Well, that was a wild ride, and it was fun while it lasted. But of course, facing Ervin Santana at Angels Stadium, where he's 23-6, pretty much meant that the M's hot offensive streak would go kaput. Indeed, Santana held the M's to seven baserunners in the 4-1 Angel win. Ryan Feierabend pitched into the seventh inning (which probably wasn't expected) and allowed four runs (which probably was) which meant that he pitched well enough to win pretty much every other game on this road trip.

But the M's bats just disappeared and were unable to provide Ryan with any support. Although Ichiro continued his hitting streak to 22 games with a sharp single in the first inning, but the M's streak of consecutive games with at least ten hits ended at six. Ichiro eventually came around to score, but when Kenji Johjima grounded out with the bases loaded to end the first inning, that was pretty much the extent of the Mariners' possibilities for the evening. One mistake pitch by Feierabend to Shea Hillebrand in the fourth inning- which Shea hammered for a two-run home-run- effectively put the game out of reach. Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson reverted to their hitless ways, combining to go 0-for-6 on the evening, but considering the Mariners had such trouble getting runners on base, their was only one runner left on base between the two of them.

So the M's first big test of the season ended up naught due to an offense being stymied by strong starting pitching. The M's have a pretty good chance of taking the series in this evening's game, with Felix Hernandez on the mound looking to pitch deep into the ballgame and prove that his back isn't too much of a concern to pull him before he's ready. In his career, Felix has split four decisions against the Angels, with a 3.15 ERA and a 30:6 K-to-BB ratio in 34 innings. He's been very effective at neutralizing the threatening bat of Vladimir Guerrero (hitting .286 in 14 at-bats with no extra base hits) and even if Orlando Cabrera and Gary Matthews Jr. have combined to go 18-for-38 off Felix for a .474, Felix has minimized the damage as only three of those hits went for extra bases.

However, one of Felix's losses against the Angels was a 7-1 smackdown last July when the M's were making noises about being a .500 team and competing in the division. That game was delivered to the Angels by Felix's mound opponent for this evening, Jered Weaver, who rolled over the M's in that match-up amidst rolling over the rest of the league on his way to winning his first nine decisions. Jered not off to quite a dominating start this season, as his 4-3 record can attest to. Still, his overall record against the Mariners include a 2-1 record, 2.89 ERA, and a 19:4 K-to-BB ratio in 18.2 innings over three starts. Raul Ibanez and Ichiro Suzuki have both hit home runs off Weaver, and combined for a .571 average and 1.071 slugging off Jered. Ben Broussard has enjoyed success off Jered as well, picking up four hits in eight at-bats, but Jered has made the bats of Beltre and Sexson disappear, as the two have combined to go 1-for-17 against the younger and better Weaver brother.

I'm going to have to give the nod in favor of the Angels in this game, even with Felix on the mound. I've just seen Jered make the Mariners look awfully silly, and until they prove otherwise, I'm going to give Jered the edge in any match-up. 3-2, Angels.