I don’t claim to be a scholar of astrology, but tonight the stars (finally) aligned themselves above Safeco Field.

Facing a red-hot Dice-K, the Mariners put up 2 runs in the first, led by an Ichiro double. I don’t think he could go from the batter’s box to second faster if he was on a bicycle.

Dice-K was knocked out early by an undisclosed (shoulder?) injury, but only after giving up 3 runs and another hit to Ichiro, who seems to have finally found the mighty spirit of the lion inside his all consuming competitive aura to combat him.

Manny Ramirez kept things interesting with a 3-run blast to right on the first pitch he saw in the 6th to bring his career total to 499. His encore performance came in the form of gunning down Adrian Beltre trying to get from 1st to 3rd on a Johjima single.

What made this game for me was Brandon Morrow coming in in the 8th to face Manny Ramirez with no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. He was throwing gas and shut down Manny and Mike Lowell consecutively, both fanning on his cheese. In the next at bat J.D. Drew hit a lazy two-strike line drive right to Balentien to get out of the jam.

In the bottom of the 9th with the score tied at 3, some good old fashioned small ball saw Wladimir Balentien get from 1st to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt from Cairo (yes, he contributed!) and a sac ground ball from Reed. With two outs Jose Lopez came up behind an intentionally walked Ichiro and sent a hard hit ball down the line, past the outstretched leather of Lowell to bring in the winning run. If I wasn’t sitting in section 340, I would have run out on the field.

What a night! Top it off with 2 for $5 brats at Al’s after the game, and you’ve got yourself one storybook spring evening.

We’re still years out from knowing how favorably the Adam Jones package for Erik Bedard deal will pan out, but there is no denying that he is a special athlete. Bedard tallied 8 strikeouts in his fourth win of the season, making him the only Mariners starting pitcher with a winning record.

Living on a prayer in the form of a Yuniesky Betancourt solo home-run in the 3rd, the Mariners managed to give up just two hits through seven innings of Bedard, and an inning each of Morrow and Putz.

After the humbling experience of their last road trip, the M’s have something to feel good about: winning a series at home against the Red Sox, and getting quality pitching from their bullpen. Brandon Morrow was rock solid in back to back games, and while Putz did have a little trouble with the stirke zone tonight, when he missed he missed out of the zone.

Seattle gets to rest up tomorrow and will hopefully continue this momentum in to their match-up with the Tigers, who outscored them 30-14 in their last series together.

The game isn’t even over, but I can’t wait! Putz is in, and systematically shutting down the Tigers, just like the fireball throwing Brandon Morrow did the inning before.

Okay, it’s official! The Mariners just took game two of the series 5-0 from the Tigers on national TV thanks to lights out pitching from tri-force of Felix, Morrow, and Putz, who gave up two hits collectively.

Jeremy Reed put one out of the park, Kenji (sort of) stole home, and Raul made a nice running catch out in left. If I’m not mistaken, that sounds a lot like contributions from both the pitching staff and position players in the same game. Welcome to a new era of Mariners baseball.

I’ve been working on the Yeti Park comic all the while, and look forward to putting up the first installment on Monday! Today Danny over at Oy Comics said that he’ll be giving Yeti Park a shout out in his next Sunday Funnies podcast (#8), so be sure to check it out!

5 2/3 innings pitched. 6 strikeouts. 3 hits. 0 runs. It appears as if my beard theory holds some water. As for the other non-bearded players on the team, they didn’t fare quite as well.

Sloppy defense and a less than sharp Bedard allowed the Angels to get ahead early, and cruise to a 5-4 win at Safeco.

Brandon Morrow coincidentally is working on a beard of his own. Joba Chamberlain started his first game today and was pulled after 2 1/3. For all of us that want to see Morrow in the rotation, this is a good reminder that the transition from the bullpen isn’t always a piece of cake.

The Angels took game three 5-4, picking up all 5 runs early off of Silva who lasted a surprising 8 innings. Morrow pitched another gem of an inning in the ninth (with a minor flaw bouncing off of the left field wall). His ERA is now a slim 1.13 with 23 K’s over 16 innings pitched.

Lopez continues to hit with his third homer in an many days to accompany 6 hits and 6 RBI’s. At .305 he remains the only Mariner over .300.

Since May 22nd, Richie Sexson has notched one extra base hit. We all know his average is junk, but maybe this can shed come light on the argument that “at least he’s got power”. Speaking of power, Vidro was hitting clean-up today.

The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. More and more quotes are starting to pop up from McLaren abut his dipleasure with the team’s performance, but it’s all just talk until we see either the team play better for more than a two day stretch, or some of the underachieves dealt to a club who thinks they can right all of the wrongs that we’ve been living with here in Seattle.

Tomorrow is a day off, and then back to Boston for another three, with Felix taking the hill on Friday. Can we give him a huge contract already?

So, maybe it takes a little while for a new hitting coach to have an impact. The Mariners dropped game 2 of the series in Toronto 3-1, with Seattle’s only run coming off of a Jeremy Reed solo home run. We’re all looking for a powerful bat to emerge from this line-up, but who knew it would have frosted tips?

Like any other warm-blooded Mariner fan my heart skipped a beat when I heard that Brandon Morrow couldn’t pitch last night because of some “tightness”. With as hard as he throws, and his scare earlier this season, I’m already a little concerned about his durability. Boy, was it nice to see him back tonight. Seven pitches was all it took for him to mow through the heart of the Blue Jays line-up in the 8th. Welcome back.

Felix takes the mound tomorrow for the rubber match. No matter what this club looks like day to day, seeing Felix is always a treat. So, we’ve got that to look forward to, as well as Adrian Beltre bobbleheads this Friday at Safeco. I’ll be maxed out in the bleachers with a backpack full of snacks, and one glorious mini-Adrian just waiting to spend the rest of his life with me.

For all of you that will be there to either take your bobblehead and go home, or hoard 45 of them to sell, may the ghost of Abner Doubleday track you down and haunt your wretched soul for eternity.