Beavan knocked around, Mariners fall short

Things are going to start moving quickly in the final week, and today is just the beginning as Scott Baker finds himself unemployed, at his own request. But while Baker was packing his bags, the Mariners were playing a baseball game with the Chicago White Sox. Here's a short recap today, thanks to the Baker news.

• Blake Beavan was very Beavan again today, coughing up seven hits and seven earned runs through his 5.1 innings while only striking out three. Paired with his last start, he has probably fallen behind Randy Wolf and Roenis Elias in the battle for the 5th starter spot. It'll be interesting to see if the M's go with guaranteed mediocrity or roll the dice on Elias, who could be a nice surprise or a disastrous rush job. At this point, Zduriencik doesn't have much to lose.
  


• Look at this ridiculous meatball served up to Paul Konerko. Pitches don't get much fatter than that.
• Robinson Cano continued his ho-hum destruction of pitchers that don't care, ripping a bases-clearing double into the left-center gap in the 7th inning that brought the Mariners back to within one.
• Dustin Ackley continues to rope line drives all over the field, this time dumping a double down the right field line for the M's first run of the game.
• Abraham Almonte got a hit, but still looks lost at the plate. His leadoff at-bat was a mess, working a 3-1 count only to watch a great pitch to hit go by while lunging at a bad 3-2 pitch. He may be aggressive, but he's the wrong kind of aggressive right now. He's scuffling bad.
• Only four games remain until the season starts. It can't get here soon enough.