Nightcap: 09/28/07 vs. Texas

And the Mariners are in the win column for the 86th time this year thanks to more late inning heroics. For the second time this week rookie Jeff Clement hit a HR in the ninth inning, this time it was a two-run walkoff to give the Mariners a 6-4 victory. This is coming only two nights after Clement hit a game tying HR in the ninth inning of the nightcap of a double header, which helped the Mariners take that game 3-2.

The Mariners went down early when Jeff Weaver gave up 2 runs in the 3rd. The Mariners battled back by scoring 3 runs in the 6th to take a short-lived lead. The Rangers shot back in the 7th on a two run Travis Metcalf HR. The Mariners then tied the game in the 8th thanks to a clutch pinch-hit RBI single by Jose "Turbo" Vidro.

JJ Putz came in to shut down the Rangers in the 9th to set up Clements 9th inning heroics and up his record to an impressive 6-1. Which is great considering he only has two blown saves in 41 opportunities. Weaver had a decent outing tonight that keep the Mariners in the game, going 8 innings and giving up 4 earned runs on 9 hits with 0 walks.

Lets hope this late inning excitement continues in the Mariner's favor for the next two games. If anything it will give us reason to watch the games and enable us to see the end to a suprising season for the Mariners.

Winning Pitcher: JJ Putz (6-1) Losing Pitcher: Mike Wood (3-2)

Tomorrows starters: Miguel Batista (15-11, 4.43) vs. Kevin Millwood (10-13, 5.16)

Attendance: 31,954

Game Time: 3:08

GameZone 9/28/2007 @ Safeco

Texas Rangers (75-84) @ Seattle Mariners (85-74)

Starters: Jeff "Soon to be Just a Dream" Weaver (7-13, 6.30) vs. Edinson Volquez (2-1, 4.40)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Guillen RF
Clement DH
Johjima C
Morse 1B
Lopez 2B
Bloomquist SS

TEX
Frank Catalanotto 1B
Ian Kinsler 2B
Micheal Young SS
Marlon Byrd CF
Hank Blaylock DH
Jason Botts LF
David Murphy RF
Jarrod Saltalamacchia C
Travis Metcalf 3B

Lets see if we can close out the season with a sweep of the last place Rangers, who were at the forefront of our slide from contention. A season record of 88-74 doesn't look too bad to me.

McLaren and Bavasi Coming Back for 2008

Well if you haven't already heard it was announced before last night's win that McLaren and Bavasi will be back to give it another go in 2008. I agree with bringing Bavasi back. As much as the entire Mariner Nation has criticized some of the bad decisions he has made, he has made enough good decisions to put a winning team on the field this year. Let's face it, no Mariner fan who follows the team closely expected this team to have 85 wins heading into the final series of the year. Yeah, we're not going to make the playoffs but we've improved our record for the third straight season under Bavasi and have a solid core of players coming back next year that should keep us in the playoff hunt again. While Bavasi hasn't made all the right decisions, he's certainly done well enough to earn himself another year to try and put a team on the field that will make the playoffs.

Now, as far a bringing McLaren back, I gotta wholeheartedly disagree with this move. Yes, McLaren was put in a tough situation when Hargrove "retired" suddenly in the middle of the season. He even kept us in realistic contention through August. You really can't complain about a 40-41 record from a first time manager who took over unexpectedly. However, you can complain about how McLaren has repeatedly proven over the last 81 games that he lacks the ability to make competent decisions in critical game situations. I think Jeff over at Lookout Landing may have put it best when he said that managers rarely get fired for the decisions they make from the dugout, instead it's when they can't run the clubhouse when they get the boot most often. McLaren keeps the clubhouse and Ichiro happy, which is about as good as it seems to get in the Mariner's eyes.

While I understand why McLaren is getting a chance to come back, that isn't going to stop me from complaining about why it is a bad move. McLaren is a 56 year old rookie manager and I think he has shown why he has never gotten a shot to run the show until now. He simply cannot do the little things that keeps a team in contention by helping them win ballgames in critical situations.

He fails to take advantage of lefty vs. righty situations by pinch-hitting late in games claiming that he "doesn't buy too much into whole lefty vs. righty thing". However, on the otherside of the ball he repeatedly takes advantage of lefty vs. lefty (and vice versa) matchups by making far too many bullpen moves. You simply don't need to change pitchers every other batter to match up lefty vs lefty and righty vs. righty at all times. It'll wear your bullpen down, and it certainly wore the Mariner's bullpen out (our starting pitching is partly to blame for this but if McLaren didn't use 7 pitchers every game our great bullpen wouldn't look so ragged right now).

McLaren also seems to be a HUGE believer in toeing the line when it comes to toying with team chemistry. He seems to think our veterans have no backbone at all to stand upon and fails to toy with lineups because of this. Rather than putting the lineup that matches up the best and gives us the best chance to win McLaren would run out the same lineup game after game after game so our "chemistry" wasn't affected. This hurt us for two reasons. The first being that he stuck with Richie Sexson entirely too long this season. Richie was doing terrible, yet, as a veteran, McLaren marched him out there everyday in hopes that he would snap out of it, all the while Broussard sat on the bench rotting away after repeatedly proving he could perform this year.

The second reason this hurt us is because McLaren failed to take advantage of all the young players, including Adam Jones, who came up in late in the season. It was questionable bringing all these guys up, and most of them probably won't have a regular spot on the Mariner roster anytime soon, but if anything they weren't going to do any worse than the regulars during our late season struggles.

First of all Adam Jones could've been worked into the lineup atleast 4 to 5 days a week without drastically cutting into anyone's playing time. It's called giving guys regular rests and most teams do it. There is no reason why Ibanez and Guillen couldn't have gotten a rest about once a week to give Jones a chance to play. Work in DHing Ibanez twice a week (with Vidro starting at 2B one of the games and resting the other) and you get 4 starts a week for Jones and all the veterans should be fresh and happy. The situation with Adam Jones just wasn't as hard as McLaren made it seem. Most of the last two months was wasted for AJ and his great season at AAA seemed to go by the wayside. By the way, take note of the above scenario for next year McLaren, it'll do wonders if you are faced with the same situation for AN ENTIRE YEAR.

Second of all we haven't realistically been in the playoff race for the last two weeks, and playing the young guys more isn't going to hurt anything (not even the team chemistry, if the vets can't deal with the young guys playing late in the season than they shouldn't be on a major league roster). If playing the young guys more would have done anything it would have gave them a chance to showcase their talents to other teams for potential trades. Let's face it, a majority of the young guys who are up with the big club right now don't fit into the big picture too well and the best value they are to the Mariners is as trade bait. If players like Jeff Clement, Jeremy Reed, Wladimir Balentien and Mike Morse would've got a little more time on the field late in the season they may have become more attractive to a team who might be willing to send us a quality starting pitcher. I'm not saying play all of them every day but three of them every game for the last three weeks of the season would've utilized them much better and might've brought better value for these players in any potential trades this offseason.

I'm a big believer that any person can learn and become better at things with time. Hopefully McLaren has learned alot in his 84 games this year as a MLB manager and will take what he has learned into next year. If he does, he might not be as bad a manager as I percieve him at this moment. However, if he doesn't learn from the mistakes that he has made this season, I may die of blunt force trauma to the head by the All-Star break from banging my head repeatedly into the wall watching McLaren make decisions on-par with those that a volunteer little league manager would make.

GameZone 9/27/2007 @ Safeco

Cleveland Indians (94-64) @ Seattle Mariners (84-74)

Starters: Cha Seung Baek (3-3, 5.48) vs. Paul Byrd (15-7, 4.55)

Lineups:
SEA
Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Guillen RF
Broussard 1B
Johjima C
Clement DH
Lopez 2B
Bloomquist SS

CLE
Grady Sizemore CF
Chris Gomez 1B
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Travis Hafner DH
Franklin Gutierrez RF
Casey Blake 3B
Kenny Lofton LF
Kelly Shoppach C
Luis Rivas 2B

Let's hope today's game is less painful to watch from a decision making standpoint than last nights. Baek will get his final chance this year to try and get a step ahead at earning one of the available starting roles for next year. Another blown save by Borowski for a third consecutive night would be awesome. That guy just seems to like to throw straight up gopher balls. I'm amazed that he leads the league with 43 saves with his 5.23 ERA and 1.43 WHIP. This just makes me even more glad that we have JJ. I don't know if it's true because I just got home but I just heard my dad say something about McLaren announcing he might be back next year for sure.....If that's true I'll post a long and well thought out rant about why I might die next year from blunt force trauma to the head....

GameZone 9/26/2007 @ Safeco

Game 1 (Makeup from snowout in April)

Seattle Mariners (83-73) @ Cleveland Indians (93-63)

Starters: Ryan Feierabend (1-5, 7.33) vs. Fausto Carmona (18-8, 3.03)

Game 1 Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Ibanez DH
Guillen RF
Broussard 1B
Johjima C
Reed LF
Lopez 2B
Bloomquist SS

CLE
Grady Sizemore CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Travis Hafner DH
Victor Martinez C
Ryan Garko 1B
Jason Micheals RF
Casey Black 3B
Ben Francisco LF
Luis Rivas 2B

This first game will be an odd one since we'll be the visiting team at home due to the fact that this is the final makeup game from the snowouts in April. Interesting enough the Mariners have stuck with just about the same lineup because "they want to ensure the integrity of Cleveland's battle for the AL's best record", yet the Indians seem to be mixing up their lineup...Hmmm....Maybe, just maybe, we'll see some more of the youth for the second game. On the good side of things we do get to see young 23 year old phenom Fausto Carmona on the mound tonight for the Indians. Let's hope the Felix ends up being as good as Fausto when Felix is 23.

Game 2

Cleveland Indians (93-63) @ Seattle Mariners (83-73)

Starters: Jarrod Washburn (10-15, 4.36) vs. Jeremy Sowers (1-6, 6.93)

Game 2 Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro CF
Bloomquist SS
Guillen RF
Beltre DH
Mike Morse 3B
Vidro 1B
Lopez 2B
Jones LF
Burke C
Nick Green 2B

CLE
Franklin Guttierez CF
Chris Gomez 1B
Jhonny Peralta SS
Ryan Garko DH
Jason Micheals LF
Trot Nixon RF
Casey Shoppach C
Josh Barfield 2B
Andy Marte 3B

GameZone 9/25/2007 @ Safeco

Cleveland Indians (92-63) @ Seattle Mariners (83-72)

Starters: Felix Hernandez (13-7, 4.07) vs. Aaron Laffey (3-2, 5.35)

Lineups:
SEA
Ichiro CF
Lopez 2B
Ibanez LF
Guillen DH
Beltre 3B
Vidro 1B
Johjima C
Jones RF
Bloomquist SS


CLE
Kenny Lofton CF
Chris Gomez 3B
Travis Hafner DH
Victor Martinez C
Ryan Garko 1B
Jhonny Peralta SS
Trot Nixon RF
Ben Francisco LF
Josh Barfield 2B

The good news is that the Mariners don't have to face Sabathia in this series since the Indians are getting their rotation in line for the playoffs. The bad news that as I write this the Mariners are already down 3-0. Doesn't look like this is going to be a gem for "The King".

GameZone: 9/23/07 @ Angels

Seattle Mariners (83-71)@ "Los Angeles" Angels of Anaheim (91-64)

Starters: Jeff Weaver (7-12, 6.21) vs. John Lackey (17-9, 3.13)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro CF
Beltre 3B
Ibanez LF
Guillen RF
Broussard 1B
Vidro DH
Lopez 2B
Burke C
Bloomquist SS

LAA
Chone Figgins RF
Orlando Cabrera SS
Guerrero DH
Anderson LF
Casey Kotchman 1B
Matthews, Jr CF
Maicer Izturis 3B
Howie Hendrick 2B
Jeff Mathis C


The Mariners look to delay the Angels inevitable clich of the AL West and stay mathematically alive in the Wild Card race for one more day as they go for a third straight win against the Angels and 84th win of the season. Should be a tough one with Cy Young candidate Lackey on the mound.

Sorry Guys

Now that school has started, I simply do not have the time to dedicate to this blog. I thought I put together a good core of authors that would make the blog easy to maintain, but I was sadly mistaken. It's awful hard for one person to post as big of a majority of the posts as I have been, especially when there are 7 others that are supposed to be contributing. I figured I would be inactive for about a week and see how many entries were posted in that time. Not surprisingly, there has not been a single post by anyone in the last week. I won't give up on this blog, but we may have to start fresh over the offseason. I will be recruiting new authors over the offseason and I hope we can come back strong in 2008.

GameZone: 9/8/07 @ Tigers

Seattle Mariners (74-65) @ Detroit Tigers (76-65)

Starters: Jeff Weaver (6-11, 5.85) vs. Nate Robertson (7-11, 4.95)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki -- CF
Jose Vidro -- DH
Jose Guillen -- RF
Raul Ibanez -- LF
Adrian Beltre -- 3B
Richie Sexson -- 1B
Kenji Johjima -- C
Jose Lopez -- 2B
Yunieski Betancourt -- SS

DET
Curtis Granderson -- CF
Placido Polanco -- 2B
Gary Sheffield -- DH
Magglio Ordonez -- RF
Carlos Guillen -- SS
Ivan Rodriguez -- C
Timo Perez -- LF
Sean Casey -- 1B
Brandon Inge -- 3B

GameZone: 9/7/07 @ Tigers

Seattle Mariners (74-64) @ Detroit Tigers (75-65)

Starters: Miguel Batista (13-10, 4.59) vs. Justin Verlander (15-5, 3.67)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki -- CF
Jose Vidro -- DH
Jose Guillen -- RF
Raul Ibanez -- LF
Adrian Beltre -- 3B
Ben Broussard -- 1B
Kenji Johjima -- C
Jose Lopez -- 2B
Yunieski Betancourt -- SS

DET
Curtis Granderson -- CF
Placido Polanco -- 2B
Gary Sheffield -- DH
Magglio Ordonez -- RF
Carlos Guillen -- SS
Ivan Rodriguez -- C
Timo Perez -- LF
Sean Casey -- 1B
Brandon Inge -- 3B

GameZone: 9/5/07 @ Yankees

Seattle Mariners (74-63) @ New York Yankees (77-62)

Starters: Jarrod Washburn (9-12, 4.37) vs. Phil Hughes (2-3, 5.65)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki -- CF
Jose Vidro -- DH
Jose Guillen -- RF
Raul Ibanez -- LF
Adrian Beltre -- 3B
Ben Broussard -- 1B
Kenji Johjima -- C
Jose Lopez -- 2B
Yunieski Betancourt -- SS

NYY
Johnny Damon -- LF
Melky Cabrera -- CF
Derek Jeter -- SS
Alex Rodriguez -- 3B
Jorge Posada -- DH
Shelley Duncan -- RF
Robinson Cano -- 2B
Wilson Betemit -- 1B
Jose Molina -- C

8th Inning: Tacoma @ NYY

Alright so the game got out of hand tonight, and with two innings to go, down by 10, John McLaren surrendered to the Yankees and sent up 6, yes SIX, September callup players to pinch hit back to back to back to back to back to back in the eighth inning (Reed, Clement, Jones, Jimerson, Balentien, Green) and has now used Mike Morse in the 9th as the seventh consecutive pinch-hitter. Not to mention that Rob Johnson is now listed as the catcher and Willie Bloomquist came in to play short. And thats just the madness that transpired with regards to the lineup. As far as pitching goes, Ramirez started and he was followed by O'Flaherty, Morrow, Rowland-Smith, Parrish, and White. Thats 3 of the 5 lefties in the pen and 5 of the 11 available relievers.

In these first two games the Yankees broadcasters have pointed out that the Mariners have a 35 man roster right now and they made a good point in saying that clubs normally don't callup that many players because they just get in the way and can disrupt chemistry. But of course our management has no sense of team chemistry, they've proven that to us. Now I understand that we've have been losing, but I have to agree completely with those guys on that one. This is the most bizarre and absurd things I've ever seen in my life... aside from squirrels climbing foul poles, go figure. I will try to not extend this part of my rant, but let me say that I am completely dumbfounded and critical of this September Mega Roster of Fat that we've sewn onto our already crippling body. This metaphorical "Mariner Man" now has man-boobs that appeared quick enough to make Pamela Anderson jealous.

But anyways back to the game. What bugged the living hell out of me tonight was using all of these roster fillers or stuffers or whatever you want to call the army of raw druid re-enforcements that were recruited for battle (no offense to the callups, but they are young and raw, and we are in a playoff race). When we are in a damn playoff race and we are playing the team that we most need to beat, I want to see my starters playing out there the entire nine innings. I don't care if we are down by 10, 20, 50, or 100 runs (which the Baltimore Orioles have shown us is a real possibility), I want to see us battle for the entire game with the best we've got. Five runs in two innings is not an impossible task. I really don't know what the deal is, but it's like John McLaren just had Christmas in September and ripped his new toys out of the boxes ASAP and had to play with them all. These players are now packed like sardines in a can. How are our veterans supposed to take these guy's under their wings and teach them how to fly when the plane is going down and all hands are in the cockpit trying to keep this baby in the air?
It's lunacy.

Note: It's sad when your top batter according to Yahoo was 1 for 1 with 2 rbi (Balentien)

Another Note: We used 18 position players and 6 pitchers in this game... that's gotta be some kind of record(s). I mean thats like All-Star Game stuff right there.

GameZone: 9/4/07 @ Yankees

Seattle Mariners (74-62) vs. New York Yankees (76-62)

Starters: Horacio Ramirez (8-4, 6.55) vs. Chien-Ming Wang (16-6, 3.79)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki
Jose Vidro
Jose Guillen
Raul Ibanez
Adrian Beltre
Ben Broussard
Kenji Johjima
Jose Lopez
Yunieski Betancourt

NYY
Melky Cabrera
Derek Jeter
Bobby Abreu
Alex Rodriguez
Jorge Posada
Hideki Matsui
Shelley Duncan
Robinson Cano
Wilson Betemit

Austin Bibens-Dirkx's Album

ABD, an outstanding pitcher in our minor-league system who we could see as early as next year, recently released his self-titled album "Austin Bibens-Dirkx" and it is now available on Itunes. Go check it out, he's an extremely talented artist and there is some good stuff on there. Not only is he a great artist, a great pitcher, but after talking to him he's a great person too. He'll definitely be a fan favorite when he comes up.

Note: The only reason he isn't with the Mariners yet is a season-ending injury, but his rehab in Arizona is going well and he's scheduled to have surgery early this month.

GameZone: 9/3/07 @ Yankees

Seattle Mariners (73-62) @ New York Yankees (76-61)

Starters: Felix Hernandez (10-7, 4.08) vs. Roger Clemens (6-5, 4.15)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki
Jose Vidro
Jose Guillen
Raul Ibanez
Adrian Beltre
Ben Broussard
Kenji Johjima
Jose Lopez
Yunieski Betancourt

NYY
Johnny Damon
Derek Jeter
Bobby Abreu
Alex Rodriguez
Hideki Matsui
Jorge Posada
Jason Giambi
Robinson Cano
Melky Cabrera

GameZone: 9/2/07 @ Blue Jays

Starters: Jeff Weaver (6-10, 5.62) vs. A.J. Burnett (7-7, 3.70)

Lineups:

SEA
Ichiro Suzuki
Jose Vidro
Jose Guillen
Raul Ibanez
Adrian Beltre
Ben Broussard
Kenji Johjima
Jose Lopez
Yunieski Betancourt

TOR
Vernon Wells
Russ Adams
Alex Rios
Frank Thomas
Matt Stairs
Lyle Overbay
Aaron Hill
Greg Zaun
John McDonald

Thursday Quote: Enthusiasm

I was ecstatic when I found this weeks quote because I think it fits in perfectly for what some of us may be experiencing. It is from the great world leader and former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill. He said:

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

Does this quote reflect some of your feelings towards the Mariner right now? It definitely describes what I've been thinking perfectly. During the extended losing streaks in what has been a roller-coaster year for this ballclub, I have found myself losing enthusiasm for the rest of the season even though we remain in the playoff chase. It almost seems like every losing streak is the beginning of the end, like the ship is sinking and there is no way to stop it. As soon as we started winning again, my enthusiasm came back and kept rising until the next losing streak. I'm going to try a different approach this time and I think it's something we all should do. Stay enthused. Don't let this losing streak quell your excitement for the fact that we've exceeded expectations and we are in the thick of the playoff hunt. Making the playoffs IS NOT supposed to be easy! You've just got to grind it out and hang with the big boys. We shouldn't start to worry until we're three or four games back in the wildcard and we should NEVER lose enthusiasm. So let's walk with the same swagger that we do after winning some games and not hang our heads in defeat. The Angels series is over, and we're sort of in that eerie phase right after the storm has passed. It's a new day and we play a new team so have hope and stay excited. Even if we lose tonight against the Indians, it's not the end of the world, it's just a slight extension of a losing streak. Don't lose enthusiasm!

Nightcap: 8/28/07 vs. Angels

The Mariners once again failed to come up with ten-plus hits and once again failed to beat the Angels in a 10-6 loss. The Mariner bats were working early with five runs in the first on three scoring plays; a Guillen double, a Beltre triple, and a Johjima single. But then the Angels scored seven unanswered runs until Betancourt scored on an Ichiro single in the bottom of the seventh. That sixth run was it for the Mariners, but the Angels added four more to round off the victory. Weaver pitched only 4.1 innings allowing eight hits and four earned runs. Brandon Morrow got the loss after allowing four runs in an inning on two hits and two walks; which is not good to see after we thought his control problems were behind him. As far as offensive notables, Johjima went 3 for 4 with an rbi and Richie Sexson was hitless in four at bats dropping his average back down to .208. Hopefully we can salvage a game in this last game against the team that we desperately need to start beating.

Tomorrow's Starters: Felix Hernandez (10-6, 3.90) vs. Jered Weaver (9-6, 3.96)

Umpires: HP--Larry Poncino 1B--Bruce Dreckman 2B--Jerry Meals 3B--Gary Darling

Time: 3:12

Attendance: 44,395

Weather: 73 degrees, clear

Wind: 10 mph, in from left.

Nightcap: 8/27/07 vs. Angels

First off, let me say that I'm sorry that I haven't gotten this up sooner. I got home from the game early, but wasn't able to use the computer. I had the most incredible seats. I sat 5 rows behind Jose Guillen in right field, and there was a lot hit out in that gap. So if you saw me, let me know!

The Mariners seemed really outmatched yesterday. Lackey dominated us even through his case of strep throat. The Mariners were late on what seemed like every pitch. When he threw a slider or a change-up, we were too early, and screwed ourself into the ground. In the first inning, the Mariners had the crowd behind them. A hit-and-run turned double play in the first and then McLaren's ejection (yes, the crowd went crazy) had the fans behind them 100% . The place was loud as could be. The top of the 2nd started off with Garret Anderson staying hot, leading off the inning with a home run. The top of the 3rd saw a 2-run ground rule double from Anderson, but I believe we got lucky that the Angels only got 2. A fan interfered with a with Anderson's double down the right field line, which I assume Guillen didn't see. He then proceded to throw a rocket into the Angels dugout from the right field corner, which would have allowed Vladimir Guerrero to score. From then on, a single here and there, sac fly or a wild pitch, and the Angels scored at every opportunity possible. The Mariners, on the other hand, could get nothing going. We were flat out outmatched.

Today's Starters: LAA: Santana (5-12, 6.03 ERA) -- SEA: Weaver (6-10, 5.51 ERA)

Umpires: HP--Gary Darling (2/10, bad call on Ichiro's strike out) 1B--Larry Poncino (3/10 name coolness) 2B--Bruce Dreckman (2/10 name coolness) 3B--Jerry Meals (5/10 on name coolness becuase it makes me hungry, but he also made a very rash and anal call on calling Matthews Jr. safe at 2nd)

Time: 2:24

Attendance: 45,998

Weather: 69 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 3 mph, in from left

Big Series: Battle for 1st with the Angels starts tonight

We've all been talking about it for awhile now but the moment has finally come for us to play the Angels again with a chance to take over first place in the AL West. The Mariners have dropped two straight games coming into the series during this brutal stretch of their schedule. The offense wasn't it's usual self in those two games and I have found no reason to panic about the two loses coming into this series (outside of my tendency to complain about McLaren's little league decision making skills late in games). If we can somehow manage a sweep in this series we will take a one game lead in the AL West. Taking 2 out of 3 will leave us 1 game back. Losing 2 out of 3 will leave us 3 games back. A disastrous sweep by the Angels (and losing 5 straight overall) would put us at 5 games back. So this series is definitely key if we want to win the division and also to sustain our lead in the Wildcard over the Yankees and Tigers.

Here is a quick look at the expected pitching matchups for the series:

1st game: 08/27/07 7:05 pm at Safeco Field
Miguel "Artista" Batista (4.57 ERA, 13-9, 1.55 WHIP) vs. John Lackey(15-8, 3.34 ERA, 1.29 WHIP)

So we have our most consistent pitcher all year who is coming off his worst start of the year facing a potential Cy Young candidate in Lackey who has lost his last two decisions. This game could be a tough one for us but let's hope our offense gets back on track and Miggy bounces back from a bad start.

2nd game: 08/28/07 7:05 pm at Safeco Field
Jeff "Don't wake me now I'm having a dream" Weaver (6-10, 5.51 ERA, 1.46 WHIP) vs. Ervin Santana (5-12, 6.03 ERA, 1.56 WHIP)

In this game we have our hottest pitcher who blew balls at the beginning of the year but has won his last 4 starts facing the Angels worst starter who has lost 6 straight decisions. I like our chances in this game. I think our offense can pound Santana. All we need is a quality start from Weaver, not a great game like he's pitched in 3 out of his last 4 starts.

3rd game: 08/29/07 1:35 pm at Safeco Field
Felix "The King" Hernandez (10-6, 3.90 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) vs. Jered Weaver (9-6, 3.96 ERA, 1.42 WHIP)

This game could end up being a classic pitchers duel. The King has won 4 straight decisions and has shown signs of becoming the dominant pitcher we all know he can be in his last 5 starts. Jeff's brother has won 2 out of 3 starts and has looked very good at times this year. I still like our chances though with our offense and The King on the mound.

So for those of you that have tickets to the games this week: Cheer loud, have fun and wear blue. For the rest of us pray for a sweep and yell at the TV when McLaren makes a questionable decisions late in the game. My personal prediction for this series is that the Mariners will take the 2 out of 3 by winning the last two games of the series. Let us all know what you think in the comments....