Missed Opportunity

The M's, down 4-2 in the eighth, had a golden opportunity to tie the score after Jack Wilson singled and Ichiro walked to start the inning.
Chone Figgins sacrificed successfully, but Franklin Gutierrez took a called third strike on a pitch on the inside corner from Ryan Perry, and Jose Lopez, still looking for his first homer of 2010, popped out to short right to end the threat.
Got to file a web story pretty quickly here, so that's all on the blog for awhile unless something urgent warrants -- like a game-changing rally in the bottom of the ninth.

This Just in . . .

On the Byrnes play on Avila's routine fly in the second, meant to say he lunged back to his left to snag it.
Going to the last of the seventh, M's still down, 3-2. They caught a bad break in the sixth when Chone Figgins lined out to right on a 3-2 pitch. Ichiro was running on the pitch with nobody out and got doubled off first, and that cost Seattle the tying run a moment later when Franklin Gutierrez doubled to center.

Bottom 5: Tigers, 3-2

Casey Kotchman's well-struck solo homer to right has the M's within 3-2, which, given the multiple threats the Tigers have put together against Ian Snell, doesn't seem like a bad position for Seattle.
Top of the sixth, the M's are going with reliever Kanekoa Texeira.
Eric Byrnes' wild day continued in the fifth, when he dove for Carlos Guillen's low liner to his right. Byrnes appeared to come up with the ball momentarily, but, with sunglasses askew, the ball was jarred loose when he hit the ground. Guillen pulled up with a double, but Snell got out of the inning.

Byrnes' Busy Day

An hour or so before the game, Eric Byrnes didn't even know he'd be in the lineup. Then he was pressed into duty in leftfield with Milton Bradley's sore calf keeping him out.
The "high sky" made fielding an adventure for Byrnes in the first and second innings. He fought leadoff hitter Austin Jackson's deep drive in the first inning and couldn't corral it at the wall, as it turned into a double. In the second, Byrnes had to lunge back to his right to catch a routine, high fly ball hit by Alex Avila.
In the bottom of the second, when Casey Kotchman got caught in a rundown after his run-scoring single to right, Byrnes tried to score from third, but Avila, the catcher, held onto the ball after a jarring collision at the plate.

Tuning it Out

It's the ultimate collision of the early millennium: The information age against the measured, grinding marathon of a baseball season.
Last week, when the Mariners were mired in a season-opening 2-6 funk, there were signs of a general public unease about it around Puget Sound. Fans groused loudly on sports-talk shows and message-board denizens got chippy about how many games out the M's were already behind in the AL West.
Could the M's even hang in there long enough to be rescued by Cliff Lee in a couple of weeks?
By Saturday night, Seattle was back even at .500, and the panic had subsided a bit. Not surprisingly, some of those inside the clubhouse say that the temperature in there doesn't rise quite as high as it does in the blogosphere (although, at 2-6, the M's did have a team meeting).
In fact, the voiced and written concern outside the clubhouse in such times falls on deaf ears inside, the M's say.
"We're such a good family, such a tight group, that that kind of stuff doesn't affect us," said reliever Shawn Kelley. "There are going to be times when you go 2-6 throughout the season and when it happens at the beginning, a lot of people on the outside start panicking, especially when the expectations are high.
"One of the things we talked about in spring training was, no matter how we start, no matter how the streaks go, we stay together as a family."
While fans in an instant-information era may be prone to quick judgments, baseball's rhythm resists easy conclusions.
"People are going to write and say things that make you sound better than you are, and worse than you are," Kelley says. "The best thing you can do is keep a blind eye and go about your day-to-day business."
Fellow relief pitcher David Aardsma scoffed at the often-overheated analysis in such times, says he "never" reads blogs and says he's convinced the number of teammates who pay attention to them or listen to talk radio is negligible.
"If you find one guy that does, I'll find 24 that don't," he said.
Referring to the blogs, Aardsma said, "It's somebody with a website that has an opinion. But that's got nothing to do with it. Not one of those people that talk, or have a blog, has one thing to do with what we do on the field."
Aardsma conceded that at 2-6, "we weren't playing the best baseball. But I guarantee you, every team in baseball is going to have a 2-6 record over an eight-game stretch this season."
The sum of it, says Aardsma: "There's a lo-o-o-o-ng way to go."

Guti's Got Game

Franklin Gutierrez entered the game with a .417 average, easily best among the Mariner regulars. Manager Don Wakamatsu said Gutierrez, who hit .283 with 18 homers and 70 RBIs last year, has simplified his hitting approach and has showed an ability to be consistent with his swings.
Wakamatsu recalled an interview Roy Firestone once did with Hall of Famer Eddie Murray in which Murray cited the importance of consistency with his plan and his swing.
"That's the biggest thing for me," Wakamatsu said, "that it doesn't change."

Marathon Men

The 20-inning game played Saturday by the Mets and Cardinals caused Wakamatsu to shake his head and sympathize with the managers that have to piece together a bullpen in the succeeding days.
St. Louis used 10 pitchers, and utility player Joe Mather was called on and took the loss. New York went through nine pitchers.
Asked who might be his 19th-inning pitcher, Wakamatsu smiled and said, "Tui, probably," referring to Matt Tuiasosopo.

Hey folks: Bud Withers here, on the M's today. We're deep into the Times' bench on the local nine. Think of it as Rich Amaral, giving Junior a day off back in the mid-90s.

Couple of sick-bay notes first. Milton Bradley was scratched from the lineup about noon in favor of Eric Byrnes, who starts in leftfield and bats sixth. Manager Don Wakamatsu explained that Bradley is still feeling some soreness in his right calf around the knee area. Wakamatsu said Bradley would test the condition in batting practice, and he apparently didn't like what he felt, so he sits.

Also, starting pitcher Ian Snell will take the mound despite still feeling some effects of a flu condition. "Ian still feels it a little bit, but he wants to give it a shot," Wakamatsu said, adding that he and his staff will keep a close eye on Snell and noting that the bullpen availability is good now after some strong recent starting pitching.

Starting lineups

Detroit

1, Austin Jackson, CF
2, Johnny Damon, LF
3, Magglio Ordonez, RF
4, Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5, Carlos Guillen, DH
6, Brandon Inge, 3B
7, Alex Avila, C
8, Scott Sizemore, 2B
9, Ramon Santiago, SS
Max Scherzer, RHP

Seattle

1, Ichiro, RF
2, Chone Figgins, 2B
3, Franklin Gutierrez, CF
4, Jose Lopez, 3B
5, Ken Griffey Jr., DH
6, Eric Byrnes, LF
7, Casey Kotchman, 1B
8, Adam Moore, C
9, Jack Wilson, SS
Ian Snell, RHP