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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 7, 2008 8:27 PM

Mariners at Oakland Athletics: 07/07 game thread

Posted by Geoff Baker

A shot of Jarrod Washburn warming up in the bullpen for tonight's game.

Things came apart for the M's in that fifth inning. Carlos Gonzalez led off with an infield single and made it all the way to third on a wild throw to first by Kenji Johjima. Washburn then yielded the first career home run by Wes Bankston on the very next pitch. That tied the game. Gregorio Petit then doubled to left center and scored on a single to left by Ryan Sweeney, putting the A's up 4-3.

Seattle botched a great chance to build on its 3-1 lead in the top of the frame. With two on and one out, Adrian Beltre was on second and took off, rounding third, on a flyball to deep center by Johjima. But when the ball was caught, a retreating Beltre forgot to touch third base on his way back to second. The A's threw over to third and Beltre was ruled out on the inning ending double play. Seattle has eight hits, two walks and a batter reached on an error. But only the three runs on Richie Sexson's first inning homer to show for it. Same old story.

Another thing I asked manager Jim Riggleman before the game was what his thinking was behind not trotting out R.A. Dickey in the 15th inning of yesterday's game rather than Jamie Burke. I know that Dickey threw about 100 pitches the previous day, but isn't he supposed to have a rubber arm?

Apparently, the rubber only stretches so far. Riggleman did not want to risk any injury to Dickey by using him back-to-back like that.

"If that situation was up there in September, and we were two games out of first, he would have been in there,'' Riggleman said.

In other words, this isn't a pennant race. These games only mean so much.

By the way, the team just released Anderson Garcia. Remember him? Picked up off waivers from the Philadelphia Phillies back in spring training? Had a sore arm early and was never heard from again? Well, now you've heard from him.

7:54 p.m.: Oakland scored a run off Washburn in the third to cut Seattle's lead to 3-1. Wes Bankton opened the inning with a flyball double to center that Willie Bloomquist seemed to have a read on, but then leaped a couple of feet away from where the ball landed. Looked very awkward. An ensuing flyout moved the runner to third. Washburn then fanned Gregorio Petit, but allowed a single to left by Mark Ellis that scored the run.

7:38 p.m.: Washburn has retired six in a row to start the game. Yuniesky Betancourt managed not to blow that streak when he nearly crashed into Jose Lopez going after a Carlos Gonazalez pop-up to end the second. Lopez was calling him off on his side of the diamond. Not sure what Betancourt was doing.

The M's had a shot at increasing their 3-0 lead in the top of the inning when Raul Ibanez cranked a two-out single with two on. But Willie Bloomquist was thrown out by Gonzalez trying to score from second.

7:21 p.m.: Stop the presses, Richie Sexson just hit a home run in the first inning off Dana Eveland. A three-run shot to boot, making it 3-0. His second long ball since May 24. If he keeps this up, well...he'll have about four more long balls by the end of the season.

Washburn retired the side 1-2-3 with a foul popout, a groundout to first and a strikeout in the bottom of the first inning.

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Posted by fish93

7:14 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Hey sexson got a hit with a RISP

Posted by xarmyguy78

7:16 PM, Jul 07, 2008

OMG richie just hit a homerun, there still is something left in that bat

Posted by drlo

7:29 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Regarding Dickey and pitching on Sunday... Dickey threw quite a few fastballs on Saturday night, getting it up to 86-87 mph pretty consistently. There were two innings Saturday where he threw mostly fastballs. While he threw mostly knuckleballs over the course of the game, I think he threw enough decent fastballs that it would be hard to imagine that he would not have been feeling it on Sunday.

Posted by Carlos

7:30 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Noooooooooooooooooooooo! Not Anderson Garcia!
This must be Peledoukis way of sending a message to the players.

Look out boys if you continue to SUCK (Vidro & Sexson) I will cut someone. (big name Anderson Garcia) man he showed them!

so what if Sexson hit a jack, he's still a big lump of poop!

Posted by Al

7:52 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Good defense Willie. It just makes SO much sense to have your best outfielder in right and a natural infielder at center. Only in Mariner-land!!

Posted by GripS

8:24 PM, Jul 07, 2008

and........There's the Washburn I recognize! Gets in trouble and then they just light em up.

Posted by Scott

8:29 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Let's lose the rest of our games... and guarantee the No. 1 overall pick in next year's draft.

Perhaps we can draft another catcher to go with the 14 other catching prospects we have in the organization.

Posted by Mac

8:33 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Little League base-running error by Beltre.

Three catchers playing in a two-day span.

Johjima carelessly throwing the ball away for a two-base error when he didn't have a snowballs chance in Peoria of throwing the runner out.

Is it last February already?

Posted by doug

8:35 PM, Jul 07, 2008

good work beltre, way to justify your massive contract bucko

Posted by zona

8:55 PM, Jul 07, 2008

This whole team needs to be put on ADD medication...perhaps it would improve their focus!

Posted by sjazzdude

8:56 PM, Jul 07, 2008

I hope that Riggleman's decision to throw in the towel in yesterdays' game is the decider not to consider him for next season. The Mariners are bad enough. They don't need a manager who believes "it's just a game." As of now, that's been half of the roster's attitude this entire season. Now we've got the manager believing that.

Posted by BrianL

9:03 PM, Jul 07, 2008

doug - You're bashing the player who went 4-4 today?

Let's be honest, even if Beltre hadn't made that baserunning mistake, he probably wouldn't have been driven in.

Posted by joey

9:04 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Geoff: You are so wrong in your analysis it is not funny. Your baseball analysis is not the only thing that is shaky; your writing is not up to standards. Did the Canadian schools not teach the subjunctive mood as part of a formal English (grammar) class? Some examples follow: If I were; I wish I were; if it were; etc.
Washburn is terrible. So are you. Please bring back Larry Stone or Jose Romero. At least they are credible and coherent. What a concept! They can also construct a sentence that is syntactically and grammatically correct. I am sorry. I forgot. You were educated in Canada just as your buddy, Bedard, was. By the way, you and Bedard also have the same people skills. C’est dommage!

Posted by helpFelix

9:10 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Can we PLEASE DFA Vidro NOW!!!

I'm more than TIRED of watching this jackwipe!

Posted by Carlos

9:10 PM, Jul 07, 2008

Viva Romero!

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