SEATTLE MARINERS 8, MINNESOTA TWINS 7 IN SEATTLE

Date:  Tuesday, August 5, 2008.

Batting star:  Jason Kubel was 4-for-5 with two home runs (his fifteenth and sixteenth), a double, three runs, and three RBIs.  Brendan Harris was 2-for-3.  Carlos Gomez was 2-for-3.

Pitching star:  Boof Bonser pitched a scoreless inning of relief, giving up two hits.

Opposition stars:  Raul Ibanez was 3-for-5 with a home run (his seventeenth), two runs, and five RBIs.  Jose Lopez was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.  Jeremy Reed was 3-for-5.  Ichiro Suzuki was 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs.  R. A. Dickey pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks and striking out three.

The game:  Jason Kubel and Delmon Young led off the second with singles.  A ground out moved them to second and third, a wild pitch brought home one, and a sacrifice fly brought home another to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.

Seattle came roaring back in the third.  Ichiro Suzuki and Jeremy Reed led off the inning with singles and Raul Ibanez hit a three-run homer.  With one out, Jose Lopez and Jeff Clement singled, putting men on first and third, and a sacrifice fly made it 4-2 Mariners.

The Twins missed a chance in the fifth.  Brendan Harris and Carlos Gomez singled, and a bunt moved them to second and third with one out.  Joe Mauer drew a two-out walk to load the bases, but the runners were stranded.  Jason Kubel hit a home run in the sixth to cut the lead to 4-3, but Seattle got the run back with interest in the bottom of the sixth.  With one out, Bryan LaHair struck out but reached first on a wild pitch.  Yuniesky Betancourt doubled and Inchiro Suzuki was intentionally walked to load the bases.  Raul Ibanez delivered a two-out two-run single to give the Mariners a 6-3 advantage.

The Twins came back in the eighth.  With one out Justin Morneau doubled and Jason Kubel hit a two-run homer to cut the lead to 6-5.  With two out, Brian Buscher and Brendan Harris singled and Mike Lamb hit a two-run double, putting the Twins up 7-6.  But in the bottom of the eighth, Ichiro Suzuki and Raul Ibanez singled, and Jose Lopez hit a two-out two-run double, putting Seattle back on top 8-7.

In the ninth, the first two Twins struck out.  Justin Morneau walked, Jason Kubel doubled, and Delmon Young was intentionally walked to load the bases.  But pinch-hitter Mike Redmond lined to right, and the game went to the Mariners.

WP:  J. J. Putz (4-4).

LP:  Matt Guerrier (6-5).

S:  None.

Notes:  Nick Punto was at second base in place of Alexi Casilla.  Punto was used more at short than anyone else, but Brendan Harris was at short in this game.  

Joe Mauer was batting .317.  He would finish at a league-leading .328.  Justin Morneau was batting .315.  He would finish at .300.  Denard Span was batting .304.  He would finish at .294.

Craig Breslow had an ERA of 2.39.  He would finish at 1.63.  Joe Nathan had an ERA of 1.17.  He would finish at 1.33.

Jeremy Reed was in AAA for the Twins in 2011.  R. A. Dickey was with the Twins in 2009.

Boof Bonser started the year in the rotation, but was moved to the bullpen in early June.  He was no better there.  He missed 2009 due to injury, and was traded to Boston after that season.

J. J. Putz had 189 major league saves, with a career high of 45 in 2011.

Raul Ibanez had a nineteen-year major league career, from 1996-2014, when he was forty-two.  He batted 272/.335/.465 with 305 home runs.  He only made one all-star team (2009 with Philadelphia), and the only thing he ever led the league in was games played in 2005, but he was a consistently good player for a very long time.

Record:  Seattle was 44-69, in fourth (last) place in the AL West, twenty-six games behind Los Angeles.  They would finish 61-101, in fourth place, thirty-nine games behind Los Angeles.  

The Twins were 62-51, in second place in the AL Central, a half game behind Chicago. They would finish 88-75, in second place, losing game 163 to Chicago.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 31-38 (.449).