Seattle Sports: In the Morning

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Sounders lose, Mariners swept out of Chicago, Cliff Lee's rehab start goes great, Oregon finally gets a hoops coach, Terrence Ross commits to UW...

Four Sounders made their first start of the season Sunday, but two regulars committed crucial mistakes that gave Toronto a 2-0 win [box]. In the 58th minute, Alonso lost the ball at the top of the penalty box. In the 76th, Marshall gave one away in midfield. Those two mistakes became Toronto's two goals.

Sounders played well on offense, getting 11 shots to TFC's 5. But they continue to have trouble finishing, as Evans, Ianni and Sturgis all flubbed likely goal-scoring changes. "Nfuko would've had those," tweets @AlexHennes. "We keep kicking it straight at the keeper. Hard to score goals when you do that," tweets @nickjacob_116.

Sounders stay at 8 points, and fall to third in the W.C. Next game is Saturday vs. Columbus at Qwest.

The Mariners lost their third of three in Chicago, all by one run. The bullpen gets the brunt of the blame for the sweep, they allowed four homers in 5.1 IP. Brandon League was the goat in Sunday's 3-2 loss [box], allowing an eighth-inning homer to Paul Konerko, your current AL home run leader (!?). Griffey struck out with the tying run on 2nd in the ninth, going down on three straight Bobby Jenks fastballs.

"This entire series just broke my heart! The Mariners bullpen needs to settle down and get it together," tweets @tasarin.

Mariners fall to 9-10, 3rd place, 2.5 GB of Oakland. Next up is Kansas City; series begins today with King Felix on the hill.

Cliff Lee's a go for Friday after a successful rehab start in Tacoma yesterday. "On Friday it's just go out there and have fun. Let it all hang out,” Lee told Mike Salk after the game. Lee's return means demotion for someone, and looks like that someone will be Ian Snell, writes Baker.

Oregon will introduce new hoops coach Dana Altman at a 1 p.m. press conference today. Altman took Creighton to 7 NCAA tourneys in 16 years; but he lasted only four years in his previous stint at Kansas State. Not exactly Tom Izzo, is he?

Altman begins his tenure with some bad news: PDX phenom Terrence Ross has reportedly decided to attend Washington, according to Bob Condotta. Ross is a 6'6" shooting guard with "NBA range," according to ESPN Insider. His more highly-touted teammate, Terrence Jones, will supposedly announce his decision Friday.

NEWS BITS...
Former M Chris Jakubauskas, struck in the face by a line drive in his season debut with the Pirates, is out of the hospital and onto the 15-day DL.

Walter Jones sent another tweet that hints at retirement.

UW's Danielle Lawrie threw her third perfect game of the season.

The UW/UCLA football game will be a Thursday night ESPN game, reports Bob Condotta.

Will Conroy had a triple-double in Game 1 of the best-of-three D-League finals.

THE COLUMNISTS...
Jim Moore grew to like Quincy Pondexter.

Art Thiel give the Seahawks draft a thumbs up.

Steve Kelley likes what he saw of Cliff Lee.

Kevin Pelton says OKC's boisterous sellout crowds show why local governments should fund sports arenas:.

RANDOM...
Jeff at Lookout Landing is not a fan of Matt Tuiasosopo's shortstop play: "Tui doesn't have a good first step, he doesn't have good range, he doesn't have good hands, and he doesn't have an accurate arm. A pessimist would say he pretty much doesn't possess any of the skills you need to play the infield. An optimist would say he's only four adjustments from fitting right in."

An interview with former Sonic Ricky Pierce.

Get pumped about Golden Tate with this video (HT: P-I's Greg Johns.)