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MARINERS SEVENTH:M’s get an unearned run with two outs after the inning is prolonged on a throwing error by SS Asdrubal Cabrera on a Tui grounder (originally ruled a hit, then changed to error). Talbot hit Josh Wilson and was replaced by Chris Perez, who gave up a bloop single to Ichiro to score Tui. That’s two hits for Ichiro tonight and 176 for the season. He has 26 games (and the rest of this one) to get 24 more hits. I like his chances. 4-1 Indians.

MARINERS FIFTH:The Mariners finally get a runner past second — all the way to third, in fact. No run, however. Michael Saunders, with one out, slices a double to left, and moves to third on Matt Tuiasosopo’s ground out. Josh Wilson flies to fairly deep center for the third out. FYI, the Mariners and Indians have each been shut out 12 times, most in the American League. Only one of them can break the tie tonight. 4-0 Indians.

INDIANS FIFTH: Pauley settles down with an easy 1-2-3 innings against middle of Indians order. 4-0 Indians.

MARINERS FOURTH:indians pitcher Mitch Talbot brings to mind Fred Talbot, former Seattle Pilots pitcher and one the great characters of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four. No relation, as far as I know. Talbot has a two-hit shutout through four. 4-0 Indians.

INDIANS FOURTH: Another run off Pauley. One-out bunt single by Jason Donald (whose cousin works at the Seattle Times), and two-out RBI single by Michael Brantley (whose father used to play for the Mariners). 4-0 Indians.

MARINERS THIRD:Three up, three down for the Mariners. 3-0 Indians.

INDIANS THIRD:Pauley gives up two runs and he’s lucky it wasn’t more. After four straight hits to start the inning, the Indians had two in and runners at first and third, with no outs. Travis Hafner hit a shot, but right at Figgins, who doubled the runner off first. After a walk, Pauley struck out Matt LaPorta to end the inning. But the Indians have three runs, and the Mariners haven’t scored more than three in their last eight games. 3-0 Indians.

MARINERS SECOND:A leadoff single by Casey Kotchman — and nothing more. 1-0 Indians.

INDIANS SECOND:A 1-2-3 inning for Pauley, including the last two by strikeout to give him three whiffs through two. 1-0 Indians.

MARINERS FIRST:Russ Branyan gets a two-out, broken-bat single, but Indians starter Mitch Talbot gets Jose Lopez, a late addition to the lineup, to fly out to right. 1-0 Indians.

INDIANS FIRST: At just about the same time the clock ran down on UW, Travis Hafner delivered a single to score Shin-Soo Choo, who had singled and stole second. All of that happened with two outs. 1-0 Indians.

For those who have dragged themselves away from the Husky-BYU game, welcome. I have a feeling traffic will pick up considerably once that one is over.

This game will have ramifications on the reverse standings. Currently, these two teams have the third and fourth worst record in the majors, behind Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The Indians (54-81) are one game better than the Mariners (53-82), so a Seattle win would leave them in a dead heat.

View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog

Here are tonight’s lineups:

Indians

Michael Brantley CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Shin-Soo Choo RF
Travis Hafner DH
Jayson Nix 3B
Matt LaPorta 1B
Trevor Crowe LF
Jason Donald 2B
Lou Marson C

Mitch Talbot RHP (8-11, 4.61)

Mariners

Ichiro RF
Chone Figgins 2B
Russell Branyan Dh
Jose Lopez 3B
Casey Kotchman 1B
Josh Bard C
Michael Saunders CF
Matt Tuiasosopo LF
Josh Wilson SS

RHP David Pauley (2-6, 4.25)

The original Mariners lineup had Franklin Gutierrez in center, Matt Tuiasosopo at third, Michael Saunders in left, and Jose Lopez on the bench. But Gutierrez was feeling ill and had to be scratched, causing a chain reaction of changes by manager Daren Brown. Lopez was inserted at third base, Tui moved to left field, and Saunders moved to center field.

It will be the first time in his major-league career Saunders has played center at Safeco Field, though he had considerable experience in center field as a minor-leaguer.

“I’ve seen Saunders in center field, and I’m comfortable with him in center,” Brown said. “That’s not saying there might not be a mistake. I’ve said it before with our younger guys, they’re going to make mistakes at times. You learn from them and move on.”

“He actually played a good center field in Tacoma the last couple of years. Same thing with Tui in left. I’ve seen him play left and I’m comfortable with him there.”

The Mariners will try to break one streak today: They have scored three or fewer runs in their last eight consecutive games. They are 3-5 in those games.

View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog

I know you guys are used to a postgame wrap-up, so I’ll do my best to follow suit. How about these three quotes reporters gathered tonight?

Daren Brown: “Getting one in the first inning and I guess that was enough tonight.”
Adam Moore: “Luckily one was enough tonight.”
Michael Saunders: “We got one off of him (Carmona), it’s great that that was enough to win the game.”

That probably tells the story from both sides of the game. Starting pitcher Luke French was phenomenal. He kept hitters off balance and rarely had a ball hit hard off him. He did throw 103 pitches through seven innings so Brown elected to have Brandon League and David Aardsma close it out. Don’t discount some nice defensive plays by Michael Saunders and Moore in the ninth inning to seal the win.

The struggle continued with the bats, however. Here are the run outputs for the last 11 games: 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 0, 3, 3, 3, 0.

To be fair, Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona was solid after a shaky first inning. The eight-inning complete game was his third of the season as he dropped his ERA to 4.05. The Mariners needed to take advantage of the bases loaded, no out situation in the bottom of the first but couldn’t.

Looking at the positives, Seattle won its first game in September and now only has to go 10-17 the rest of the way (if my math is right) to avoid a dreaded 100-loss season. And the pitching and defense the team showed Friday night is an encouraging sign to that aim.

View full post on The Seattle Times: Mariners Blog