The Seattle Mariners on Thursday optioned left-handed pitcher Jason Vargas to Triple-A Tacoma and selected infielder Chris Shelton from Tacoma.

The AL West-leading Texas Rangers try to stay perfect on the season against the Seattle Mariners when the division foes open a four- game series this evening at Safeco Field.

It took them 84 games to earn a loss quite like this, and the Seattle Mariners wouldn’t mind waiting another three months or so before it happens again.

Andruw Jones hit three home runs in his first three at-bats, and the Texas Rangers routed the Los Angeles Angels, 8-1, on Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif.

If you weren’t familiar with Adam Moore, and you wandered into the Mariners spring training luncheon at Safeco Field last February, you would have left thinking Moore was destined to be the next Johnny Bench, Pudge Rodriguez or at least something definitely better than then-starting catcher Kenji Johjima.

Don Wakamatsu called it “the biggest inning of the year,” and he wasn’t talking about that disastrous top of the ninth inning for Seattle on Wednesday.

On a drippy, close-the-roof July afternoon Wednesday, Jason Vargas threw five shakey but shutout innings, Miguel Batista loaded the bases with no one out in the seventh – and still Seattle had Baltimore shut out into the ninth inning. Five hits, a walk and two errors later, the Orioles had come back with a five-spot, beating Aardsma and the Mariners, 5-3

(Sports Network) -- Luke Scott wasn't selected to the American League All-Star team, but the Baltimore Orioles outfielder has been doing his best lately to prove worthy of such an honor.

A day after his scintillating, one-hit shutout over the Baltimore Orioles, Jarrod Washburn was possibly the most popular man in the entire Puget Sound area.

It wasn’t supposed to work out like this for the Seattle Mariners’ bullpen. Jarrod Washburn’s complete-game, one-hit shutout on Monday was supposed to be helpful in giving the often-used group of pitchers a much-needed extra day of rest. Instead, on Tuesday Mariners relievers were battered for 10 runs in five innings, allowing a 3-2 lead to turn into a 12-4 defeat to the Baltimore Orioles at Safeco Field.
• Orioles 12, Mariners 4: Box score
• Mariners update: Statistics, AL West standings, more
• Washburn, the day after: Lefty is having too much fun to retire
• John McGrath: M’s fans taking a wait-and-see tack
• Rowland-Smith rolling: Left-hander throws best game of injury-plagued season for Rainiers

It was the sort of evening Seattle Mariners fans once were able to envision only in their daydreams.

Luke Scott drove in a career-high seven runs while falling a double short of the cycle in a three-hit performance, as the Orioles lit up Seattle's bullpen in a 12-4 thumping at Safeco Field.

The Seattle Mariners activated left-hander Erik Bedard on Tuesday and placed first baseman Mike Sweeney on the 15-day disabled list.

For the first few innings Jarrod Washburn looked like his typical self – working quickly – efficient and solid but not overwhelming. But in the innings that followed Washburn elevated himself and his pitching to a level beyond solid. The left-hander pitched perhaps the best game of his career and definitely the best game by a Seattle pitcher at Safeco Field on Monday night, twirling a stunning one-hit shutout to lead the Mariners to a 5-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
• Mariners 5, Orioles 0: Box score
• Mariners update: Statistics, AL West standings, more
• Endy surgery imminent: Smiling Chavez visits Mariners clubhouse

Outfielder Endy Chavez doesn’t have many reasons to smile these days.

Jarrod Washburn authored a sterling pitching performance, tossing his first-ever, one-hit shutout, as the Mariners defeated Baltimore, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game series at Safeco Field.

After acquitting themselves well on a very challenging road trip, the Seattle Mariners return to Safeco Field tonight to play the first of three straight meetings with the Baltimore Orioles.

BOSTON – The Seattle Mariners will have two players – Ichiro Suzuki and Felix Hernandez – in the 2009 All-Star game next week.

BOSTON – Midway through their season, the Seattle Mariners are on pace to win 84 games, have produced two All-Stars and went 5-4 on a trip that some fans thought might ruin their year.

David Aardsma belongs in the All-Star Game. The Seattle reliever has been on a lights-out roll since inheriting the closer’s role six weeks into the season.

BOSTON – The Seattle Mariners will have two players – Ichiro Suzuki and Felix Hernandez – in the 2009 All-Star game next week.

BOSTON – Midway through their season, the Seattle Mariners are on pace to win 84 games, have produced two All-Stars and went 5-4 on a trip that some fans thought might ruin their year.

David Ortiz went 2-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs batted in, as the Boston Red Sox scored five times in the seventh inning to defeat the Seattle Mariners, 8-4, and avoid a three-game sweep at Fenway Park.

No matter what happens today. No matter if Brandon Morrow walks the first eight batters he faces, no matter if Russell Branyan strikes out five times in a row, no matter if the Seattle Mariners lose, 22-0, to the Boston Red Sox, they will get on the plane after the game and know this trip has been a huge success.

The Seattle Mariners hope to complete their first-ever three-game sweep in Boston this afternoon when they wrap up their set with the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

BOSTON – Ryan Langerhans went six days without an at-bat, then started a game against CC Sabathia – and wound up winning a job as Seattle’s left fielder.

BOSTON – A team that lost 101 games last season hit the portion of its 2009 schedule that looked like a built-in losing streak – a trip to play the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox.

BOSTON – There seems to be nothing these Seattle Mariners like more than a good, close game, probably because it’s rare when they play any other kind.

BOSTON – One month into his major league career, reliever Shawn Kelley wound up on the disabled list – and worried for a time that the Seattle Mariners would think him a malingerer.

Rob Johnson went 3-for-5 with three doubles, including a two-run double in the top of the 11th, to lift the Seattle Mariners past the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox, 7-6, in the opener of a three-game set at Fenway Park.

NEW YORK – Chris Woodward never knows what position he might be asked to play, so he carries gloves for use in the outfield and various infield positions.

Seattle Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez was named the American League's Pitcher of the Month for June.

The Seattle Mariners activated rookie reliever Shawn Kelley from the 15-day disabled list on Friday.

Ryan Rowland-Smith’s push for a return to the Seattle Mariners’ starting rotation got a boost on Thursday night. The Tacoma left-hander returned from a five-game suspension and had his best outing since May 28, helping the Rainiers top Portland 5-3 at Cheney Stadium. Rowland-Smith gave up one run and scattered eight hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking one.

The Seattle Mariners enter the final leg of a challenging road trip with tonight's opener of a three-game series with the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox from Fenway Park.

NEW YORK – New York had won the first two games of the series and had ace CC Sabathia starting the finale while Seattle was countering with a guy who had the flu, Jason Vargas. The way this season has gone, all that meant was that Mariners had the Yankees right where they wanted them.
• Mariners 8, Yankees 4: Box score
• Mariners update: Statistics, AL West standings, more

Russell Branyan belted a two-run homer and the Mariners pounded CC Sabathia early on the way to an 8-4 win, ending New York's winning streak at seven contests.

NEW YORK — Franklin Gutierrez and Russell Branyan homered, leading the Seattle Mariners past CC Sabathia and the Yankees 8-4 on Thursday night to snap New York's seven-game winning streak. Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-run double that was misplayed by center fielder Melky Cabrera, and Chris Woodward added two RBI as the Mariners handed Sabathia (7-5) his second loss in 11 starts.

NEW YORK – When he saw hitting coach Alan Cockrell struggling with frustration a few weeks ago, Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu took him aside and told him to change his perspective.
• Yankees 4, Mariners 2: Box score
• Mariners update: Statistics, AL West standings, more
• Bedard pushed back again: Next start now Tuesday at Safeco

NEW YORK – If you had the Boston series in the office pool as to when Erik Bedard would make his next start, you lose.

Alex Rodriguez continued his recent power surge, belting the go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning that lifted the New York Yankees to their seventh straight victory, 4-2, over the Seattle Mariners.

Veteran lefty Andy Pettitte tries to break a back-and-forth stretch tonight, when the New York Yankees host the Seattle Mariners in the second test of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

When they put themselves in position to win, the best they could do was tie, so in the end the Seattle Mariners lost. Taking everything the New York Yankees could put together into the eighth inning on Tuesday, the Mariners never did take the lead, coughed up runs when it hurt the most and lost, 8-5.
• Betancourt to second base? Minus Beltre, M’s infield in transition
• Mariners update: Individual and team stats, AL West standings, more
• MLB scoreboard: Today's in-game updates, results

NEW YORK – The Seattle Mariners are on the brink of getting key players healthy – players like Erik Bedard, Shawn Kelley and Yuniesky Betancourt – but not all of them are promised the job they had when they were injured.

Melky Cabrera drove in three runs, including the go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning, boosting the New York Yankees to their sixth straight win, 8-5 over Seattle.

Seattle Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre underwent surgery Tuesday to remove bone spurs in his left shoulder.

Hard-throwing right-hander Joba Chamberlain tries again for win No. 1 on his new home field tonight, when the New York Yankees host the Seattle Mariners in the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK – The last time Brandon Morrow faced the New York Yankees was the first start and 101st major league appearance of his career and, yes, he remembers it. Fresh up from Tacoma, where he’d made himself a starting pitcher again – after an even 100 big-league relief appearances – Morrow strode to the Safeco Field mound last Sept. 5 and pitched the game of his life.
• Mariners update: Individual and team stats, AL West standings, more
• Yankees update: Individual and team stats, AL East standings, more

Before I suggest a low-maintenance replacement for the high-stress position usually occupied by Adrian Beltre, please meet Charles “Piano Legs” Hickman.

LOS ANGELES – Erik Bedard felt good Sunday, but isn’t certain when that will translate to pitching again for the Seattle Mariners.