So the Mariners won their fourth straight, 8-6, against the Orioles. It was a tight, hold-on-to-your-hat type game, with a grand-slam home-run by Richie Sexson in the fifth inning staking the M's to an 8-3 lead, only to have the Orioles score three unaswered runs. Eddie Guardado was able to close it out in the ninth for his first save in over three weeks.

Beltre even got into the action, driving in a first-inning run with a single. He tried to gimp out his basehit into a double, but his bad hammy wasn't helping him out in that regard as he was thrown out. But still, AB picked up an RBI, his 13th of the season.

13 RBIs, that's pretty sweet. That means Beltre is on pace to have 46 RBIs on the season. To put that in perspective:

*After today's game, Jose Lopez has 37 RBIs in 46 games.
*With his grand-slam, Sexson dang near knocked in a quater of Beltre's season RBI totals in one inning.
*The major league record for most RBIs in a game is 12, done twice, most recently by Mark Whiten, during his four home-run performance in 1993. That means Whiten was able to accomplish in five at-bats what it's taken Beltre 164 at-bats to do.
*On April 23, 1999 Farnado Tatis hit two grand slams in one inning for the Cardinals versus the Dodgers. In one inning, Tatis knocked in 62% of Beltre's 2006 season total RBIs.

I could go on but I'm beginning to depress myself.

The real questions that should be asked: is Beltre's hamstring problems serious? Should he serve as DH for a spell, and let Ute Bloomquist get some starts at third base? Did the recent lighting caught in a bottle by the M's provide Mike Hargrove some job security to last through the year?

Tomorrow, the Mariners face Adam Loewen, who is making his major league debut. According to minorleaguebaseball.com, Loewen's shown some impressive strikeout numbers, with 55 in 50 innings at AA Bowie. Loewen's had problems with wildness, but his walk rate in the minors is below what it's been in the past. Still, Baseball Prospectus said that in 2005 Loewen was "alternately brilliant and horrible, where 'horrible' usually meant being totally incapable of throwing a strike."

Here's hoping the "horrible" Adam Loewen shows up tomorrow, and the Mariners can stretch their winning streak to five games! Here's also hoping that Hargrove sits Beltre, as Loewen is a leftie and AB has a horrible .132 battign average against lefties so far this year. Then again, his average against anything is horrible, so why should it matter what side of the mound Loewen throws from?

Prediction for Beltre in tomorrow's game: 0-for-4, two strikeouts, and one 'belted' fly ball that dies on the warning track....