Baltimore 5, Mariners 4

Someone pointed out to me today that the Mariners had led every single game they'd played this year.

They led this one too; led after the first batter, in fact, as Ichiro homered to lead off a game for the 12th time in his career. And after coughing up that lead, they led again, 4-3. But Silva lost it, and O'Flaherty--pitching, inexplicably, for the third straight game--allowed a homer to Aubrey Huff for the final margin.

O'Flaherty's ERA sits at 14.73, and his season now deserves the below theme song...



George Sherrill's save was his third of the series. Yipes.

The M's offense continues to be absolutely horrendous. On the bright side, the starting pitching has been damn good. When the hitting picks up--and it will, even the most pessimistic of M's fans can't think this team will continue to hit .225 for the year--the M's should be in good shape.

Meanwhile, they are losing winnable games to substandard teams, and giving themselves an hole that they've got to dig out of this month--because in May the schedule gets absolutely brutal.

And, on the bright side--even though the M's lost all four games, there were no snowouts; and thanks to Richie Sexson, Buds at Norm's are just $2.17 today.