Jsut as meche's winless streak came to an end, the Mariners' streak of winning all of Cha Seung baek's starts ended in today's 10-0 fiasco. As noted in my previous post, baek has had a history of poor luck against the Blue Jays, and in two career starts has now allowed 14 earned runs in a career six innings against Toronto over two starts. Yikes!

And, as I noted, Burnett can dominate the marienrs when he is "on." And he was defintiely "on" today. Over eight innings, Burnett allowed no runs on six hits and struck out eleven, as the Marienrs were shut-out for a major-league leading (and club-record tying) fifteenth time, though it feels like they've been shut-out 115 times this year.

The Mariners offense were able to generate nothing against Burnett, as of the seven hits against B.J., only two went for extra bases- doubles by Adrian Beltre and Chris Snelling. (beltre's double maintaining his average at a gag-a-riffic .255.) And, to nobody's surprise who's follwod the M's hack-tastic season so far, managed only two walks against Burnett's 11 K's. On the contrary, the patient Blue Jays worked seven walks against M's pitching, and combined with 12 hits that's a lot of baserunners for an afternoon. To compare the various degress of effectivenss of the two teams' offenses, take a look at the number of men left on base- seven for the Blue Jays, fifteen for the M's.

Sigh.

All though they do end up splitting the six-game home-stand with a .500 record, the Mariners get an imemdiate chance to right their ship on the first game of their road trip as it takes them striaght into the heart of baseball medicocrity in Kansas City. However, while typically a trip to Kansas City may cause a marienrs fan to rub their hands and lick their chops in glee, it must be pointed out that this a different, younger, and more talented Royals club then we've seen recently. As I write this, the Royal are roughing up Jake Westbrook and the Indians 6-2 going into the bottom of the ninth. None of the Royals' top six batters have abatting average below .270. This will be the first time the Mariners get a look at first-baseman Ryan Shealy, who at one point was rumored to be pushing Todd Helton out of Colorado. And last night, pitcher Runelys Hernandez took some swings at catcher John Buck, despite the team coming on top of a 5-3 win.

Thos Royals are muy feisty!

However, despite their offense, the key weakness for the Royals has been their pitching for a long while. Case in point is the Royals' starter for the first game of the series, Odalis perez, who pouted and burned so many bridges for the Dodogers while posting up such guady numbers as a 4-4 record and 6.83 ERA that I bet the Dodgers' braintrust quietly called the Royals' managemtn team "suckers" for allowing them an opportunity to dump Perez in Kansas City. For the Royals, his numbers have been not-quite-as-bad: 1-3 with a 5.48 ERA in eight starts.

However, he is a left-hander facing the Mariners for the first time. For some reason, that messes with the teams' fragile mental state. Of the two current Mariers who have received more than six at-bats against Perez, both Beltre and Sexson have three hits for a .500 average, and Eduardo Perez has homered off Perez in four at-bats. I'm a-thinking that Perez's eroding physical skills and continued arm troubles over the past couple of years will be no problem for the M's bats. If they can't take advantage of an obvious below-replacement level pitcher, then their offense truly is the worst in Seattle's history.

Hoping to reap the rewards of a generous Mariners' offense is Jarrod Washburn, fresh off his six-inning one-run no-decision against Texas last week. Washburn has had little problems with Kansas City throughout his career, posting a 6-3 record and 3.13 ERA in 11 starts, though he did allow seven runs versus Kansas City in 4.1 innings in his only start against him this year, so let's hope he pitches as he did last week and not how he did last June. Mike Sweeney- has had discovered his bat as of recently- has enjoyed good career success versus Washburn, with a .346 average and .885 OPS in 26 at-bats. And John Buck, Emil Brown, and Angel Berroa have homered off Washburn in limited at-bats, though he has kept second baseman Mark Grudzielanke to one hit in eleven at-bats.

For an "out-burst" by the M's, I guess they would have to score six runs with this offense. As long as Washburn can keep the Royals to fewer than that- which he had trouble doing a few months ago- the Marienrs should be able to go back in the win column. Though I'm a little wary of this kid Shealy that the Royals have. He's been putting up good numbers for the Royals since coming over from the Rockies- .301 with four homers and 23 RBIs in 40 games. He might be the unheralded difference in tomorrow's ballgame...