I was in manager Don Wakamatsu’s office for a little chat this afternoon and the subject of his lineup for today’s series finale against the Angels came up.

“Who’s on first?” I asked.

“No, Who’s on second,” he responded.

Funny man, isn’t he?

The man manning first base today against the Angels is Jose Lopez.

“With (Scott) Kazmir pitching, I want to get as many right-handed bats in the lineup as I can,” Wakamatsu explained.

OK, with Lopez at first base, who’s playing second?

“Guess,” he said.

“Josh Wilson,” I said.

“Nope.”

“Jack Wilson,” I said.

“Nope.”

“Jack Hannahan?”

“Nope”.

Before getting to Ichiro, I said “Bill Hall.”

Bingo.

For the first time since being acquired from the Brewers, but not the first time in his career, Hall will play second base against the Angels.

“I wanted to see Billy Hall play a little second base,” Wakamatsu said. “He’s turned into kind of a super utility for us. I know he’s played in the past and he’s done a nice job over there.”

Meanwhile, right-hander Carlos Silva said he felt good about the way he threw in his one-inning outing for Class-A Everett on Tuesday night. He allowed three hits and two runs (one earned).

His next outing probably will come Thursday night with Triple-A Tacoma, where he will pitch one or two innings.

Right-hander Brandon Morrow is scheduled to make his final start for Tacoma on Sunday, but has some tightness in his right forearm.

Meanwhile, a perfectly good conversation was interrupted by none other than Ken Griffey Jr. He walked into the manager’s office armed with the latest versions of the “Junior Tie”. One was a picture of Ichiro’s face that someone said was from the cover of GQ magazine and the other one (both white silk ties, by the way) was of Ichiro’s dog, Ikkyz. 

— Jim Street