Seattle (30-33) @ Colorado (31-32)

[Bulltalk]

The Rockies are on a hot streak now, having won a currently major league leading 8 games in a row. Time to prick their bubble, and move at least 1 game over .500 before we move on to San Diego.

Friday June 12th: Washburn (3-4) vs. Jimenez (4-6)
Saturday June 13th: Bedard (5-2) vs. Marquis (8-4)
Sunday June 14th: Vargas (2-1) vs. Hammel (3-3)

Go M's!

[Bay_Areas_Finest]

We must win this series, for sure. A sweep would be nice, but with the way our starters have been pitching, series wins almost have to happen against mediocre and crappy teams.

[Bulltalk]

There are a couple of positive things in the darkness of our team hitting:

--Ichiro is hitting the ball as good as he ever has. His league leading batting average of .360 is at a point of heftiness where it is well covering up his traditional lack of proportionality with his OBP, which is currently about .400.

--Beltre is starting to heat up. His HR and RBI totals are still abysmal for a meat-of-the-order hitter, but he's been making significantly better contact the last few weeks, more patient at the plate.

--Russell Branyan has yet to begin tapering off in his numbers. He's still hitting .317 with an OBP of .413, a slugging percentage of .614, and a team leading 14 HR's after 53 games (on a pace to hit 35 HR's for the year). If he can get any kind of production behind him now that he's been moved to the 2-hole in the lineup, perhaps he can keep it up, or at least not experience too dramatic of a tapering off in his productivity.

--Chavez and Gutierrez are still hitting reasonably well for bottom of the order hitters, with .266 and .261 BA's, and .320 and .335 OBP's.

We definitely need more consistent production out of one or two of Lopez, Balentien, and Betancourt, and we sure could use Griffey finding a few timely streaks at the plate that briefly remind us of his former glory. One of the only things that's saving Griffey from an otherwise disappointing season is his OBP of .330, and his team best strikeout-to-walk ratio, having 28 walks against 29 strikeouts.

[TTown]

3-0 M's in the 3rd. Beltre just hit a two run, bases-loaded double. Runners at 2nd and 3rd with two outs in the inning.

[Bulltalk]

OK. We're down 5-4 going into the top half of the 7th. I still think this is a winnable game. Our bullpen has been doing well, Coors is a hitter's park....now if only our bats can step up and surprise me.

[TTown]

M's lose, furthering the stereotype that we can't win series openers.

[PhilipNelsonFan]

M's lose, furthering the stereotype that we can't face any adversity.

Fixed that for you. This team is Murphy's Law personified.

Oh, and the Angels moved ahead of us because they're playing the Padres, so way to waste another opportunity, Mariners.

Also, f**k you, Adrian Beltre. You know you're in a contract year, right? The least you could do is field simple ground balls and make contact more than once a game.

[BlackMamba]

and washburn is burning

[Bulltalk]

Dropping the first two games of this series...they are getting close to Z pulling the trigger on deals. They're 30-32 now with only 10 games left of this 18 game stretch against weak opponents before they start in on a much tougher stretch of their schedule. If they don't finish this stretch 2-3 games above .500, then you've got to cash it in.

[slaterbug]

Another loss

[slaterbug]

Rockies are smashing us again.

[PhilipNelsonFan]

Remember when the Rockies were one of the worst teams in professional sports? What happened? Seriously, what happened. They're like the Texas Rangers-lite and they've been to a World Series.

[Bay_Areas_Finest]

Very ugly series.

Sorry, but an offense sporting Ichiro-Branyan in the first two spots should not be this bad at hitting and scoring runs. Jesus H Christ, those guys are on base quite frequently and we still average around 0.8 runs per game.