Well, by finishing the sweep against the Giants, the Mariners are giving weight to my statement that they're a pretty good team, just as long as they don't face the A's.

It wasn't exactly a laugher, but my prediction of a Father's Day victory for the M's at the Safe proved to be correct. The score may have been just 5-1, but if the Mariners hadn't been able to beat Jamey Wright, or even if Wright had kept the Mariners close (say a 2-1 ballgame) I would've had my doubts about the make-up of this team. Instead, the Giants bats were baffled by the slow-motion pitching of Jamie Moyer. When Moyer is on, he resembles a Rembrandt or possibly a Carvaggio on the mound, simply a master doing his thing: baffling and frustrating batters with his tantalizing yet unhittable curveballs. And today, Moyer was on, as he gave up 6 hits and one run in eight innings. After throwing only 97 pitches (66 for strikes) Jamie could've finished the Mariners' second complete game in a row, but Putz closed out the ninth instead. Jamie has now given up six earned runs over 28 innings spanning his last four starts, as his veteran leadership has inspired a slew of good outings by the M's starters, besides a hiccup in the Oakland series (natch).

You know who else was on was Adrian Beltre. AB went 2-for-5 and knocked in a couple of RBIs today, keeping in line with my prediction on how Beltre would do against the Giants' starter. He even hit a home run leading off the fifth, his sixth of the year. (Which now makes it six home runs I have yet to hear AB hit.) My predictions were off by just one thing- of his two RBIs, none were Ichiro. (Instead they were himself and Yuniesky Betancourt.)

One thing I kept noticing during the radio broadcasts of the Giants series was how the M's did such a great job of picking up basehits with two outs to knock in runs, something they were unable to do versus the A's (yet what the A's were able to do with aplomb against the M's). While this is true, I find it of interest that the M's scored a lower percentage of their runs against the Giants with two outs (8 out of 18) as they did against the A's (5 of 8). Of course, the A's kept them to fewer chances, so that will skew the numbers...

So, the Mariners find themselves at 34-37 as they go on a long road trip against the NL West. Another sweep will bring them back to .500! Although I don't expect that to happen, their first series will be at Chavez Ravine facing the LA Dodgers, who are coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of the A's themselves. Let's hope the Dodgers aren't as energized after a thrashing by the A's as the Mariners were, but instead find themselves dispirited as our Boys in Teal come into town. If so, then possibly the Mariners could take two of three!

For them to do that, however, and the key to the series is to hold Nomar Garciaparra in check. Nomar holds a career .336 BA and .967 OPS versus the Mariners. If the Mariners can't contain Nomar, their shot at the series would be in jeopardy. The Mariners are trotting Joel Pineiro out to the mound on Tuesday as he continues to attempt to make a case that he is, indeed, a major league-caliber pitcher. Nomar has owned Joel to the tune of a .500 career batting average, 5 hits in 10 at-bats. On the flip side, the Dodgers are putting up Brad Penny, who is pitching like a man on fire so far this season (7-1 record, 2.49 ERA, 1.16 WHIP). Adrian Beltre has 4 hits in 14 career at-bats versus Mr. Penny, but three of them went for extra bases (2 doubles and a triple). It should be an interesting match-up on Tuesday, and I see a high-scoring game, but I don't see the Mariners coming out on top.

.500 won't be reached, not against the Dodgers at least.