With his team on a seven-game streak, 11 games above .500, Seattle manager Mike Hargrove quit today, explaining that 35 years in the business had simply left him too depleted to continue. Bench coach John McLaren will take over. GM Bill Bavasi, while supportive, acknowledged that Hargrove's departure left the team in a state of uncertainty.
Said Hargrove of the accumulated strain: "[The highs] were not high enough and the lows were too low." The surging Mariners, at any rate, seemed unaffected by the change at the helm, nipping Toronto in the final frame, 2-1, for their eighth straight. Ichiro Suzuki and closer J.J. Putz also learned of their selection for the 2007 All-Star Game. (More MLB stories.)