Griffey and Cast Take Down Division Rival Rangers

Tonight’s game was an unusual one for the Mariners.

The umpire was inconsistent all night, so it was difficult for both the hitters and the pitchers to pick up exactly where his strike zone was.

Taking the mound for the Rangers was 23 year old Tommy Hunter. Well, let’s just say that Hunter made it extremely hard on himself. The young right hander was only able to make it 5 innings, giving up 7 hits, 4 earned runs, and 3 base on balls raising his ERA by .85 points. On the bright side he was able to strike out 5.

As for the Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez, he went on to win his 12th game on the year in his hardest game of the season. His struggles also did not come from the hitters, but from himself.  He was very un king like, and you could see it from the very beginning  of the game. He battled through 7 innings, though only giving up 2 earned runs on 6 hits and 2 strike outs, he walked 4.

The Mariners defense really came through for him tonight all over the field. Ryan Langerhans made a leaping catch up against the wall in the third on a one out pop up off the bat of David Murphy. Ichiro turned a pop up off the bat of Marlon Byrd into a double play by firing home to tag out Vizquel on a bang bang play. There were men on first and second in the bottom of the 7th, and Vizquel swung and missed and rookie Elvis Andrus took off to second and the Mariners tagged out Saltalamachia out at third for a double play. The whole night was just as strange as the play I just mentioned.

As for the Mariners offense, Griffey got it going quickly with a 1  out 3-run homer in the top of the first for his 11th of the season.  Lopez would add on an insurance run in the top of the 7th with a solo homer to right field for his 15th of the season.Every Mariner had a multi hit night except for the slumping Branyan and the red hot Gutierrez who did not get a single hit tonight.  The Mariners would later go on to win it 7-2.

As for the Mariners standings, they did not manage to gain any ground on the division leading Angels nor the wild card leaders in the Bo Sox. The Mariners will take the mound tomorrow against the Rangers in the series finale at 5:05 PM PT. The Mariners will send out recent addition Ian Snell from the Pirates, and the Rangers will send out Scott Feldman who will be working on 3 days rest.

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