The Mariners go for the series win today in the rubber match. Aaron Harang will look to get his first Mariner win tonight, Dustin Ackley will look to extend his hitting streak to 11 games and Jason Bay will look to extend his hitting streak to 6 games as well. 

The Rookie and his bats

Brandon Maurer had one hell of a challenge tonight, the Los Angeles Angels. A team that has Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and Mark Trumbo. Basically, a team with a crap-ton of power hitters but hey not only do the Angels have power in their lineup they are also the #1 hitting team in the American League, so how bout that for the rookie pitcher. Well Maurer decided to shutdown that #1 hitting team tonight. His night began by striking out the first two batters including Trout and got Pujols to ground out, not bad huh? 1-2-3 inning for the rookie and so now it was time for the bats to go work. The first inning didn't see any work except for Endy Chavez leading off the inning with a single. So Maurer went back out for his 2nd inning of work and faced Josh Hamilton for the first time in his young career and was able to get Hamilton out with a ground ball right back to him, Maurer gave a single to Trumbo but on the replay on TV um lets just say Trumbo was OUT! Maurer was able to finish the inning off with a fielder's choice and his 3rd strikeout of the night. Both teams went down quietly, the M's in the bottom half of the 2nd and the Angels in the top of the 3rd.

Now I didn't notice this until the bottom of the 1st but Carlos Peguero started tonight's game and I was thinking "oh crap there's 3 or 4 extra strikeouts for this starting pitcher", but Peguero decided to shut me up by literally golfing a lead off homerun in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Now that wasn't the most impressive thing about the homerun, not only did he hit a ball that was in the dirt but he hit that ball 451 ft WOW!!! The Mariners were not done in the bottom of the 3rd inning, Jason Bay singled after Carlos's long HR and not long after that Chavez singled for the second time in the game. Kyle Seager then came up and hit a nice liner to centerfield that scored Bay and the M's took a 2-0 and extended Seager's hitting streak to a career long 14 games. Maurer continued his dominance in the 4th but got into a jam in the top of the 5th and with only 1 out and 2 on Maurer was able to get Peter Bourjos to ground into a big double play and keep the shutout going. In the top of the 6th inning Mike Trout lead off with a single but was retired not long afterwards as he tried to steal a base but Kelly Shoppach fired one to Dustin Ackley to cut down the speedy Trout. Pujols then singled up the middle but Maurer got the 3rd member of the Angels Big 3 to ground into a double play and get out of that inning.

In the top of the 7th Maurer night was finished after giving up a single to Howie Kendrick and hitting Brendan Harris so Eric Wedge brought in Carter Capps; who has been the most reliable reliever in the bullpen for the M's. Maurer walked off the field to and even 13,000 fans cheering for his most brilliant performance of the year and Capps helped his starter out by getting Chris Iannetta to ground into the biggest double play of the game. The bottom of the 7th inning began well as Justin Smoak walked and Ackley singled to right field, Kelly Shoppach got Smoak and Ackley over with a sacrifice bunt. After Peguero's golf HR the Angels decided to load the bases by intentionally walking him, Bay then came up and knocked in both Smoak and Ackley with a line drive to left field and the M's took a 4-0 lead. The bottom of the 8th saw Chavez leading off with a single for his 3rd hit of the night, Seager then unloaded and put one in the right field seats for his 3rd HR of the year and the lead was now 6-0. Tom Wilhelmsen was then brought in not in a save opportunity but merely just to get some work in and did the job by getting Pujols and Hamilton to ground out and striking out Trumbo. 

NOTES: This win tonight but the Mariners record to 9-15 for the season and putting them to 7 games back of the Texas Rangers for first place. On another note Taijuan Walker pitched tonight and went 7 strong innings and striking out 7. Maurer has posted a 1.89 ERA over his last 3 starts. Wilhelmsen after tonight put his ERA to 0.90 with his 1-2-3 inning tonight.