Seattle Mariners Game 4: Baltimore 7 Seattle 4

You can't win them all. At least that's what they say. I don't know who they are but I agree with them. Baseball teams just aren't going to go 162-0, they aren't robots. It isn't so much losing that hurts, it is how we lost this one.

Let's get a few things straight here. The Orioles aren't exactly a powerhouse. In fact some would go as far to call them the AAA team of baseball. Now I am not saying they don't have good players on their team because they do. The problem is that they have a lot of young, inexperienced guys that are trying to find their way in the big leagues. They have a mediocre pitching staff at best. These are the teams that the Mariners need to beat. But I digress. So many things were wrong in this baseball game tonight, starting with the pitching.

I would say that the #4 and #5 guys in a pitching rotation should be expected to pitch about 5 inning ball on most nights. Anything else from them is icing on the cake. One of the things I feel is one of the strengths of the Mariners ball club is the depth in their starting rotation. Washburn and Batista are solid guys to have at the back end. Guys that should guarantee you 12-14 wins each on the season. Washburn was nowhere near being solid tonight. He was terrible against a not very good Baltimore team. He threw WAY too many balls which led to him having thrown over 60 pitches through only 2 innings. His final line on the night was 5 innings pitched, 6 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. Sure he only gave up 3 runs, but he looked terrible doing so. Never mind the fact that when we did take the lead at one point he went right back out the next inning and handed it back to the Orioles. My overall feeling on Washburn's performance tonight...

The bullpen did not fare any better in this game. Baek came in to pitch the 6th inning and gave up 2 hits, 3 earned runs coming off of 2 home runs by Mora and Payton. Rowland-Smith came in for the 7th inning and couldn't do much of anything useful as he gave up 2 hits and 1 earned run. Pitching as a whole was just gross tonight. My overall feeling on the bullpen tonight...

Let's not put it all on the pitchers though. The hitters didn't do much of anything either. Aside from Beltre and Sexson (he is going to get going, I can feel it) both hitting 2 run home runs tonight everyone else was pretty much useless. Although Lopez did have another good game as far as hits go, he was 2 for 3. How about Ichiro swinging at crap on a 3-0 pitch and popping it up. Or Ibanez swinging at a 3-0 pitch (with no one out) and grounding into a double play. Both of them are veteran hitters and should know better than that. Frustrating. And never mind Wilkerson trying to steal second base with Vidro at the plate. For starters Wilkerson should not be stealing bases, he is just not a fast runner. He was out by a mile and to make matters worse Vidro struck out on the play. Strike em out throw em out!! Could we have made it any easier on the Orioles pitching tonight. Former Mariner Adam Jones was 1-4 on the night while the other former Mariner George Sherrill got the save. My overall feeling on the offence all night long...

Game 2 of this series is supposed to get underway tomorrow at 7:05 pm ET but with rainy weather scheduled in the Baltimore area for much of the weekend who knows if the games will end up getting played. If the game does go ahead though Miguel Batista will start for the M's and Adam Loewen for the Orioles. Lets hope the guys show up for the game tomorrow and not put us through another frustrating night.