Mariners Blog

Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

May 15, 2009 at 10:14 PM

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Ichiro's home run bat delivers the first victory as a starter for Chris Jakubauskas

Posted by Geoff Baker

I've been here since 2006 and had yet to see all the hidden power folks have talked about when it comes to Ichiro. We saw some of that power tonight and the Mariners needed it. Ichiro's fourth career two-homer game gave Chris Jakubauskas his first career victory as a starting pitcher.

So, a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox.

Not bad. considering the Mariners trailed 4-0 in the third and had Denny Stark warming up in case Jakubauskas went downhill any further. Instead, the rookie rallied to retire nine of his final 11 hitters and yielded only three earned runs over six innings.

All that left was the ninth, where David Aardsma, pictured above, managed not to cause any more heart attacks for his team or its fans. Three blown saves in a row by folks closing it out would have been tough to swallow. Aardsma got the side despite allowing a two-out single, then a long drive to left by Jason Bay that...well, let's just say it was caught. Aardsma was also aided that inning by a fine running catch from Ichiro to cap an all-around good night for the leadoff man.

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Ichiro's home run bat delivers the first victory as a starter for Chris Jakubauskas

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