Mariners Lose a Sloppy One in Colorado

Tonight’s Mariners-Rockies game gave me a bit of a flashback to the 2006 World Series. It was between the Tigers and the Cardinals – I was completely supportive of the Tigers. In that series several of Detroit’s pitchers suddenly forgot how to make accurate throws to first or third base, and it hurt them mightily in the series. Well, that’s sorta what happened to the Mariners tonight.

Before I get into that, though, I’ll recap how the game even got to that point. Brandon Morrow was starting in place of Erik Bedard (shoulder inflamation), and was on a pitch count of 60.

Unfortunately, Morrow looked pretty similar as a starter as he’s looked as a closer. He couldn’t throw strikes when it counted, and the one run he did allow came on a bases loaded walk of the pitcher. He was able to provide three innings of work, surrendering a run on three hits and four walks.

We tied the game at one in the 5th when Beltre, who had 3 hits on the night, grounded an RBI single up the middle. That tie went away in the seventh, though, when Sean White gave up an RBI single to Todd Helton, followed by a very deep RBI double off the bat of Brad Hawpe.

Hope briefly showed its face in the top half of the eighth, when Jose Lopez hit a game-tying two run homer. It got ugly about five minutes later.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Wakamatsu went with setup man Mark Lowe to preserve a 3-3 tie. The first batter he faced, Troy Tulowitzki, hit a bouncer to the right of the mound. By the time Lowe picked it up, he really had no play at first base, but instead of just eating it he attempted to make a Jeter-esque throw and ended up skipping it into right field.

With Tulowitzki now on second base, Carlos Gonzalez laid down a poor sac bunt. Mark Lowe clearly had a play at third, and he made the right choice by throwing there, but unfortunately his throw was awful and it took a nice save by Beltre to keep it from ending up in left field. Everyone was safe though, and all of the sudden there were runners on first and third with nobody out.

A sac fly, two walks, and another sac fly later it was 5-3 Colorado. The M’s threatened in the ninth, but with runners on first and third Huston Street was able to strike Adrian Beltre and Endy Chavez out swinging to end the game.

Game Notes and Other News

Ichiro’s hit streak is now at: 7 games.

On a positive note, Chris Jakubauskas did a great job out of the pen tonight, pitching three strong innings in relief of Brandon Morrow.

The Angels won, the Rangers lost. We’re sitting 5.5 back of Texas and 2 back of LA.

Adrian Beltre appears to be back, he went 3 for 5 tonight with two doubles and an RBI.

We desperately need a good DH.

Morrow really needs to get down the control aspect of pitching if he plans on being a starter.

We desperately attempt to salvage one game of this series tomorrow with Jason Vargas (2-1, 2.35) towing the rubber.

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