Felix Hernandez just set a new career high with his 13th strikeout to end the eighth inning. It's going to take a near career-best to win with this offense, but Hernandez is three outs away from doing just that. He leads 1-0 as we head to the bottom of the eighth. It would be nice if this M's team could, you know...score again.

Daren Brown said before the game that he would try not to deny Hernandez things like a complete game or a shutout, even though the organization is conscious about his pitch counts and innings totals as the season progresses.

Hernandez is now at 109 pitches. I assume we'll see him again in the ninth.

8:55 p.m.: Make it 1-0 for the Mariners, who finally score a run for Felix Hernandez in the bottom of the sixth inning. Ichiro reached on an infield single off Brett Anderson, took second on a bunt and then -- with two out -- scored on a single to right field by Casey Kotchman. Yes, that Kotchman is just raking in the hits these days.

Hernandez went out and shut down Oakland in the seventh inning, so he's got a one-run lead as we head to the stretch.

8:16 p.m.: Four innings in and we're still scoreless. Felix Hernandez has allowed just one hit, an infield single by Coco Crisp, since the first inning while striking out six batters so far. But his pitch count is starting to steadily climb. He'll have to be a little more economical in the fifth inning.

7:21 p.m.: Boy, that Daren Brown is some manager, huh? Felix Hernandez gives up three straight singles to load the bases with none out in the first. But then, he fans clean up man Jack Cust (he's no Jose Lopez), before getting Kevin Kouzmanoff to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. That's some managing there.

6:46 p.m.: Felix Hernandez will try, yet again, to win for the first time since a month ago today. His Mariners have won three of the last four and are 1-0 under new manager Daren Brown. Ran into Jack Wilson down in the clubhouse pre-game. He'll undergo surgery tomorrow for that broken finger. Told me he's done playing this year, since it'll take eight weeks for the finger to heal. The team said six weeks in yesterday's release. So, by my math, that makes him done for 2010. Not that the final two weeks will matter much for a team en route to 100 losses.

The lineups:

ATHLETICS

CF Coco Crisp
1B Daric Barton
C Kurt Suzuki
DH Jack Cust
3B kevin Kouzmanoff
2B Mark Ellis
RF Rajai Davis
LF Chris Carter
SS Cliff Pennington

LHP Brett Anderson

MARINERS

RF Ichiro
2B Chone Figgins
DH Jose Lopez
CF Franklin Gutierrez
1B Casey Kotchman
C Adam Moore
LF Ryan Langerhans
3B Matt Tuiasosopo
SS Josh Wilson

RHP Felix Hernandez