If Joe Blanton's pitching, then that must mean the Mariners just lost their eighth shut-out of the season. 2-0. Excuse me while I scream.

Oh, but I haven't even gotten to the best part. Keeping with my theory that by not listening to the baseball games means Adrian Beltre will hit more home runs, I abstained from turning on the radio until around 8:30. Unfortunately, my theory didn't work as an hour-and-a-half into the game, it was the bottom of the seventh and the A's were ahead 1 to zip. So I listened. And what happens? The Mariners load the bases with no outs in the ninth inning (thanks in part to a double lined down the left-field line by Adrian Beltre). And, as you can tell, the Mariners failed to score.

Bases loaded, with no outs! I have no idea what the likelihood of that happeneing is, but this season the Mariners have proved that not only as it possible, but also very repeatable as it's been a situation that has happened numerous times for our struggling Boys in Blue. Wait, that's the Dodgers. I mean the Tykes in Teal....

Freakin' Joe Blanton. The man who ruined Felix Hernandez's first start of the year back in April by tossing 8 innings of two-hit shut-out ball against the M's, besting Felix's five innings of one-run ball. Freakin' Joe Blanton. Dude just came off giving up 10 hits and six runs in five innings against the Indians last week. Freakin' Joe Blanton. The dude is 3-0 against the Mariners this year with a 0.75 ERA, allowing 15 baserunners in 24 innings for a WHIP of 0.63. Against the rest of baseball, he's 3-6 with a 6.91 ERA, and allowing 103 base-runners in 56 innings for a WHIP of 1.84- and that's including a complete game shut-out against the Royals.

Freakin' Joe Blanton. He's not even good enough to be carried on anybody's fantasy baseball team. As I pointed out over on USS Mariner, he wouldn't be worth a spot on the Mariners' roster because he would never get a chance to face the Mariners.

Freakin' Joe Blanton.

Well, I know it's rather pointless, but how did the Mariners' bats do? Well, uh... yeah. It's pointless. Never mind that, I just want to reiterate how much I hate Joe Blanton.

According to Yahoo!, Beltre was the "player of the day" for the M's as he provided the only extra base hit out of the five that the M's meager offense pushed against Joe Blanton's confusing array of pitches. That is Beltre's sixth extra-base hit out of the 12 hits he's gotten so far in June. Which is good, but not enough to help beat Freakin' Joe Blanton tonight.

Tomorrow the M's face Danny Haren, who is perhaps the best the A's have to offer right now in their starting rotation. (At least he's loads better than Joe Freakin' Blanton.) Beltre has actually hit Haren pretty well, .400 with 6 hits in fifteen at-bats, with half of those hits going for doubles. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mariners score a few runs tomorrow, as they're not facing Freakin' Joe Blanton. On the flip side, Joe Pinero is on the hill for the M's, which means the A's will probably score about 7.

Excuse me while I scream.