Race for Strasburg: I can’t root for the Mariners to lose.  A lot of fans are making a lot of the race for last place.  Obviously the last place team gets the first pick in next June’s draft, and that first (and possibly second) pick likely means the chance to draft Stephan Strasburg.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Strasburg.  He’s the physical specimen that old school scouts dream of, but also has the college track record that the new age general manager craves, not to mention his great showing in the 2008 Summer Olympics as the only amateur on the team.  With no potential impact starters in the minor leagues beyond Phillippe Aumont and Brandon Morrow, Strasburg is just the guy the organization needs.  All that said, I still can’t consciously root for this team to lose.  Maybe if I wasn’t watching the games, but if I am I want the team to give me a win.

Holy Batista! Who would have thought that Miguel Batista would come back into the rotation after three weeks and throw a quality start out there.  I’ll take it!

Messenger Called Up:  Seattle brought up reliever Randy Messenger before tonight’s ballgame to take the place of Mark Lowe, who was hit by a line drive on Saturday.  With 148 MLB appearances under his belt, Messenger is no rookie.  He’s nothing special, but he looked good tonight in his Mariner debut.

Why I don’t like Yuni batting second:

An eight pitch at bat is great from Betancourt, but does he really have to swing at just about every pitch?  There was easily a walk worth of bad pitches in that at bat.  Maybe not the best example, but for any of you watching Betancourt hit you know it’s the same old story.  Swing at bad pitches, foul off a few, then hit a can of corn somewhere shallow.