Mariners Clobber Pads; Take the Series

The Mariners finished off their 5-1 homestand tonight by beating up on the lowly San Diego Padres.

The whole game was pretty ugly for the Pads, as it started with an Ichiro HR and ended with a three run ninth. Other highlights included a three run double by Rob Johnson, a mosnter home run off the bat of Wladimir Balentien, and 4 for 5 nights by both Ichiro and Mike Sweeney.

Jarrod Washburn didn’t pitch very well, giving up a lot of line drives and deep fly balls, but he was able to work out of several jams and was good enough to hold San Diego to two runs over six innings of work. He picked up his first win in around two months.

Tonight was the end of a very successfull homestand for the Mariners. They really needed to take advantage of this recent streak against bad teams, and they did just that. In these last three series, the Mariners went 7-2, and now stand two games over .500 and only two games out of first place, until the Rangers beat the Diamondbacks tonight that is.

The fact is, thus far, they have continued to play good baseball and are close to proving that they’re in this race for the long haul. Now the real test begins, though. Tomorrow the Mariners start a road trip that features three games against the Dodgers, three against the Yankees, and three against the Red Sox.

We should know by the end of that whether or not this team has a real shot at making a playoff run.

Other news and game notes:

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

Jose Lopez was back with the team tonight, he went 0 for 5.

Yuniesky Betancourt was placed on the DL today.

R.I.P Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.