For the first two games of the Twins series, the Mariners were unloading upon Minnesota's pitchers, playing home-run derby in the cozy confines of the Metrodome. The M's made Matt Garza look pretty silly in a 9-4 win on Monday. Garza had allowed just one home-run all year, but the M's touched him for four home-runs and seven runs as Garza was unable to make it out of the third inning. The Mariners proved that there is nothing quite like using vengeance to get revenge on someone, getting Garza back for his dominating, seven-inning three-run start that he tossed against the Mariners a week prior in Safeco.

The M's jumped out to an early lead again on Tuesday, with Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson hitting back-to-back home-runs in the second inning to continue with the home-run heroics. The scored stayed 2-0 for five innings before the teams traded runs in the sixth. Regardless, with the M's breaking the game open for four runs in the eighth against Minnesota's bullpen, Jarrod Washburn was finally able to pick up his first win in two-and-a-half months with yesterday's 7-2 victory.

However, today the Twins got back at the M's for Seattle's batters putting them in early deficits the first two games. Miguel Batista was on the mound, having won six of his last eight starts, and only once this season and had only pitched less than five innings in a start twice this season. However, he was out of the game today by the third inning, as the Twins pounced all over his offerings for seven runs in the first inning, fueled by Michael Cuddyer's grand slam. After getting lead-off batter Alexi Casilla to ground out, Batista allowed hits to the next seven batters. After allowing another run in the third, Batista was replaced by Ryan Rowland-Smith, who had been selected by the Twins in the Rule 5 draft a couple seasons back but had to be returned to the Mariners. Rowland-Smith shut the suddenly potent Twins offense, tossing four hitless innings as the Mariners put four runs on the board. Despite reliever John Parrish giving up five hits, the Twins were unable to score and the game ended with the score at 8-4.

Ben Broussard's home-run in the seventh- his first at-bat in 11 games- was the M's seventh home-run of the series. Indeed, offensive heroics were spread throughout the line-up for this series. Adrian Beltre picked up six hits in 14 at-bats, with two doubles and a home-run, to extend his hitting streak to six games. Raul Ibanez had a big explosion on Monday, with three hits and two RBIs. Ichiro picked up six singles in 14 at-bats, while two of Richie Sexson's three home-runs left the yard.

The Mariners continue their ardorous journey on the road, arriving in Arlington tomorrow to play three against the division rivals Texas Rangers. Hopefully, the Rangers' offense will be spent after the history-making 30-3 whuppin' they gave the Baltimore Orioles at Camden yards this afternoon. Jeff Weaver takes the mound tomorrow for the Mariners, and while it may be tempting to root for the league's shut-out leader- 5.57 ERA and all- who's won all three of his starts in August to pitch a good game tomorrow, Weaver has historically pitched very poorly against the Rangers in Arlington (2-5, 5.25 ERA against the Rangers and a 1-2 record with a 6.23 ERA at Ameriquest Field).

Weaver's mound opponent, Kameron Loe, pitched five scoreless innings in his last start to win his for the first time since the beginning of July. The Rangers topped the M's 4-3 in Loe's last outing against Seattle a few weeks back. Loe has a career 2-1 record and 3.82 ERA against the M's over 33 innings. Although Beltre has only two hits in 11 career at-bats against Low, Yuniesky Betancourt (.455 in 11 at-bats), Raul Ibanez (.385 in 13), and Ichiro (.308 in 13) enjoy feasting on Loe's offerings. However, the only Mariner to have homered off Loe is Jose Guillen, which was also Guillen's only basehit in five at-bats against Loe.

It's going to be a rock 'em- sock 'em type game tomorrow night with this pitching match-up. And with Weaver on the mound, I'm still going to have to go with Loe. The Rangers will go on top, 11-6. If that happens, let's just hope the Angels (who are facing Toronto and rookie Jesse Litsch, who's pitched surprisingly well for a 24th round draft pick) lose tomorrow. Which is doubtful....