M’s Bullpen Can’t Hold Off the Yanks

The M’s battled hard tonight in a game they didn’t have much of a chance at winning, but the unfavorable pitching match up combined with the silly lineup they put forward proved to be too much to overcome for the squad in blue.

After coming back from a 3-1 deficit, and then a 5-3 deficit, the Mariners finally fell behind for the final time in the eighth inning, when Sean White allowed the first four batters he faced to reach base. Yankee captain Derek Jeter delivered the decisive blow, a two run single to push the New York lead to 8-5.

Brandon Morrow went 4 2/3 innings, and managed to keep the M’s in the game, although he didn’t pitch well. He walked five hitters while striking out four, and surrendered three runs, only one of them earned. The other two were attributed to a double error by third baseman Chris Woodward (bobble, and throw). We miss you already, Adrian.

Ichiro went 2-4 with three stolen bases, Franklin Gutierrez and Kenji Johjima each had three hits, and Ronny Cedeno had a solo bomb. The story for the Mariners tonight was clearly the bullpen; they just didn’t get the job done. Chris Jakubauskas allowed two runs in 2 1/3 innings of work, and Sean White gave up three in one innings of work.

Tomorrow is probably our best chance at a win in this series – we’ll be sending Jarrod Washburn (4-5, 3.22) to the mound against his fellow veteran lefty, Andy Pettitte (7-3, 4.38).

Other news and games notes:

Ichiro’s hit streak is now at: 11 games.

Thank to Ronny Cedeno and his long ball today, I owe $1 to one of the guys over at Lookoutlanding.

Fortunately, the Rangers beat the Angels tonight, so we didn’t lose any ground in the standings.

Note to Don Wakamatsu: Please don’t start Griffey AND Sweeney tomorrow.

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