Kansas at Cleveland/Baltimore at New York

Started watching the Royals at Indians in the latter part of the game before extra innings.

With the score 1 apiece Jhonny Peralta singled on a line drive to left fielder David DeJesus in the bottom of the 9th. Asdrubal Cabrera was on second. DeJesus threw a one hopper to catcher Miguel Olivo, who held on to the ball while being collided into to record the out. Fast forward to the bottom of the 11th, this time the winning run on second being Michael Brantley. Jhonny Peralta again at the plate. Peralta singled to DeJesus who once again threw the outfield assist to Olivo who was knocked down again, but held on for the out. Top of the 12th, Miguel Olivo hit a solo homer, it ended up being the game winning homer. So Olivo the hero, but kudos to DeJesus' throwing arm!

The official description from the Royals site:

Miguel Olivo got the Royals started with an RBI groundout, withstood two collisions to deny runs at the plate and homered in the 12th to lead KC to a 2-1 win over Cleveland on Friday.

I also caught the end of the Orioles at Yankees. I tuned in just before Jeff Fiorentino grounded out to first baseman Jose Molina to pitcher Mark Melancon. Funny to see Molina playing 1B! One time I saw Expos backup catcher Einar Diaz play 3B at a game I was at in 2004. Molina probably could make it as a first baseman, when you think of Prince Fielder being at first.

Eric Hinske was the last out for the Yankees loss. Interesting fact, he has played for every AL East team save for the Orioles! The only non AL East team he has played for was for the Pirates.

Also of note, Justin Turner, Orioles 2B, got his first major league hit, a line drive to CF Brett Gardner. His major league debut was September 8th, at Boston, where he had 2 AB. He came in as a pinch hitter for Melvin Mora in the 7th. He stayed in the game playing third. His last AB was a line out to right.

Michael Dunn was the last of six Yankees pitchers tonight. He pitched the ninth. He gave up one hit, and struck out one. It was his second major league game at Yankee Stadium after making his major league debut September 4th in Toronto. In his MLB debut he only pitched .2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 walks (he was replaced by Edwar Ramirez, and then Aaron Hill doubled in those two runs).

Oh, and Derek Jeter got a couple hits.

End of Spring Trainging 2009 games.

With Spring Training 2009 coming to an end, that means some interesting games will be happening. So, in order...

Tomorrow the Astros (split squad) face their Double-A affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks in Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field. The Padres, also a split squad also face their Texas League Double-A affiliate, the San Antonio Mission in San Antonio at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium, what a boring name! Just kidding I don't know Nelson Wolff, but beats corporate naming. Dodgers face the Angels at home, that is in Dodger Stadium. The Athletics visit the Giants in San Francisco in another spring training interleague rival game.

Friday, the Orioles play host to the Nationals in Norfolk, home of the O's Triple-A affiliate Norfolk Tides, at Harbor Park. The Cincinnati Reds will visit their new Double-A affiliate, Carolina Mudcats. They were affiliated with the Marlins from 2003-2008.

Friday will get the most attention at the new Yankee Stadium and Mets park, Citi Field host their first games. The Yankees host the Cubs for a game Saturday and Sunday, while the Mets host the Red Sox, also for two games Saturday and Sunday.

Philadelphia and Atlanta will both host spring training games Friday and Saturday. Philadelphia will play last years World Series runners up, Tampa Bay Rays. Detroit will visit Atlanta both of those days. Detroit will then be heading to the Great White North where I'll see them against the Jays for the whole series! That would be Monday to Thursday.

Said Friday and Saturday will see the Dodgers still at home, hosting the Brewers. Sunday the Dodgers end Spring Training at AT&T park.

The Giants will host the A's Friday as well (Thursday as above), and Saturday face the A's in Oakland at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Friday and Saturday the Astros are at home in Houston to take on the Indians.

Friday the Texas Rangers are at the home of their Double-A affiliate Frisco RoughRiders to host the Royals. Saturday they face the Royals again, but at their park in Arlington.

Friday and Saturday is another MLB/Double-A matchup, but this time for the St. Louis Cardinals and Memphis Cardinals, in Memphis.

The Diamondbacks host the White Sox at Chase Field, you guessed it, Friday and Saturday. Padres will host the Angels Friday before the teams meet again Saturday but in Los Angeles.

The Mariners will play the Rockies in Las Vegas, alternating as home and away team. Friday Seattle will be the home team, Saturday Colorado. They will play at Cashman Field, home of the Las Vegas 51s, the now Triple-A affiliate of the Blue Jays.

That about sums it up. The Phillies home opener is Sunday night as they were the World Series Champs. They host the Braves. Monday is off, and then Tuesday and Wednesday the series resumes and ends, respectively. Must be to keep the schedule in order, while having the Sunday Night game.

Five rain delays (Two postponed)

Was watching a bit of the start of the Nationals at Marlins, as the Jays Red Sox game is rain delayed, and the announcer brought up all the rain delays. So I thought I'd write a brief post about it.

Minnesota at Baltimore (7:05)
St. Louis at Pittsburgh (7:05)
Tampa Bay at New York (7:05)
Toronto at Boston (7:05)
Atlanta at New York (7:10)

All of the above are rain delayed games, and below are the postponed games.

Milwaukee at Philadelphia (7:05) has been postponed
Chicago at Houston Friday and Saturday (7:05 CDT and 6:05 CDT) both postponed due to Ike.

Edit 2:25 AM EDT:

Of the five rain delayed games above, they were all postponed save for the Toronto at Boston game. It was delayed 41 minutes, and in said game rain came down steadily until the seventh or so. Toronto and Boston already has a doubleheader slated for Saturday, a makeup for an August 15 rain postponed game. The Tigers at White Sox (7:11 CDT) ended up being postponed as well.

Turns out it isn't quite a record:

It was the most major league postponements in one day since six games were wiped out on April 15, 2007. Prior to that, there hadn't been that many since April 12, 1997, when eight games were postponed, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

From tsn.ca.

Also:

It also set up an unusually full slate of games for Saturday. If the schedule holds, there will be 12 games in the American League for the first time since Aug. 8, 1985, and 20 games in the majors for the first time since Aug. 4, 1974, according to Elias.

And:

In New York, both the Mets and Yankees were postponed, setting up two doubleheaders Saturday. According to Elias, only twice before have Mets and Yankees both played two games at home on same day - on Sept. 21, 1982, and April 13, 1997.

More for the baseball mind at said tsn link above.

Official MLB news pieces:

Rain drops fallin', onto doubleheaders
Six games postponed Friday; six twin bills set for Saturday (here)
and
Baseball reigns with 20-game day
Fifteen of the games will have postseason implications (here)

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.