Greetings from Safeco Field. It seems like a long time since I’ve covered an M’s game.  But I have been watching. After tonight there will be three games left in this long and frustrating season. And it will be the ninth straight year that the Mariners won’t be going to the postseason.

What happened on Sept. 30 throughout the annals of history? Well plenty …

Famous birthdays include — Author Truman Capote (1924), actress Angie Dickinson (1931) — Dressed to Kill – rent it, Marilyn McCoo (1943) Who? She was the host of Solid Gold. And a big happy birthday to former Mariner Carlos Guillen, who the Mariners traded to the Tigers for Ramon Santiago and a minor leaguer named Juan Gonzalez. Guillen went on to have three all-star seasons with the Tigers.

These notable things also happened on Sept. 30 ….

• 1888 – Jack the Ripper killed his third and fourth victims.
• 1927 – Babe Ruth hit his 60th home run of the season off of Washington Senators’ starter Tom Zachary.
• 1955 – Actor James Dean was killed in a car crash.
• 1968 — Boeing debuted its 747 jet to the public at the Everett, WA factory.

And sadly on this date in 1972, Roberto Clemente recorded his 3,000th and final hit of his career – a double off the Mets’ John Matlack.  On New Year’s Eve of 1972, Clemente, who worked tirelessly for charity in the offseason, boarded a plane filled with aid for residents in Managua, Nicaragua, after a massive earthquake devastated the city weeks earlier. The DC-7 plane crashed shortly after takeoff off the coast of Puerto Rico killing the future hall of famer.

First inning

Doug Fister finds some early trouble giving up a lead-off single and a one-out single to Mark Ellis. But he gets Jack Cust to ground into a 5-6-3 double play against the shifted over M’s defense.

Ichiro leads off with a single for the M’s but is quickly erased as Chone Figgins hits into a 4-6-3 double play.

Read more »

General manager Jack Zduriencik just announced that Felix Hernandez has been shut down for the season. There was some hope that Hernandez might make start the final game of the season on Sunday against the Oakland A’s at Safeco Field.

But since Hernandez has thrown a career high 249 2/3 innings this season, which followed a 2009 season where he threw a then-career high 238 2/3 innings, Zduriencik decided to end his season for “precautionary” reasons.

“It’s a decision I think is in his long-term best interests,” Zduriencik said. “And that’s why we put it at the forefront.”

Zduriencik, manager …

Read more »

To maintain full disclosure, I do not have an American League Cy Young vote this season. The two Cy voters in the area are Larry Stone of the Seattle Times and Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald. I will be voting on AL rookie of the year.

But if I had a Cy Young vote, it would go this way …

1. Felix Hernandez

2. Jon Lester

3. C.C. Sabathia

I don’t care about wins. Perhaps it’s because I cover a team that doesn’t win that often. I think the game in Toronto last week best exemplifies the 2010 season …

Read more »

Yes, it has the feel of unbelieveable, but the Seattle Mariners have won three consecutive games – three short of their season-best run – and would love nothing more than to keep it rolling into their final home stand.

Jason Vargas will start for Seattle, which has its 131st unique lineup of the year posted to face  Texas right-hander Rich Harden. Remember last winter, when Harden was considered one of the more valuable free agent pitchers?

He’s gone 5-5 with a 5.42 ERA this year. So much for high impact.

The Mariners are sitting on 61 wins with five to …

Read more »

Someone asked manager Daren Brown if it were true that Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez didn’t look at the opposing lineup before taking the mound, and he responded that Hernandez doesn’t particularly care who he’s facing – once on the field he’s a fierce competitor.

“I remember in 2004 when I had him in San Bernardino and we were playing a series against the Angels minor league team,” Brown said. “They sent word that Tim Salmon was on a rehab assignment and wanted us to know he’d be playing the next day.

“I sent word back that Felix was pitching …

Read more »

The Mariners and manager Daren Brown have found a way go send a brand new lineup into their 158th game.

No Jose Lopez, whose dislocated middle finger may force him to miss the last five games of 2010. No Josh Wilson, who’s played daily since Jack Wilson went down for the last time. Franklin Gutierrez is he designated hitter.

Here you go. This is the lineup vs,righty Rich Harden:

• Ichiro Suzuki, RF
• Chone Figgins, 2B
• Franklin Gutierrez, DH
• Justin Smoak, 1B
• Matt Mangini, 3B
• Greg Halman, CF
• Michael Saunders, LF
• Guillermo Quiroz, C
• Chris Woodward, SS
• Jason Vargas, P

…

Read more »

Felix Hernandez makes his 34th and possibly final start of the season tonight, and if it is his last game he won’t be the only one sitting out the final five games.

Closer David Aardsma, first baseman-designated hitter Russell Branyan, Mike Carp and Sean White have all played for the last time in 2010 because of injuries, and four more players – Milton Bradley, Erik Bedard, Shawn Kelley and Jack Wilson – will end their season on the disabled list.

Carp, injured Sunday in Tampa Bay, was diagnosed with a partially torn plantar fascia today. Recovery time: three weeks.

Felix, …

Read more »

All we right-handers like to joke that all left-handers are a bit, well, off – and there are a few who reinforce the stereotype.

Like Garrett Olson.

Olson is the left-handed reliever who’s appeared in 32 games with Seattle this season and been more effective in the second half of the season. In a bullpen known for being goofy, Olson has become one of the lead goofs.

Evidence? When he played in the team golf tournament this spring, he showed up wearing knickrs, spats and a tam for a cap.

Fo the past few months, he’s sported a full beard. …

Read more »