Due to the early-morning East Coast start, as i write this it is a scoreless tie between the marienrs and the Blue Jays in the bottom of the fourth inning. I never got a chance to et my pre-game predicitons in, but I wasn't sure if the match-up between King Felix and the mercurial A.J. Burnett promised a nice pitching match-up or not. This is the first time either pitcher had faced the opposing team, and that eitehr leads to dominance or the team having no problems with the verious offerings. I was going to shy from offering a victor in this game, and have my only prediciton be that tehre will be a good amount of strikeouts racked up by the starters, who are takin gthe hill against two tired teams after last night's 14-inning marathon. Currently, there are six K's combined by Burnett and Felix in eight innings, and you could expect to see both starts go at least seven, if not eight, innings in an effort to gie the bullpens a rest.

Of course, it's a heartbreaker to lose last night's game in such a fashion, an inside-the-line single to left-field knocking in the winning run on the bottom of the 14th. At the same time, there are a number of silver linings to view the extea-inning lost in an optimisitc manner.

First, similar to their June appearances versus Brad Penny and Jason Schmidt, the Mariners were not only able to hit Halladay, they were able to put some runs up on the board against perhaps the league's best pitcher. Haladday may not have picked up the lost, but he didn't dominate the M's as I thought he would, so that's encouraging.

Second, although Jamie Moyer was predictably hittable versus the Toronto line-up, giving up 12 hits in 6.1 innings, he was able to keep the Mariners in the game. Indeed, when he left the game, the Mariners were down only by a couple of runs, 6-4. Keeping it close despite allowing 13 baserunners and three homers is a mark of smart starting pitcher.

And last, the offense should signs of being able to provide the cluthc hits when needed, at least in the first nine innings. The game was sent into extra innings due to back-to-back home-runs hit by Richie Sexson and Carl Everett in the eighth inning. It's always nice to see production from Richie Sexson, even if he was uncharacteristiclaly productive in a Mariners' loss. By going 4-for-7 in the first two games of the series, Sexson's averaged was riased eight points from .218 to .226.

The Mariners played the Blue Jays, a team challenging the Red Sox and the Yankees in the AL East, tough, and of course that's always encouraging as well. If Ichiro hadn't fallen into such a funk in these first two games, going 2-for-11, the M's may have won the first two games with no problem, or at least last night's game might've avoided going into extra innings.

Of course, the Mariners had a number of chances to take the lead in extra innings, with six runners getting on but being denied the chance to score due to some clutch plays by the Blue Jay's defense. One reason for the extra-inning loss can be pointed out to the difference of managerial styles. Scott Downs was pitching in the 14th inning for the Blue Jays, the last reliever available for Toronto mananger John Gibbons. Emiliano Fruto was on the mound for the M's in the 14th, and Hargrove still had two live arms available inhis bullpen- Jake Woods and J.J. Putz. For some reason, Hargrove seems reluctant to use Putz, his best releiver, in games that are close and tight, leaving games to be decided by the likes of Eddie Guardado earlier in the year and now by Fruto.

Beltre went 2-for-5 with a triple in the fifth inning, eventually scoring on Raul Ibanez's triple two batters later. Beltre's off to a hot start for the second-half, and by going 4-for-10 in the two games, his season average has been raised to .258 and his OPS has raised 15 points to .725. And, as I write this, his fifth-inning double knocked in Yuniesky Betancourt in today's ballgame.

Can Felix keep this slim 1-0 for the rest of the game? We'll see...

Nah, as Reed Johnson just tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI double.