Seattle Mariners Game 88: Tigers 2 Mariners 1

Where to start? Well I guess first up should be the performance of Ryan Rowland-Smith in his second start of the season. He definitely pitched better than his first time around and made it through 5 innings giving up only 1 earned run, a solo HR to Raburn in the 4th. He gave up 5 hits, walked 3 and struck out 2. Not a bad night for a guy making only the second start of his career. After him the bullpen was outstanding. Lowe, Corcoran, Batista, Green and Jimenez held the Tigers to only 2 hits the next 9 innings. That's right I said 9 innings, after the 5 RRS already pitched. It seemed like this game would never end.

Heading into the top of the 15th inning it seemed the Mariners were out of pitchers. Some were injured, others not available due to recent outings. Riggleman's mistake in my opinion was Not using Green or Batista for more than 1 inning a piece. Either one of them throws one more inning then Riggleman might have not been in the predicament he found himself in. Catcher Jamie Burke made his way out to the mound. I had to take a double look. Only in the Mariners season could this be happening.

He actually did a pretty decent job. He gave up only 1 hit and one earned run. The hit he gave up was a double and then the runner advanced to third on a wild pitch. The next batter hit a sac fly and the run scored. That wild pitch never happens and Jamie likely gets out of that inning unscathed. Too funny. Of course our offense was in able to tie or win the game in the bottom of the inning.

15 innings of baseball, wow. The Mariners had so many chances to put this one away that it never should have come down to our backup catcher having to pitch. Richie Sexson had 2 glorious opportunities to put runs on the board, but failed as usual. I am shocked he hasn't been cut yet. Let's not just blame Richie though. No one got the job done. The only people that deserve any credit in this one is the pitching staff on both teams. That was a long one.