Nightcap: 8/10/07 @ White Sox

Though we recorded double-digit hits for the fourth game in a row, this Fryday game in Chicago goes in the loss column, 5-3 Sox. Washburn pitched 6.2 innings and surrendered five earned runs on seven hits (three of them for homeruns, two by Josh Fields) and two walks, and was handed his ninth loss on the year. Newbie John Parrish made his first appearance in an M's uniform and pitched a scoreless/hitless 8th inning. Two of the three Mariner runs were a result of solo homeruns by Kenji Johjima (13) and Raul Ibanez (10), Ibanez homering for the fourth time in as many games. Vidro, the only Mariner without a hit tonight, brought in the third and final M's run in the 5th with a sac-fly.

Though we made no errors on the field, I believe Jon McLaren made a couple in the dugout. One of his errors that turned out to be costly was leaving Washburn in a few batters too long. The 7th inning began with a hard-hit single by Jermaine Dye into left field. Scott Podsednik, a lefty, then lined out to Ibanez for the first out. At this point, I called for Morrow to come into the game to face the right-handed hitting Uribe. Instead, Mac decided to leave Washburn in the game, and Uribe doubled off the wall. To add insult to injury, the White Sox added their fifth run on an Erstad triple that got past Ichiro before Washburn left the game. The second error that McLaren made was letting Richie Sexson hit against the right-hander Macdougal with two on and no out in 8th inning. Down by two, we needed to get Ibanez and Beltre to the plate, and I figured I'd rather have the righty-lefty matchup with Broussard instead of the righty-righty matchup with Sexson. Richie then grounded into a double play, and our chances of winning were severely crippled. Mac is now 18-17 with the ballclub.

Umpires: HP--Jeff Kellogg. 1B--Eric Cooper. 2B--Andy Fletcher. 3B--Mike Reilly.

Time: 2:36 (I love Washburn games)

Attendance: 38,586 (Pretty good for a team 7 games under .500)

Weather: 79 degrees, clear (Perrrrfect baseball weather)

Wind: 6 mph, left to right