A little bit of Worcester in Seattle

SEATTLE -- Having decided to eat the remainder of Richie Sexson's $14 million salary and released the underachieving big galoot, who subsequently latched on with the Yankees for the pro-rated big-league minimum, the Mariners needed to add another first baseman. They came up with one that even the fantasy leaguers might have trouble recognizing -- Bryan LaHair. They won't have that problem in Worcester, where LaHair starred for Holy Name High before going to junior college in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he was drafted on the 39th round by the Mariners in the 2002 draft -- the 1,180th player chosen. LaHair, who will be wearing No. 39 and batting seventh tonight for the Mariners, grounded into a double play as a pinch hitter in his first big-league at-bat Friday night upon his recall from Triple-A Tacoma, then went 0 for 3 in his first start the next day.

The Mariners, preseason picks to win the AL West in many quarters, have had a disastrous season, one in which they've fired both GM Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren. Lee Pelekoudas, a long-time front-office executive here, was promoted to GM; he has since hired Jim Riggleman as manager, and one of the first things Riggleman did was to move Ichiro Suzuki back to right field from center. The M's are playing .500 ball (13-13) under Riggleman, who formerly managed the Cubs, took over June 20.

Two other notable developments with the M's: On Sunday, they reinstated closer J.J. Putz off the DL -- he'd missed five weeks with a hyperextended right elbow. Putz pitched a scoreless inning with a whiff yesterday against Cleveland.

The other reason to come watch a team 23 games under .500 is Ichiro, who needs just 7 more hits to reach 3,000 for his career -- the first 1,278 coming in Japan. Ichiro, who is one stolen base behind AL leader Jacoby Ellsbury, homered Saturday, his first extra-base hit in 136 plate appearances.

The Sox, who were swept three straight in Anaheim while scoring a total of eight runs, lost two of three to the M's here at the end of the May. Terry Francona is running out the same lineup against M's lefty Jarrod Washburn that he did Saturday against Angels lefty Joe Saunders, who held the Sox to a two-run homer by Kevin Youkilis in 6 2/3 innings. The Sox manager acknowledged that lineup changes have been discussed internally, but says he doesn't see any alterations that would make a substantive difference. That could all change Friday when David Ortiz, who is playing in Portland tonight, comes back. In the meantime, Francona expressed confidence in leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury, despite the rookie's .234 on-base percentage over the last 26 games. He said he has sufficient confidence that Ellsbury will play his way through it. He also reiterated that he will not start hitting for Jason Varitek, who is in the worst slump of his life.

Anyway, on to the lineups:

Red Sox
Jacoby Ellsbury LF
Dustin Pedroia 2B
J.D. Drew RF
Manny Ramirez DH
Mike Lowell 3B
Kevin Youkilis 1B
Coco Crisp CF
Jason Varitek C
Jed Lowrie SS

Jon Lester P

Mariners
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Willie Bloomquist CF
Raul Ibanez LF
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jose Lopez 2B
Miguel Cairo DH
Bryan LaHair 1B
Jeff Clement C
Yuniesky Betancourt SS