The Mariners came close to winning their first game in almost a week Wednesday night, falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2. Surprisingly, the M’s out-hit the Jays (10: 6), but failed to do so in a timely manner as Toronto jumped to an early lead and kept Seattle in check despite a potential 9th inning comeback.
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OF Milton Bradley returned to the lineup last night for the first time in two weeks, activated from the restricted list prior to last night’s game. During his leave, Bradley attended lots of counseling and received an overwhelming amount of fan mail and encouraging notes from Seattle fans, in which he announced that he was thankful for.
In his return, Milton went 2-4 with two singles, one of which was a high infield single that led him as a potential tying run in the 8th. After a broken bat single to center in the 4th, Bradley crushed the ball off the best swing all night in his third AB, only to line out directly to SS.
RHP Doug Fister provided another effective start for Seattle, and at this point, has solidified himself as a crucial piece to this Mariner starting rotation. Fister ended the night pitching 8.0 innings, allowing only 3 runs off of 5 hits, not to mention 5 Ks and only 1 walk. Yet again, despite another acceptable pitching performance, this offensively-challenged lineup is consistently struggling to bust out and produce runs.
The short two-game Toronto series finalizes Thursday afternoon in a matinee game, starting at 3:40pm at Safeco Field. Jason Vargas (3-2, 2.93) will look to continue his impressive campaign for the Mariners, as he faces an intimidating Ricky Romero (4-1, 2.88) who has won four consecutive starts in the past three weeks.
Reach Jacob Kehle at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
