What a Day

Today was a pretty bad day for the Seattle Mariners, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. First of all, the Angels swept their doubleheader against the Royals, and the Rangers beat the Red Sox. So that was bad.

Garrett Olson pitched really badly, giving up seven runs in 1 1/3 innings pitched. He couldn’t throw strikes, and we were down 8-1 in the second inning. So that was also bad.

But after Garrett Olson got pulled was when it went from bad, to terrifying for the Mariners and their fans. With runners on first and second and one out, Ryan Raburn hit a deep fly ball into the right center field gap off Chris Jakubauskas. Both Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro went after it, but it was Gutierrez who got to the ball and made a leap for it at the wall. He initially caught it, but it was forced out of his glove when he collided with the scoreboard.

It went for a triple and two runs scored, but for the next few minutes that was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Franklin Gutierrez was down, and it didn’t look good. You could tell he was in a lot of pain, and it seemed very possible he had broken a bone or dislocated his shoulder. Fortunately, around 45 minutes later we got the word via Dave Sims that all X rays were negative, and that he had only suffered a couple of contusions. He’s listed as day to day, and it looks as though he could be back in the lineup as soon as two or three days from now.

The Mariners attempted to mount a comeback, hitting four home runs (two by Jack Hannahan, one by Ryan Langerhans, and one by Wladimir Balentien), while the bullpen held the Tigers to only one more run over the next six innings. They Mariners even got as close as getting the tying run to second base with one out in the ninth inning, against Tigers closer Fernando Rodney. Unfortunately, Wladimir Balentien was over matched and struck out in embarrassing fashion, and Ryan Langerhans followed with a deep fly out to end the game.

Other news and game notes:

-Ichiro’s hit streak is now at: two games.

-Mike Sweeney was activated from the DL today, and Josh Wilson, who had two at bats as a Mariner, was DFA’s to make room.

-The Mariners now sit 5.5 games back of the red hot Angels, with 10 days until the deadline. Playing good baseball for the next week is going to be essential if the M’s want to avoid falling out of contention.

-Expect Ryan Rowland-Smith and possibly Jason Vargas to be called up in the next few days.

-Don’t fret, tomorrow is Felix day!

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