Mariners Win a Thriller at Home

For the first seven innings of tonight’s game, things were looking pretty bleak for the Mariners. Not only were they down 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but outfielder Endy Chavez had left the game earlier with what appeared to be a serious knee injury, after a collision with Yuniesky Betancourt.

Thing quickly brightened up, though. Russell Branyan led off the bottom of the 8th with a monster home run off of Scott Schoeneweis. After a pitching change, Beltre followed it up with frozen rope single to left-center field. After a Mike Sweeney strikeout  and a Franklin Gutierrez fly out, Ken Griffey Jr. strolled to the plate as a pinch hitter.

The fans went nuts, and Junior did not disappoint. He belted a pitch from Ramon Pena to straight away center field and into the bleachers, tying the game up at three.

The rally didn’t stop there though, as newly called up Chris Woodward reached on a single, followed by a go ahead triple off the bat of catcher Rob Johnson.

Mariners closer David Aardsma came into work the 9th, and he was on. He blew away the first two hitters he faced, and after allowing a two out single, blew away the fourth hitter he faced, to end the game and secure a miraculous Mariners win.

It always feels good to pull out a win that you really had no business winning, and tonight was no exception.

Nothing really interesting happened before the fourth inning, Jarrod Washburn pitched a solid seven innings, giving up three runs on an error, a groundout, and a solo home run off the bat of Miguel Montero.

Jon Garland dominated the Mariners in his six innings of work, but unfortunately for him his bullpen couldn’t hang on for him.

Other news and game notes:

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

The Mariners DFA’s Guillermo Quiroz, called up Chris Woodward, and activated Russell Branyan and Rob Johnson from the BL since yesterday.

Texas lost, so we’re now sitting at 4.5 back in the AL West.

Vargas takes the hill for the M’s tomorrow in game two of the three game series.

Ken Griffey Jr. has five hits and six RBI in his last four games.

You can follow me on Twitter here