It's hard to believe, considering the outings Cha-Seung Baek has provided for the Mariners here in the tail end of the 2006 season, that he was released by the club after a disastorous 2005 minor league season. Baek ended up re-signing with the M's for the league minimum and not only did he become the ace of the Tacoma Rainers' staff, but it appears that with each strong outing (minus, of course, the hiccup that was last week's smackdown at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays) Baek is entrenching a spot for him in the Mariners' 2007 rotation.

And the verdict remains to be decided whether that is a good thing or bad thing. It's obvious to make the statemnt that Baek has very hittable, league-average stuff- which is exactly what you would be looking for from a #5 starter. Plus, as a #5 starter, Baek would mostly pitch against other teams' #5 starters, so it's not as if the M's bats will be stifled by opposing team's aces while Baek allows hits and runs to the other side. Also, on the positive side, Baek would be making the league minimum as the #5 starter, as opposed to Joel Pineiro, who this season was paid $4.8 million to provide an ERA upwards of six from the #5 spot, which he eventually lost. That's a lot of money, for very little return. So, if the Mariners end up saying adios to Pineiro over the off-season, and given Baek's coming-out performances, it seems very likely that baek will be the #5 starter in next year's rotation, unless the Mariners' brain trust pull some silly Wade Miller-type moves during the off-season. (Off topic, but wasn't Wade the ace of the Astros over Roy Oswalt at one point?)

And given the un-balanced schedule, I would be content for Baek to retain his spot in the rotation next season, as that would give him plenty of more opportunities to face-off and neutralize that heady offense of the Texas Rangers. Given Baek's two-run, 6.2 inning start versus the Rangers in tonight's ball-game, that means that Cha-Seung has now allowed two earned runs in 21.2 innings, good enough for a microscopic 0.83 ERA. I understand how one shouldn't put too much stock in small sample sizes- no way would Baek be able to maintain an ERA this low in a season's worth of 160+ or so innings. Besides, I did correctly state that his scoreless inning streak would end in tonight's ball-game, and it did after 19 innings, with Nelson Cruz hitting a two-run home-run off Baek in the fifth. Still, it sure would be nice if their was at least one divison rival that we could trot a starter out with the feeling that he would dominate the other side and give the Mariners a near-automatic shot at winning.

Beltre continued his hitting streak to ten games by going 2-for-5 with two singles in the ballgame. During his hitting streak, Beltre has raised his average nearly ten points, from .255- the lowest it had been in two months- to .264. However, Beltre's two hits had less to do with the Mariner's victory then his ground-out that knocked in a run the night before. Instead, the offense was supplied by Raul Ibanez, who hit his 28th home-run leading off the fifth, and by Rangers' rookie second-baseman Ian Kinsler, who by committing two errors allowed the Mariners to score three un-earned runs and jump out to an early 5-0 lead. Thanks a bunch Ian!

With Baek's strong pitching and Kinsler's poor fielding, the Rangers found themselves in a pretty big hole to climb out of. Hank Blalock knocked in Carlos Lee in the ninth inning for the Rangers to pull within three, but once again J.J. Putz came in and nailed the door shut for his 34th save.

Now its on to Chicago, where the Mariners always do a miserable job facing the World Champion White Sox who, barring an act of God, will not be playing to repeat their title this October. Well, perhaps "miserable" is too hyerbolic, as the two teams have only faced each other five times this season, with the M's dropping a two-game set in Chicago last May. However, given the M's strong play on this road trip- especially offensively- coupled with the fact that the White Sox' pitching staff is simply not as good as last year's may bode well for the M's chances for this series. A split of the four-games may seem entirely possible.

But don't expect a win to come tomorrow, as Jake Woods takes the mound for the Mariners. Yes, Woods may have allowed only two runs in six innings in his last start, but that was against the Kansas City Royals, and the Mariners had to hold on to win an 11-8 ballgame for Woods to pick up that "W". In 4.1 career innings over the White Sox split over two outings, Woods has allowed five runs on six hits for a 10.38 ERA. Jermaine Dye might use tomorrow's game as an opportunity to strengthen his case for AL MVP, as his only career at-bat versus resulted in a two-run home-run. Tadahito Iguchi also owns a two-run home-run off Woods. Expect Woods to get hit earlier, often, and hard. For those of you with a TV, you may not want to watch.

For the White Sox, Javier Vazquez takes the hill and he has pretty much opposite results in his career against the Mariners. In his two career starts, Vazquez has gone unbeaten versus the M's, keeping them to 5 runs in 12 innings for a 3.75 ERA. , including limiting the M's to two runs over six innings last April at Safeco. However, the White Sox have lost the last seven games Vazquez has started, and Beltre- who is nowhere near his abysmal April self that we grew to detest just a fewshort months ago- has enjoyed quite a bit of success against Vazquez, with plenty of at-bats against Javier from their days together in the National League. In 21 at-bats, Beltre has ten hits for a .476 average, and with four extra base hits, he has an OPS of 1.262 against Javier. Sexson and Broussard (who, of course, wasn't with the club last April) have also combined to hit Vazquez well, 12-30 for a .400 average, with four extra-bases. So, it's not as if the Mariners don't stand a chance in tomorrow's game.

But, in reality, I fail to see Jake Woods over-coming the powerful White Sox offense, despite Chicago's recent streak of being unable to win for Vazquez. (Besides that seven game losing streak, they have also lost ten of Javier's last thirteen starts.) When all is said and done, I wouldn't be surprised if the final score is 7-3 in favor of Chicago, with at least Adrian, Richie, or Ben hitting a home-run. Along with Raul, who has simply been incredible this year....