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Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

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July 23, 2008 2:22 PM

Game thread, July 23

Posted by Danny O'Neil

Top 11th: Sean Green came in to relieve Brandon Morrow, who pitched a pair of scoreless innings. I was under the mistaken impression that Green had a chance to become the first pitcher to ever appear in 162 games in a season. That's wrong, though. This is the 50th game he's pitched this season so he really only pitches every other game, not every day.

Top 8th: J.J. Putz stayed in to pitch the eighth after throwing 17 pitches in the seventh. He struck out Mike Lowell and got two fly balls to end the inning. He struck out three and allowed only an infield hit in his two innings of work.

Top 7th: It's not the ninth, but J.J. Putz is on the mound for the Mariners, so cue up that AC/DC, right? You bet. "Thunderstruck." This qualifies as a pressure situation. Putz gave up a leadoff single to Dustin Pedroia, who beat out a throw from shortstop Willie Bloomquist for an infield hit. Putz struck out J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis, the latter on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play that ended the inning.

Bottom 6th: I was curious earlier today on whether Jose Vidro had been more productive at the plate than C.C. Sabathia in the three weeks since Cleveland traded the big fella' to Milwaukee.

Well, entering today's games, Sabathia batted in three games for Milwaukee, he had two hits in nine at-bats with a double and a home run. That's a batting average of .222 and a slugging percentage of .667.

Going back to July 8 -- Sabathia's first game with Milwaukee -- Vidro had nine hits in 33 at-bats (.273 average), but his only extra base hits were a pair of doubles (.333 slugging percentage). So what happens Wednesday? Well, Vidro has a walk and a single in his first two at-bats and then hit a game-tying two-run home run in the sixth inning, making the comparison to Sabathia seem very smarmy and ill-timed. Score: Seattle 3, Boston 3.

Top 6th: Felix Hernandez gave up base hits to the first two batters he faced, walked a batter and faced the bases loaded with no outs. So what does Hernandez do? He strikes out the next two batters, getting Jed Lowrie on a full-count check swing on a pitch in the dirt and striking out Jason Varitek on three pitches. What happens then? He walks Coco Crisp on four pitches bringing in a run.

Top 3rd: J.D. Drew was in his trot, Ichiro was on a run, though, and caught a drive about a foot and a half above the right-field wall. Ichiro's leaping catch turned what would have been a three-run home run into the second out of the third inning.

The next hitter, though, Ichiro's glove let a run in. Kevin Youkilis hit a single into right field, which skipped under Ichiro's glove and past him in right field. Ichiro would have had no chance to keep Coco Crisp from scoring from second base on the play. The play did allow Dustin Pedroia to score, and Ichiro was charged with an error on the play.

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