It went out the window.

Green has not piched the way he did in the first-half. He had those two long layoffs -- when the team tried resting him -- and keeps giving up runs and hits.

"Command has been down but I still feel good,'' said Green, who endured periodic stretches of inactivity over the past six weeks. "The arm feels good. I'm just not getting it done right now.''

No, he isn't. Like with J.J. Putz, this may be a case of Green needing several outings -- and taking some lumps -- before he regains his form. Or, his arm may be tiring from overuse and he'll have to be eased off. We'll see which way the M's go on this one.

The five consecutive "quality starts'' by the M's is the first time that's happened all season. But again, M's starters who throw "quality starts'' have notched the win on only 25 of 68 occasions this year -- an average of just 42 percent when the norm is about 68 percent.

Ryan Feierabend was no exception. He got a bit lucky to go his seven innings with three runs allowed today. Caught a break on that ground-ruled double by Denard Span in the fourth and then that two-out line drive in the seventh that went straight to Raul Ibanez. But pitchers do get lucky at times. Feierabend still did a good job after the fourth, needing only six pitches to get through the fifth and 11 more in the sixth. Then, those 13 in his final inning.

That's how a guy who has 84 pitches thrown to start the fifth inning winds up making it through seven.

"I started relying more on the two-seamer, got them to swing early a lot,'' Feierabend said of his sinking fastball. "I got through those two innings on not even 10 pitches (apiece) and it helped my pitch count for the rest of the game.''

Helped his cause too. Feierabend often seems like the forgotten man of this whole young pitchers debate. With all the talk about Ryan Rowland-Smith and the pending arrival of Brandon Morrow, it's easy to forget that Feierabend, who started his first major league game in 2006, is still only 23 and will also look to land a rotation spot come 2009.

"I don't think there's any pressure,'' Feierabend said. "Those guys are great pitchers. There's probably a little competition amongst ourselves.''