The Indians were swept, but gave the contending White Sox all they could handle. How will they respond to facing the last-place Mariners?
UPDATED: 12:04 a.m.
SEATTLE, Wash. -- This is a daily briefing of the Indians' 2010 regular season. The Indians play the Mariners tonight in the first game of a four-game series at Safeco Field.
Safeco Field's dimensions: Left field line 331 feet, left center 390, center field 405, right center 387 and right field line 326. Outfield fence, 8 feet high.
In-game notes:
Score: Indians 4, Mariners 3, after six innings.
Break on through: The Indians had one hit and no runs through the first five innings against Doug Fister. Then they scored four runs on six hits against him in the sixth.
The big hit was Shin-Soo Choo's three-run double to the gap in right center to tie the score, 3-3. Travis Hafner followed with a single to right to give the Tribe a 4-3 lead. After Jayson Nix singled, lefty Garret Olson relieved.
Luis Valbuena started the rally by beating out an infield single to second. Michael Brantley and Asdrubal Cabrera followed with singles to load the bases before Choo delivered against his former team.
Fister entered the game with a 1-8 record in his last 13 starts. For five innings, however, the Indians could barely touch him.
Rough waters: Rookie Josh Tomlin pitched two trouble-free innings before giving up three runs in the third. Ichiro Suzuki doubled with one out, took third on Chone Figgins single and scored on Franklin Gutierrez's sac-fly to left.
Russell Branyan, traded by the Indians earlier this season, followed Gutierrez by crushing a 3-2 pitch down the right field line for a two-run homer. Branyan hit the ball off the facing off a restaurant above the lower deck for his 21st homer. He hit 10 of them with the Tribe.
Oops: Nix made his six error in 20 games at third base when he whiffed on Ryan Langerhaus' pop up in the fourth.
Pre-game notes:
Game 134: For non-contenders, September is a waste. They should play the games on the dark side of the moon. Nobody's watching anyway.
Manager Manny Acta knows all about Septembers at the bottom of the barrel. He's managed four years in the big leagues and September has found him in last place three times. He spent the other season, 2009, at home after getting fired by Washington in July.
It's hard to judge success or failure in September, because bad clubs have lost their edge. They're playing kids and looking toward next year.
There is one upside to September besides it being the last month of a long year. Bad teams still get to play contenders in games that mean something. It is a decent way to gauge their development.
"The energy level should always be there regardless of who you play, but when you play a contender it's automatically there," said Acta. "Not necessarily for the spoiling thing, I don't enjoy that. . .I like it because something is on the line."
The Indians played that way against Chicago. Yes, they were swept, but they were in every game until late, losing 10-6 Monday, 4-3 Tuesday and 6-4 Wednesday.
That was Chicago. Now the Indians open a four-game series against a last-place Seattle club that has won one fewer game than the Indians. Few thought the Indians would contend this season. The Mariners, however, were thought to be in position to win the AL West.
But they fired manager Don Wakamatsu and traded Cliff Lee to the division-leading Rangers. Ken Griffey Jr. fell asleep in the clubhouse, woke up and decided to retire; Milton Bradley got hurt (again); Franklin Gutierrez signed a big contract and is hitting .251; Chone Figgins signed a big contract, got into a fight with Wakamatsu in the dugout and laid an egg, Felix Hernandez might be pitching better than he did last season when he won 19 games, but he's 10-10.
It will be interesting to see how the Indians respond to this challenge.
Quick hits:
Indians went 3-6 on just completed nine-game homestand.
Tribe has lost 34 of the last 53 road games. They're 24-41 on the road.
Tribe starts September a season-high 24 games out of first place in the AL East.
Tribe has won five straight at Safeco Field. They are 93-78 overall in Seattle and 27-19 at Safeco Field.
Alex Lavisky, eighth-round pick, hit .200 (3-for-15) with three RBI, Tony Wolters, third-round pick, hit .211 (4-for-19) with three RBI and DeVon Washington, second-round pick, hit .444 (4-for-9) with three RBI, for the Indians' Arizona Rookie League team.
Lineups:
Indians (53-80): CF Michael Brantley (L), SS Asdrubal Cabrera (S), RF Shin-Soo Choo (L), DH Travis Hafner (L), 3B Jayson Nix (R), 1B Jordan Brown (L), LF Trevor Crowe (S), 2B Luis Valbuena (L), C Lou Marson (R) and RHP Josh Tomlin (2-3, 4.08).
Mariners (52-81): RF Ichiro Suzuki (L), 2B Chone Figgins (S), CF Franklin Gutierrez (R), DH Russell Branyan (L), 3B Jose Lopez (R), 1B Casey Kotchman (L), C Adam Moore (R), LF Ryan Langerhaus (R), SS Chris Woodward (R) and RHP Doug Fister (4-10, 3.73).
Umpires: H Mike Winters, 1B Hunter Wendelstedt, 2B Brian Runge, 3B Jerry Layne. Layne, crew chief.
Quote of the day: "I loved the game. I loved the competition. But I never had any fun. I never enjoyed it. All hard work all the time," Boston Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski from the Baseball Almanac.
Next: RHP Fausto Carmona (11-13, 4.19) vs. LHP Luke French (3-4, 4.13) Friday at 10:10 p.m.