Miguel Olivo was in good spirits in the clubhouse this morning. He has nice couple of raspberry dirt burns above and below his right eye.

“I got into fight, that’s what I’m telling people,” he said.

Yeah, he got into a fight with the dirt past first base and the dirt won

If you missed it last night, Olivo tried a head first slide into first base. It didn’t work so well, he hit the bag with his chest and then slammed face first into the dirt. It could have been much worse. Olivo watch the highlights and understood …

Read more »

Dustin Ackley continues to hit for the Tacoma Rainiers. On a ridiculously windy night at Cashman Field in which the Rainiers lost 14-8 and gave up 20 hits, he got three more hits to raise his batting average to .290. Talking with Mike Curto, he said two of the hits – the singles were hard hit line drives while the double was a bit of a cheapie. Either way, he’s still hitting the ball. And he’s putting up great at-bats.

Shortstop Nick Franklin, one of the top prospects in the Mariners organization, got off to a slow start this …

Read more »

The unwritten rules of baseball clearly state that statistics and the standings can’t be taken seriously until late in the season – August is too early for some – but that seems silly.

A sport that runs from April through October cannot merely be taken seriously the last few months. So take a peek at the standings today and you’ll see the Seattle Mariners are a half game back in the American League West.

Not a half game back of third place. First place – where the Angels and Rangers sit tied. If the Mariners beat another first place team, …

Read more »

Sorry for now minor league report yesterday, but I was indisposed. Here’s yesterday’s report

But we have one today.

Lots of runs and hits last night for Mariners minor league teams, unfortunately their respective pitching also gave up lots of runs and hits.

The Tacoma Rainiers were in Las Vegas and lost 11-4 to the 51s. Starter Chris Seddon gave up five runs on nine hits six innings pitched and reliever Dan Cortes also had a rough outing giving up four runs on five hits, including two home runs.

There was some good news for the Rainiers. Dustin …

Read more »

They didn’t get a hit with runners in scoring position all night and still, the Seattle Mariners beat the New York Yankees tonight, 4-3.

They did it behind gritty pitching, whether it was a struggling Michael Pineda or another fabulous effort from an unexpectly tough bullpen. And they did it with well-placed ground balls at the right time.

Who needs home runs? Hell, who needs hits.

What Seattle needed tonight was a breathtaking catch in center field from Franklin Gutierrez, and by the way he’s now 7-0 in games he’s played. The Mariners needed great relief and caught it from …

Read more »

Right-handed reliever Shawn Kelley, who’s fought injuries as often as he’s face opposing batters, has had a setback in his comeback from major elbow surgery and won’teen attempt to pitch again for a month.

After making three appearances in Class AA over the last 10 games, Kelley was stopped by discomfort, consulted physicians and was given a platelet rich plasma injection in his right elbow – the same procedure that helped Cliff Lee in the spring of 2010.

Kelley had ‘Tommy John’ surgery Sept. 11, 2010, but was ahead of schedule in his rehab work until hitting a road block that …

Read more »

One of the things you often hear covering the Mariners is the lamentations of fans when former Seattle players have immediate success as soon as they leave the team.

You know how often I saw some form of the phrase: “Of course Adrian Beltre starts hitting as soon as he leaves Seattle, everyone plays better when the leave the Mariners,” on Twitter and in blog comments last year?

But there have been a few people that haven’t had post-Seattle success. Richie Sexson comes to mind immediately. You can add Jose Lopez to that list now.

The former Mariners infielder, …

Read more »

The Tacoma Rainiers had last night’s game against the Nashville Sounds rained out last night, giving them and me a much needed day off (first in 12 days for me). And because the Rainiers only play Nashville once this season, they can’t postpone it till later in the summer. That means a doubleheader tonight at Cheney Stadium, starting at 6 p.m. It will be two seven-inning games.

Right-hander Blake Beavan (1-1, 5.76 ERA) will start Game 1 for the Rainiers.  Nashville will go with right-hander Amaury Rivas (3-3, 3.73). The Game 2 starter for the Rainiers will be  knuckleballer Charlie …

Read more »