Ichiro Delivers First Career Walk-Off

Jarrod Washburn pitched seven innings of one run ball tonight, in what probably was his last outing as a Mariner. He left the game with a 3-1 lead, but was robbed of the win when Mark Lowe couldn’t hold it. With two outs in the eighth, and lead cut down to one, he allowed the Blue Jays to tie it up on an Alex Rios RBI double.

The Mariners scored their first three runs on a Mike Sweeney RBI ground out in the first, and a Chris Shelton RBI double followed by a Jack Hannahan RBI single in the sixth.

Jarrod Washburn didn’t look great tonight, but he got a lot of defensive help and the results were good, which is really the most important thing from a trade value perspective. He gave up five hits, walked three, and struck out one on the night.

With the game tied in the ninth, the bottom of the Mariners order was able to load the bases with nobody out, off of Jays reliever Scott Downs. Jose Lopez, who didn’t start due to back stiffness, was then brought in as a pinch hitter for Michael Saunders. Loafie couldn’t get the job done, though, as he weakly grounded out to third, for a force out at home. Ronny Cedeno followed with a strikeout.

And then, Ichiro came to the plate. After falling behind 0-2 quickly, Ichiro proceeded to reach for a low and outside curveball, and softly bloop it into center field, delivering his first career walk-off hit.

The bad news, is that the Angels and Rangers both won today, so the M’s still were unable to gain any ground. The Red Sox lost, though, so we move up to 6.5 games back in the wild card.

Ok, so the win was the first big piece of news of the day. The second, happened in Reno. Jeff Clement, currently with the Rainiers, was pulled from the game in the third inning. It wasn’t due to an injury, he’s not sick, and it is very unlikely that he is being called up. That really only leaves one option. Unfortunately, trades are rarely announced this late at night, and we’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to see what’s up.

Also worth mentioning – Michael Saunders made a great leaping grab in the first inning to rob Vernon Wells of a home run. Nice job Mike.

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