Well, the answer to at least one of the questions I had for this weekends' series in Tampa Bay was answered Friday night: and that was that the Mariners would be unable to generate enough offense to beat Jamie Shields.

In his last two starts against the Mariners, Jamie has allowed three runs in 15 innings. Amazingly, he failed to earn a victory both times, losing a 2-0 game the first time, and being out of the game by the time Ty Wiggington's pinch-hit single knocked in the winning run with two outs in the ninth inning of last night's 2-1 victory over the M's.

The only offense generated against Jamie was a second inning home run hit by Kenji Johjima. And that was all she wrote.

Meche, again, failed to earn his tenth win of the season and his first since mid-July. If he had gotten a lick of offense, he pitched well enough to win, allowing only four base-runners in eight innings and striking out eight. Only for the Mariners could a pitcher dial in a start like that and not win. Or for the Devil Rays as those numbers nearly mirror the start provided by Shields- seven innings, six base-runners.

Both teams got only five hits. It's just that Tampa Bay knew when the best times to get those hits were. And Adrian Beltre went 0-for-4 with two strike-outs to drop his season batting average to .263. At one point he was sniffing .270, now he's inching back towards the .250s.

Tonight the Mariners face J.P. Howell, a Kansas City Royals cast-off. Though Howell may have a 7.53 ERA on the season, his last start against Baltimore was a quality one, allowing just two runs in six innings. In Howell's only career appearance against the Mariners, he allowed six runs in five innings. Raul Ibanez owns the only Mariner home-run off Howell, with Beltre getting one hit in three at-bats. (Naturally, we should expect Howell to hand-cuff the M's offense!)

Young Korean right-hander Cha Seung Baek takes the mound for the Mariners in his third start of the season. In Baek's last start vlast Sunday, he two-hit the Boston Red Sox for nearly six innings, though he did give up five bases on balls. For his career, Baek has pitched only one inning against Tampa Bay, allowing no runs.

So tonight's game is one of those forgettable September match-ups of pitchers with two big question marks over their heads. Both teams are trotting them out there, not expecting much other than, hopefully, a clearer idea of how these pitchers will fit into future plans. There is no discernable edge to either team. Though Howell is below-replacement-level garbage, Delmon Young may take quite a liking to Baek's offerings. At any rate, I predict that this is the game that will be decided by the team's bullpwns,. which will ultimately doom Tampa bay. 10-3, Mariners.