The game of the year for the Mariners was a thriller to the end, with Yuniesky Betancourt coming through in the 12th inning with a single through the left side off Justin Speier to give Seattle the 8-7 win in a three-hour, 51 minute marathon. After the game, the Mariners announced that Class AAA uber-prospect Adam Jones will be up with the team by Friday and that Jason Ellison is the odd man out.

It was an emotional win for all involved. Hear what Betancourt thought about it.

McLaren would not talk any more about the Jones call-up or what his role with the team would be. This is a very delicate situation inside the clubhouse right now. There are a number of veterans who feel the team is winning when it has to win and has been doing it as a unit all year.

But the winds of change came today when Richie Sexson was banished to the bench in-place of Ben Broussard against righty Jered Weaver. Sexson was booed again by the fans when he kept striking out or grounding out in his three at-bats after entering as a pinch-hitter. To answer the question of whether Ellison should have been used in his place -- no. The team had obviously given up on Ellison as an offensive performer well before tonight, which is why he is now leaving the team.

Sexson is still a part of the team and the M's are hoping, praying his bat will find some life. I'd still take my shot with Sexson over Ellison each and every time. The big question now is who Jones will replace in the lineup and how often. I predict he'll be eased in against the Red Sox. Remember, this is a delicate situation in the clubhouse. No one wants to see Raul Ibanez benched. Not after he came through with two hits and two runs scored in his first two at-bats tonight.

Tired of players spouting the party line, as so many of them did after the Mariners stood still at the trade deadline? Well, here's a non party-line quote from Jose Guillen, who pulled me aside tonight and told me he's absolutely "pissed off'' about the Jones promotion.

"I just hope they understand this is not Triple-A,'' he told me, in a conversation you can hear on this audio file. "This is the big leagues.''

"I guess they have something to do but this is a totally different league,'' he continued. "I understand he's a good prospect and if they think that he's ready, then hey we'll see.

"He's going to have to come here and prove that to us. Because this team has been good with what we have and I don't think that's what we need...he's a No. 1 prospect and he's going to be here sooner or later somehow, some way, but I just completely don't understand that move right there.

I don't know what they're trying to do. I hope they don't do something stupid to mess with the lineup that we have. Because I believe we have a pretty good one.''

Wow. That's some strong stuff. Anyway, nice to hear what folks really think about things. After the Mariners won, J.J. Putz kept the honesty trend going when he told me this game really was bigger than just another August meeting between two teams.

"A win's a win,'' he said. "And I think this one's bigger than a lot of the other ones.''

Why is that, J.J.?

"Being five back is a lot worse than being three back,'' he said. "I know there are two months left to play, and five games as opposed to three games may not seem like a lot, but it is.''

Indeed it is. The M's just saved themselves a mighty big headache by hanging on to win this game and staying within three of the Angels. True, they are only a half-game out in the wild-card race. But do you really want to put your chances into that thing with the Yankees now charging full-on and the Indians or Tigers still in front of you? Better to keep that as a second option. Hey, if the M's win the wild-card I'll be thrilled to cover a playoff team. But let's just say I'll like their chances better if they shoot for the AL West crown for now.

Hear Putz's take on it.

Putz went on to say a lot of other stuff to me and the other reporters. He went to great lengths to compliment his team's younger relievers, who did bend quite a bit but -- you have to admit -- never broke. My highlight of the night was seeing Sean Green battle out of that 10th inning jam with runners at the corners and only one out. The pitch of the night may have been where he got Orlando Cabrera to pop out to the catcher. How big was that? Are you kidding me? Then, he gets Vladimir Guerrero to bounce out to second, with a superb play turned in by second baseman Jose Lopez.

Those were some big at-bats for Green to get through as he gains experience. Brandon Morrow came on in the 11th and again walked the first batter he faced. You just can't do that, especially with two runners already on. That loaded the bases with one out, but Morrow then showed me something by striking out pinch hitter Nathan Haynes (though he rarely picks up a bat any more) and then, much more impressively, retiring Reggie Willits in an epic confrontation. With the count full, Willits fouled off a number of good pitches, but Morrow never gave in. He got a huge ground out to second after that and kept his team going.

Putz made sure to throw these guys their due, especially after a week in which the merits of their late-inning abilities were thrown into question as the team pursued other options via trade. If anything, the experience gained in some very high leverage situations tonight will serve this bullpen well going forward.

Felix Hernandez said he was a little sore in the ribs after his frightening collision with Ben Broussard but otherwise OK. A big game for Hernandez tonight. Eight strong innings in his team's biggest game of the year. A huge step forward for him.

To "Bill'' in the previous thread, I appreciate your enthusiasm and passion for the game. But this isn't the Bellevue Little League being played out here. This is the major leagues and I know of very few managers who would have put the tying run on base with two outs in the ninth when they have arguably the game's top closer on the mound. Just for kicks, I asked McLaren about it afterwards and he said more or less the same thing. First base wasn't open. Putz is the game's best closer. No way you walk Matthews. As I wrote before, the absolute worst that can happen is a tie game if you ptch to Matthews in that situation. If you walk him, the worst that can happen is you fall behind and lose the game.

No, Maicer Izturis is not a huge home run threat, though he did go deep just the other night. And the guy who homered off Putz in Texas last week wasn't exactly Barry Bonds either. Why risk putting yourself behind when you don't have to?

Hear McLaren's explanation right here.

As for the suicide squeeze, McLaren did note Lopez's poor numbers against Scot Shields when asking him to bunt. Lopez couldn't get his bat on the ball (probably why he has such lousy numbers against Shields in the first place, but I digress) but McLaren afterwards said he'd do it all over again.

"I'm a gambler'' he said. "I'm telling you all, you're going to see that again.''

And I will tell you all the same thing. You don't have to like what I write about the M's all the time. But it's not going to change. I am going to say things you don't want me to say about the team you love. Some of the time, it won't even be the right thing. But most of the time, it will be. Or, at least in my mind it will be. I didn't agree with Jose Guillen's view on Adam Jones. I think it's an obvious move that had to be made. But I can understand his viewpoint and I'm presenting it to you here for your analysis and thought.

And for a reality check. Baseball is a game played by human beings and this move will not be a slam-dunk smooth transition. There are politics in every aspect of life and there have been some at-play here, obviously.

Why did it take so long to make this obvious move? Here's my educated guess. A new manager comes in and has to gain trust inside that clubhouse before he starts shuffling players in and out of the lineup. It's now been exactly a month since McLaren took over. He's had the time to gain some managerial experience, interract with the players and show them what he's about. Also give them time to prove themselves. Richie Sexson has yet to do that all month and he did not play tonight. May be in a platoon the rest of the year. Who knows?

Ibanez is starting to come around, but has taken a long time doing it. Too long? We'll see. But he stands to lose some at-bats in coming weeks. Bottom line is, McLaren gave them time and this is what they gave him. Now, the move has been made. Had Mike Hargrove still been the manager, I think Jones would have been here weeks ago. I'm sure the delay was less about the trade deadline and more about the political rammifications for McLaren in his own clubhouse. No one said this job was easy.

Am I going to always defend McLaren's moves? No way. But I'm not going to scream for his head every time a strategy backfires. You can't do that. Plenty of you were applauding his successful squeeze play as an interim manager earlier this year. You don't jump ship the first time it backfires. Sorry.

Anyway, the team won tonight. Get some rest. It could be a thrilling ride for quite a bit longer now that the M's showed they have what it takes to win a very big game. Won it the hard way, but as Putz would say "A win's a win.''

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse...well, I guess they could have had Jose Lopez not made that great play at second on the high chopper by Vladimir Guerrero in the top of the 10th. A run would have scored had Lopez not come through. But then Lopez couldn't get the squeeze bunt down with one out in the bottom of the inning and Willie Bloomquist at third base. Hey, some of you have yelled and screamed all year for John McLaren's more aggressive style of baseball. But it won't always work out.

Sean Green did an excellent job of pitching out of his own mess in the top of the inning. On to the 11th. I'll tell you what, if the M's lose this game it is going to hurt something awful. But they haven't lost it yet. Just trying to win it the hard way.

To answer some reader questions, no, you don't walk Little Sarge in that situation. When you have the game's most dominant closer on the mound and a two-run lead, you go right at the hitter. No sense putting more runners on base in that situation. The worst that happens is, if Gary Matthews Jr. beats you, it's a tie game and you've got the last at-bat. But if you put him on and the next guy beats you -- in this case, Maicer Izturis, who homered last night -- then you are losing the game. I think the M's played that one right despite the stats. Hey, they let Green pitch to Guerrero in a much more obvious intentional walk situation and it worked out. That's baseball. It'll drive you nuts, the way the M's are doing tonight.

QUICK ON THE DRAW

Yes indeed, I did hit the post button a little too quickly in that ninth inning. Had actually meant to send my newspaper story to the paper first, but hit the button on the blog item instead. Maybe it's because I hate the home team, right "Boris"? Anyway, my apologies on that, but it doesn't change what I wrote about Felix Hernandez, who came up huge in the biggest game in years by his team and under some trying circumstances.

Too bad J.J. Putz blew the three-run lead. Especially on that two-out homer in the ninth. Never saw that coming -- obviously. That's two blown saves in a week by Putz. Is he getting tired? Who could blame him? Maybe it was just a bad pitch, but he did give up a lot of hits that frame. This is the time of year where fatigue starts to set in for some closers who have been used a lot. The M's have been trying to limit Putz's multi-inning stints. After this, I'm sure it will become an even higher priority.

But it happens to the best. Francisco Rodriguez went through something similar earlier this season for the Angels. Let's just see how the bullpen manages. Sean Green just issued a one-out walk, so that's not good. I see Vladimir Guerrero looming further down in the order.

The bats have come up big for the M's all night and this game is of huge importance. They must continue to stay focused and pull this thing out. It's not over yet.

Spoke too soon, didn't I? Hernandez gives up the two-run homer to Garret Anderson in the seventh, making it a 5-4 game, before a Jose Guillen single in the bottom of the frame makes it a 6-4 lead for Seattle.

Some lousy defensive play by the Angels that inning contributed to the run. We also got to see Richie Sexson as a pinch-hitter that inning, striking out with two on against Darren Oliver to end the inning. No comment. Sexson is in a serious funk right now and I'm not about to pile on to his misery.

HERNANDEZ LEADS 5-2

Looks like Felix Hernandez shook that collision off in style as he carries a 5-2 lead into the seventh inning. Jered Weaver regained his composure as well, so it isn't Game Over just yet. A colleague mentioned to manager John McLaren before the game that Hernandez seems to do well if he gets through the first few innings unscathed.

I couldn't disagree more. In fact, the two times Hernandez came unglued on the mound last month occured with a 2-0 lead over the Orioles in the sixth and a scoreless tie in the fifth inning in Toronto. So, he isn't completely out of the woods. But to answer a reader's question from below, yes, I think Hernandez has maintained his composure tonight when he could have allowed that mishap with Ben Broussard to throw him off.

And yes, the throw from Ichiro in center to nail Vladimir Guerrero really did change the complexion of the game. It looked to me like Guerrero actually slid under Kenji Johjima's tag and got his foot on the plate before he was touched. But the Angels didn't argue, so why should I?

FELIX ON GROUND IN PAIN

Stop the presses and your heartbeats for a second. Felix Hernandez and first baseman Ben Broussard just had some big-time miscommunication and a jarring collision on the grass between the mound and first base here in the fourth inning. Hernandez lay writhing on the ground for several moments while an army of trainers, coaches and players rushed to his side. (No one seemed to care about Broussard, but he's a big boy).

Hernandez seemed more shaken up than anything else. He's decided to stay in the game, having just given up three staight hits and a run after entering the inning with a 5-0 lead. It's now 5-1 with two runners in scoring position and nobody out.

But Hernandez and the M's appear to have just dodged a serious bullet. There were shades of last April flashing before everyone's eyes here. Like I said, it appeared he just got the wind knocked out of him. Let's see whether the Angels capitalize and make this a ballgame. It had been a rout.

I knew that would get your attention. The lineups are out and Ben Broussard is at first base for the Mariners against right hander Jered Weaver. Mariners manager John McLaren said Sexson will be back in the lineup Friday to face lefty Jon Lester, but wouldn't commit to anything beyond that.,

"I'm not going to sat Richie's a platoon player by any stretch of the imagination,'' McLaren said. "(But) it's been four months and he needs to get going. He's working hard and we keep thinking today's going to be the day.

"We need him to pick it up.''

Listen to exactly what McLaren had to say
on the issue right here, fresh from the dugout.

Here are the lineups:

LOS ANGELES (62-43)

3B Chone Figgins
SS Orlando Cabrera
RF Vladimir Guerrero
LF Garret Anderson
1B Casey Kotchman
CF Gary Matthews Jr.
2B Maicer Izturis
C Jeff Mathis
DH Reggie Willits

RHP Jered Weaver

SEATTLE (58-47)

CF Ichiro
DH Jose Vidro
RF Jose Guillen
LF Raul Ibanez
3B Adrian Beltre
1B ben Broussard
C Kenji Johjima
2B Jose Lopez
SS Yuniesky Betancourt

RHP Felix Hernandez

UMPIRES

HP Doug Eddings
1B Dana Demuth (crew chief)
2B Derryl Cousins
3B Kerwin Danley

Spent the morning poring over your emails and comments in all the threads from yesterday's marathon sessions. By the way, we obliterated our previous monthly hits count record. Haven't received yesterday's numbers yet, but heading into the day, we were already at a 50 percent increase over the hits received in June. Those are some incredible numbers, so pat yourselves on the back.

They also state the obvious: that we have many new readers and commenters coming aboard. Once again, let's keep it all civil. Things seem to have levelled off after the madness of last week on the posting boards. We are monitoring them and trying to be very liberal in what we allow. Just don't push it too far.

Speaking of pushing things too far, if I read one more story or column congratulating Bill Bavasi for doing nothing to improve his team at the July 31 trade deadline, I think I'll have to gag on my computer monitor. I mean, really. The fact that Bavasi's predecessors made some bad moves years before he even got to Seattle should have zero bearing on the merits of what he did this year.

For every bad "Woody'' move at the deadline, I can give you others made by Bavasi's contemporaries that helped put their teams over-the-top. One of my favorites was Twins GM Terry Ryan absolutely fleecing J.P. Ricciardi of Toronto in 2003 by acquiring Shannon Stewart (with the Blue Jays paying his remaining salary) for bit performer Bobby Kielty. Stewart propelled the Twins to a division title and finished top-5 in MVP voting that year. And it wasn't, as I mentioned, even a salary dump. Why I liked it so much was that, for about two weeks, Ryan had fingers wagged at him by pundits all across North America chortling that he was foolish to have given up on as promising a young outfielder as Kielty for an overpriced (once again, cost didn't actually enter the equation) veteran like Stewart (who had only hit .300 and scored 100 runs per season his entire career).

Anyway, the laughing stopped about two weeks later, once these pundits took a look at Stewart and saw what he was doing for the Twins. Ricciardi saved his own hide by pawning Kielty off on the Oakland A's for pitcher Ted Lilly, which amounted to a saw-off talent-wise until Lilly upped his performance two years later with about four weeks remaining in his Toronto career.

Another series of moves I liked was the boldness shown by Red Sox GM Theo Epstein in dealing away iconic Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and promising outfielder Matt Murton to the Chicago Cubs in 2004, receiving first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from Minnesota and Orlando Cabrera from Montreal in return. Yes, they were short-term moves and in the long-run, they may have worked out better for opponents than they did for the Red Sox.

But in the short-term, the defensive upgrade that Mientkiewicz and Cabrera provided likely propelled Boston to the World Series title that year. I don't know about you, but I'd take that. Take it in a flash and worry about my standing in the all-prospects league some other time.

The reason I bring this up? Simple. There is more than one way to skin a cat come the trade deadline. More than one way to pick up value, or evaluate the value of a trade. If I'd told you the Bosox were shipping off Garciaparra's bat in 2004 for a couple of all-glove, no-hit infielders (at the height of the "Moneyball" craze, when defense was supposedly an overvalued commodity) how many of you would have told me that was an "impact" trade?

Those of you raising your hands, quit kidding yourselves and put them down. Please. You know that not one of you would have. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have either. And I understood the logic of what Epstein did at the time.

I think about that deal when I read over your emails and thoughtful insights on how acquiring an eighth inning setup man for the M's really wouldn't have made an impact on the team. Really? You believe that? Wow, then this franchise sure wasted a lot of time and energy trying to acquire one of those non-impact guys these past few weeks. I mean, why didn't Bavasi, Norm Charlton and company simply keep their travel money and knock off to the movie theatre to watch Oceans 11, 12 and 13, or one of those James Bond marathons? I'd have done that rather than waste my time going through a big production like they did.

Thing is, you don't know how much of an impact a move will have on a team's fortunes until it's made. Who would have guessed, in the summer of 2003, that all it would take to tranform the Twins from underachievers into a title winner was an underappreciated guy like Stewart? A leadoff hitter who didn't draw any walks at that! Who knew?

You know, considering all the outside-the-box, enlightened thinking I'm used to seeing locally on a variety of baseball issues, I'm astounded at how unanimously mainstream and predictable the thought process on Bavasi's inaction has been. Perhaps it is, as some of you have mentioned, relief at the fact he didn't get the chance to botch another trade. That's a pretty fatalistic way of looking at things.

At least one of you suggested an interesting way of seeing whether or not I will be 'vindicated" in my stance. Something about looking at all the eighth inning opportunities from here on in, subbing them with an opposing reliever with zero runs allowed...yada, yada...I'll make it easier. Let's see how many starters fail to go at least six innings from here on in, the way Jeff Weaver did last night. Then, let's see how many starters do go six innings, only to lose a game in which they were either tied or leading.

Because what I have said, from the outset, was that this team had to improve in the starting rotation. Some within the organization believe there was nothing out there better than what the Mariners currently have. I find that hard to believe. I can tell you that Matt Morris, who I'm no big fan of, probably would have pitched better than Jeff Weaver did last night. Probably would have pitched better than Horacio Ramirez has in most of his road outings. If not Morris, then someone else. But the Mariners didn't like what they saw. And it was, in fact, only one bad Weaver outing in the past six weeks. So, I won 't jump the gun. Yet.

My alternative, then, if the M's weren't going to better themselves in the rotation, was to make their bullpen so airtight that it became a six-inning game for the starters. Give the bullpen the lead or a tie score after six, or even in the sixth inning, and the game is pretty much over. That's the approach Epstein took with the Red Sox once again this year, going out and getting Eric Gagne with prospects and money. Epstein already had a great bullpen. But he just made it impregnable. He just shortened the game.

I had advocated the M's acquiring Gagne, even at a steep price, only to be shouted down by many of you who claimed such relievers were easy to find elsewhere at a lesser cost. OK, then. So, where are they? Why have the M's not acquired them?

They are already here, you say? Well, let's see...the last time I checked, Gagne wasn't allowing lefties to hit .300 off him. He wasn't working his way back from a pioneer-type of elbow surgery. And he hadn't spent his entire career as a situational lefty before this year. Nor was he playing college ball last season, nor walking a batter per inning this year.

This bullpen may turn out to be really good. But it is not unbeatable from the sixth or seventh inning on. If the M's had acquired a dependable eighth-inning setup guy (and the numbers say that Al Reyes is better than any of the eighth-inning righties the M's now have) they would have been a step closer to that goal. They could have done all of John McLaren's mixing and matching in the seventh inning instead of the eighth. And then, the team's failure to pick up another starting pitcher would have been muted by lessening the need of the rotation to go deep into games.

It wouldn't have helped the M's win last night's game. That falls into the "acquiring another starter" realm. But a game-shortening bullpen might have helped Weaver or Ramirez, or Felix Hernandez win more on nights when they can offer up at least five-plus innings.

You have to look at the total impact of a move, not just the move itself. And yes, it would have cost the team a prospect or two. Playoff berths don't come cheap. Many of you assume the team will be in this exact position a year from now, vindicated by still having Adam Jones, Wladimir Balentien and Jeff Clement in its arsenal. But what if the M's are a third-place, .500 team by then? Entierly possible, given the superior starting pitching and equivalent bullpens of both the Angels and A's when fully healthy? How will you feel then, especially if this M's club doesn't make the playoffs in 2007?

This isn't about arguing a position to death. But again, I am amazed at the lack of diversity in the thinking on this topic in a Seattle baseball community that is usually all over the map in its opinions. Never before have I seen a GM so lauded for doing so little to bolster his team. Hey, maybe doing nothing will prove the best course for this team. But at least wait until that result plays out before pinning the medal of honor on a guy, giving him a standing ovation and such.

Is this opinion unanimous around baseball? No, it is not.

We know what Keith Law thought about a proposed Balentien-Octavio Dotel deal and his relief the M's didn't pull the trigger. I like Law's baseball knowledge and respect his opinions. But on the same site, his colleague, fantasy baseball writer Tristan Cockroft, warns readers they might want to "sell high" on the Mariners moving forward.

"Pitching was the Mariners' trade-deadline target,'' he writes in his trade deadline recap, "but the team fell short in the sweepstakes for Octavio Dotel, Matt Morris, Al Reyes and Dontrelle Willis. Seattle's stand-pat stance is actually a bad thing for the team; the Mariners ranked 26th in starters' ERA (5.01), and with Horacio Ramirez still in the rotation and Jeff Weaver always a risk to revert to his old inconsistent ways, J.J. Putz shouldn't be expected to retain his torrid pace. He has saves in 31 of the Mariners' past 90 games, with a 0.60 ERA in 41 appearances during that span. The overachieving Mariners could be in for a disappointing final two months, so be prepared if your team is counting on too many of them."

Jeff Passan over at Yahoo Sports, one of my favorite young baseball writers, lumped the M's in as one of his trade deadline losers in listing clubs that had failed to secure Eric Gagne's services.

"The Gagne whiffs: Condolences to Seattle, Milwaukee, Detroit and the New York Mets, whose fans will cringe at every lead from hereon blown in the eighth inning.''

Passan was on KJR yesterday and told the host his biggest trade deadline surprise was that the Mariners failed to pick up any pitching whatsoever.

In Chicago, national baseball writer Phil Rogers declared the Angels and Mariners as his No. 1 trade losers.

"1 (tie) Angels and Mariners: With their teams playing in Seattle, you wonder if Bill Stoneman and Bill Bavasi were squirreled away together in some Starbucks, with Bavasi vowing to sit on his hands if Stoneman did likewise,'' Rogers wrote in the Chicago Tribune. "Otherwise there's no explaining how neither of these teams made a move to get better.

"Stoneman pursued Teixeira but didn't have a fallback move in him, deciding simply to wait for Juan Rivera in September. Seattle talked a lot about adding some experience to the bullpen or even a front-line starter like Jon Garland. Bavasi had some intriguing bargaining chips to play (especially power-hitting outfielder Wladimir Balentien and catcher Jeff Clement, both of whom seem blocked) but couldn't get a deal done."

The point of this is not to vindicate my position. I have disagreed with at least two of the above mentioned writers on many an occasion. If the Mariners go on to win this division, or at least claim the wild-card, without making a move, then Bavasi will have been vindicated. For now, though, I'll leave the applause for him having done nothing to help his team to others. So long as I am in charge of this blog, it will remain a forum where folks can tune in for a wide range of thinking and to disagree with me on any topic they choose.

Have fun. I know it's going to be an interesting day on the comments thread.