Seattle Mariners (Marineros) 2 Minnesota Twins (Gemelos) 1

AP photo by Elaine Thompson


A good pitching duel between Seattle's Jarrod Washburn and Minnesota's Nick Blackburn was ended by eighth-inning heroics from Ken Griffey, Jr., who hit a two-out double that drove in Ichiro from first base, giving the Mariners the come from behind win over the Minnesota Twins on Salute to Latin American Beisbol day at Safeco Field.



Even though Washburn was not credited with the win, he made the play of the game by quickly following up his third-inning bases loaded wild pitch by quickly blocking the plate on the Twins' Delmon Young. Washburn got a break as the ball, which had quickly skipped past catcher Guillermo Quiroz but bounced back to him off the backstop. Quiroz reacted with a timely throw for the third out of the inning.



Mariner pitchers also benefited from allowing the top three of the Twins lineup to go 0 for 12, with lead-off hitter Denard Span going 0 for 5 and three strikeouts. Very hard to create offensive runs when the top of the order can't get on base.



Kudos to the Mariners, who really began to show signs of life offensively in the fifth inning. Blackburn had been even more effective than Washburn through the first four innings, and was on the edge of getting out of the fifth when the Mariners rallied for their first two-out run. Franklin Gutierrez beat out an infield single and then Ichiro doubled him home to tie the score after Minnesota had scored in the fourth on a Micheal Redmond double.



Micheal Cuddyer made an outstanding defensive play for the Twins in the sixth inning, with a running back-handed stab of a Adrian Beltre line drive.



It was an excellent day for baseball, overcast but not chilly, many thanks to the Army family from Fort Lewis for the free ticket along the right field line. I made it up to them by buying them a couple of overpriced food items from the vendors, I thank them again for their kindness.


In the WTF department, kudos I suppose to the gentleman who won 336 (!) Moon Pies from Am/Pm. Sorry to say that I didn't catch how they managed to arrive at such a number.






ESPN RECAP , SEATTLE TIMES RECAP, STAR TRIBUNE RECAP


Bailadores de Bronce performing




Justin Morneau's backside





No thanks, we're all stuffed and bloated from the garlic fries!