M’s Make It Interesting, But Come Up Short

In a game in which at one point they had been trailing 9-2, the Mariners were able to pull within two runs of the Padres before all was said and done. After a Griffey solo homer, a Branyan two run homer, and a couple of timely hits, the M’s were only down by a score of 9-6 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Against San Diego closer Heath Bell, Ronny Cedeno led off the inning by drawing a walk, and Ichiro followed with a single. All of a sudden we had Russell Branyan at the plate representing the tying run, with nobody out. Unfortunately, Branyan struck out after a long battle for the fourth time on the night.

It would get even more interesting, though, as Mike Sweeney followed Branyan with an RBI single, and then Griffey stepped to the plate, with an opportunity to send the fans home happy with one swing of the bat. He got a good pitch to do it with, too, but all he could do with it was lift a mid deep fly out to center field.

After a Gutierrez ground out, all of the false hope disappeared for good. It was a valiant effort, but as Geoff Baker stated in his blog tonight, it was just too little, too late.

The Mariners gained an early lead in the second inning via a bases loaded walk to Ronny Cedeno, but they should have gotten more. With the sacks juiced and nobody out, Rob Johnson and Yuniesky Betancourt both proceeded to strike out in embarrassing fashion.

Seattle held the lead up until the fourth, when San Diego went up 2-1 on a two run blast off the bat of slugger Adrian Gonzalez. They would score two more in the fifth innings, and then five more in a sloppy sixth inning.

Garrett Olson did not pitch well, and Chad Gaudin completely shut down the Mariners through seven innings, fanning 11 in the process.

Fortunately for the M’s, Texas lost again tonight so we remain 2.5 back in the division, for now. The Angels won, though, and are now tied with the Rangers atop the AL West.

Game notes and other news:

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

Russell Branyan struck out four times tonight, but also had a two run homer.

Roy Corcoran’s line tonight – 1.2 innings pitched, 4 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB. Not good.

Ken Griffey Jr’s home run was the 5,000th in Mariners history.

We’ll attempt to even up the series tomorrow night with Brandon Morrow on the hill. Gulp.

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