New and improved ways to lose!

Losing a 2-1 ballgame on a wild-pitch tossed by your number three catcher is the perfect summation of the Mariners’ 2008 season. That’s pretty much this season so far in a nutshell: anything that can possibly go wrong, will.

With the Mariners’ bullpen having been stretched to its limit due to the two teams’ marathon of offensive ineptitude, Jamie Burke- who had tossed four professional innings in the minor leagues, and has a repertoire of four pitches that can be tossed for strikes- took the hill, an indication that the four hour plus ballgame would soon be over. After Miguel Cabrera led off with a deep double to center field, pinch-runner Michael Holliman advanced on the slider Burke threw into the dirt, which bounced away from catcher Jeff Clement. Marcus Thames brought Holliman home with a sac fly. After the M’s went down with a GIDP and fly out by Ichiro and their half of the inning, it was all she wrote as Todd Jones wrapped things up nicely for his 16th save of the season. And Burke- just the third position player who took the mound throughout the Mariners’ franchise history- picked up his first career loss.

The weird turn of events in the fifteenth inning blew the M’s shot at taking three of four from the Tigers, which would’ve been the M’s third straight series win.  (What?  Really?)  Ryan Rowland-Smith put forth his best effort to give the M’s line-up a shot at taking the win, as he held the Tiger’s potent offense in check with just one run over five innings.  However, Nate Robertson held the Mariners to just one run over nine dominant innings, needing just 100 pitches while doing so.  (Which makes sense, as Robertson had allowed  11 earned runs over his last 16.1 innings.)  The Mariners were never able to get anything going, as they failed to put runners on against Robertson and four Tigers relievers.  And when they did get runners on, they were unable to do anything, being held hitless in seven at-bats in those situations.

The closest the M’s came to pulling out a stunning victory was in the 13th inning, in which Ichiro Suzuki followed a one-out walk by getting gunned down by Pudge Rodriguez trying to steal second, just the third time the M’s lone All-Star representative has been caught stealing so far this year.  They say that baseball is a game decided by inches, and considering that Jose Lopez followed immediately with a single to center, if Pudge had been off by a few inches or just a little late on the pitch, the M’s would’ve had the 2-1 final score, and the Jamie Burke pitching fiasco could’ve been avoided.  Instead, the M’s dropped their twenty-fifth out of twenty-seven games in which they’ve scored two or fewer runs.

As it was, the M’s will have to settle for a series split, using a combination of good pitching and solid defense to hold the Tigers to 13 runs over the four games.  The M’s continue on to McAffee Coliseum for a three game series against the Athletics.  The last time the Mariners came to Oakland in mid-April, they swept a two-game series while the two teams were in the process of figuring out their season narratives.  Both teams finished that sweep with a 9-8 record and a game out of first place. The Mariners proceeded to have their season bottom out,  losing 45 of their next 71 games, while the A’s have won 38 of their next 71 games.

Tonight’s match-up pits left-hander Jarrod Washburn against fellow lefty Dana Eveland.  Washburn is just one out away from having a five-start streak of at least six innings and two or fewer runs allowed, and is returning to the spot where he tossed his last career shutout against the A’s last April.  As for Eveland,  he held the M’s to three runs over five and a third innings against the M’s last April at Safeco, picking up the win in his first career start against Seattle.  An interesting stat about Eveland is the fact that he’s only allowed three home runs so far this year, with the last one coming off the bat of Tampa Bay’s Jonny Gomes way back on May 21.  It’s safe to say that he’s due.

The A’s might be a surprise this season.  However, Washburn’s career numbers against Oakland (8-13, 4.07 ERA in 192 innings) aren’t horrid, and indicate that he should have no problem continuing his streak of quality starts.  With the slightest amount of run support, Jarrod should pick up his fifth win of the season.  I’m picking the M’s to come out on top, by a 4-2 score.