Great performance today from Pineiro. 5 hits in eight innings, and what should be to nobody's surprise, he took the loss, 2-1. Nine hits for the M's, and one run, on a Spiezio solo homer, to show for it. This is starting to get old. The really scary thing, though, is that it seems like not only the fans, but the players too, are getting used to losing. They need to make a move, or get into a brawl or something. Anything to shake things up a bit.

Melvin left Pineiro in for 120 pitches today, working all eight innings. In my opinion, there was no advantage to be gained leaving Joel in that long. First of all, the M's were behind in the late innings, so Joel wasn't in the position of protecting his own lead. If they were ahead, I could see (but maybe not agree with) the rationale of allowing Joel to win it himself, with the boost in Joel's confidence being worth the tradeoff of wearing him out for his next outing. Second, there's an off day tomorrow. While the bullpen had to work hard yesterday, everyone gets a day off tomorrow, so there's less need to conserve anyone's arm. Finally, Pineiro's been terrible so far this year. Why not take a fine seven inning performance to the bank and not risk a potential blowup in the eighth? Luckily, Joel came through in the eighth, but if he didn't, he'd be set even further back from returning to his nasty old self.

It was such a tough loss today. Right now they're not playing like a terrible ballclub. There getting hits, though mostly singles, and eventually they're going to string together a few and score some runs. Hopefully sooner than later.

Note: Shannon Drayer just said on the radio that the only relievers available today were Hasegawa and Myers. I'd go with Shiggy in the eighth, in that case.