National League game in the American League

Saturday night I was watching the Rays at the Mariners. The Rays went on to win it on a Dioner Navarro sacrifice fly.

Seattle blew a 5 run lead (Tampa went ahead 7-5), and then tie the game again in the bottom of the eighth. Seattle ran out of position players by the tenth, so getting to the eleventh might have meant that the Seattle pitcher (Miguel Batista) would have to have a plate appearance if it got to him. Hence the title of this blog entry. It did not come to that, as the Rays went down one two three in the bottom of the eleventh, giving Troy Percival his 26th save.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Mariners had the bases loaded with only one out. At that point Joe Maddon had B.J. Upton, the centre fielder, play in the infield, right in front of second. So there were 5 infielders, and two outfielders. The OFers were playing essentially centre and right. Adrian Beltre (batting right) was up, and he managed to hit into a double play after fouling five off (the count was 1-2). It went to third baseman Willy Aybar to catcher Dioner Navarro to first baseman Carlos Pena (5-2-3).

Being that I am rooting for the Jays, I was rooting for the Mariners to win, as to somewhat aid the Jays in making some ground in the AL East. Since that didn't work out it was an entertaining ballgame nonetheless.

The Mariners went 4-6 on this particular homestand. They won a couple against the Twins and were one game shy of the sweep, and managed a win against Baltimore and Tampa Bay. Ichiro was a hit machine in the particular game I blogged about, going 4-6, with 3 RBI.

In the three consecutive wins the Mariners posted, Raul Ibanez was an RBI machine, hitting 14 in those three games (August 3-5). In the last two he had 6 and 5 RBI respectively! In the August 4th game, the Mariners came back from a 6-0 deficit scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the seventh! In that inning Raul Ibanez got all six of his RBI (a club record), hitting a grand slam, then singled to score two.

Theoren Fleury to play with the Calgary Vipers

Being a Canadian, this is of interest, as I am a hockey fan.

Former Calgary Flame (and other teams) Theoren Fleury will play for the Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League starting August 10.

I found a good article which touches on it, but focuses more on independent baseball in Canada, and the Vancouver Canadians, the last MLB affiliated baseball tam in Canada (single A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics). There's a new reality for baseball's Boys of Summer.
Minor-league clubs forced to seek different revenue streams.

Read the more recent article at sportsnet.ca.