Ryan Rowland-Smith's second start: live comments

Ryan Rowland-Smith has begun his second start. Here's a summary of the game :

Top 1st

• RRS battled Curtis Granderson for six pitches, throwing plenty of strikes and getting some fouls, before drawing a groundout to second.
• Placido Polanco took the first pitch for a strike, before smacking the second to left field for a double.
• He got ahead of Carlos Guillen with his first pitch strike, and drew a pop out to 1st on his 1-1 changeup.
• He walked Miguel Cabrera after battling for nine pitches
• Marcus Thames came out swinging and missing at Ryan's heat, before grounding into a forceout at third on 1-2 curveball to end the inning.

Not a bad start from Ryan, he started off pretty much where he left off after his last start; throwing plenty of strikes and getting ahead early in the count. 18 of his 25 pitches so far are strikes, and he bounced back well after giving up the hit and walking Cabrera; which probably ended up a pretty good move. Next dig he'll face Ivan Rodriguez, Edgar Renteria and Clete Thomas.

Top 2nd

• Ivan Rodriguez fouled off the first two pitches before slapping a weak line drive to left field for a single
• Edgar Renteria smacked his first pitch into shallow center on a hit run play. Willie Bloomquist busted in hard to take the catch and save the day
• Clete Thomas went down on strikes, swinging and missing at a 76mph curveball to notch up RRS's first strikeout of the game
• Ryan Raburn walked on four pitches, with a pickoff attempt in the midst
• Curtis Granderson came up for his second at bat, and took the first pitch for a ball. Rowland-Smith came back at him with a curveball for a strike, before missing inside with a changeup. At 2-1 he threw a breaking ball that missed low. He drew a foul down the first base line to take the count to 3-2. Ryan missed again and walked him.
• Placido Polanco was the victim of an outstanding play by third baseman Adrian Beltre. He smacked a grounder down the line, and it looked like it was going to score some runs, but Beltre made a great stop and threw Polanco out at first to end the inning.

Ryan has continued to throw plenty of strikes, but that inning nearly got away from him. He was saved by two very solid defensive plays. I guess that's a nice luxury in the bigs, you have a team that is going to take every opportunity they get to make an out. His pitch count is up to 45, which is probably a lot higher than he would have liked to be at at this point.

Top 3rd

It would be nice if he could get some support from his team in the batter's box as well as in the field. They only forced Nate Robertson to throw eight pitches in the second.

• He began effectively, throwing a first pitch strike to Carlos Guillen, before another spectacular defensive play got him out. He lined one at third, Adrian Beltre deflected it to shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who threw him out.
• Ryan got to 2-2 against Miguel Cabrera, who then grounded out to third.
• Marcus Thames struck out on a foul tip.

Good inning. Very good inning. Ryan got back on top and showed good control of his fastball and changeup. He only threw 12 pitches, so is up to 57.

The Mariners got a couple of hits and scored a run in the bottom of the third, giving Ryan a 1-0 lead to protect. Good stuff.

Top 4th

Like the 2nd, he'll face Ivan Rodriguez, Edgar Renteria and Clete Thomas.

• Ryan punched the first pitch in for a strike, before giving up another hit to Ivan Rodriguez, this time to shallow centre.
• Edgar Renteria flew out to left field on the second pitch.
• Clete Thomas flew out to right field on a 1-2 curveball, courtesy of another neat defensive play, this time from Ichiro.
• While Ryan Raburn was batting, Rowland-Smith made two attempts at picking off Pudge Rodriguez. When he went to the plate and Rodriguez ran, Kenji Johjima threw him out at second to end the inning.

This is exciting stuff. The Mariners are playing good baseball today, giving Ryan a lot of support. So far we have had two great catches, two very nice infield plays, and now a caught steal. Ryan should be feeling pretty good out there. He's now up to 69 pitches, 46 of them strikes. Word before the game was that he would be given 80. So he should come out in the 5th, if he can get through it he will be in line to take the win should the Mariners hold on.

Top 5th

• Ryan Raburn got to a full count before smacking a big homerun to left field on a high fastball. This prompted the Mariner's bullpen to action.
• Curtis Granderson smacked a hard single to right.
• Rowland-Smith battled to get back on top, getting behind 2-0 against Placido Polanco, before throwing a strike. Polanco then flew out to left on a hard hit fly ball.
• Carlos Guillen stepped in and took the first pitch for a ball. He hit a broken bat single to third but the M's got the force out of Granderson at second.
• Miguel Cabrera popped up to shallow right field.

Ryan went 5 innings, and threw 86 pitches. That will probably be it for him today, but it was a strong outing. 5 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts and 1 earned run. It'd be awesome if the Mariners hitters can come out in the bottom of the fifth and re-claim that lead for Ryan to take a win.

Bottom 5th

That was optimistic. The Mariners came out and were retired in order off 6 pitches. Not sure yet if Ryan will continue, but it doesnt look like he will. So he will be in line for a no-decision.

Top 6th

Mark Lowe replaced Ryan Rowland-Smith.