Baseball

[Tara]

 :o  You missed Blu and the Yankees   :o

[SaintHiρρo]

:o  You missed Blu and the Yankees   :o

ROFL, I didn't want to scan thru all those pages to see who was going for who so I just threw out the names I already knew. Next week I'll have all the names associated with the correct teams hopefully and I will include what SI said about each time (like they said the following about the Mariners: Just when the M's figured they had pitcher Felix Hernandez figured out ... well, they didn't. Last year's rookie stud stumbled on Sunday by giving up seven earned runs, a start after allowing 10 against the A's. Somehow, the Mariners won Sunday's game anyway, completing a sweep of the Padres. Don't ask me how they pulled that one off.)

So thus far I've left out Blu & Hades (both Yankees). Anyone else?

[CindyLouWho]

you can put me for the O's if ya want.  good times & bad times, i always stick with em  ;D

[SaintHiρρo]

you can put me for the O's if ya want.  good times & bad times, i always stick with em  ;D

Ok, got ya down.

[RowdyOne]

whose watching the Astros and Nationals game aside from myself ?

this pitcher for the nationals just made a intentional walk pitch that almost landed in the stands behind home plate lol   the astros are winning 9-3 in the 7th!!!!!   Hey Jim maybe your team could use that pitcher? huh huh lol

[bobby]

whose watching the Astros and Nationals game aside from myself ?

this pitcher for the nationals just made a intentional walk pitch that almost landed in the stands behind home plate lol   the astros are winning 9-3 in the 7th!!!!!   Hey Jim maybe your team could use that pitcher? huh huh lol

nope we have much better pitchersand we r on r way for r 4th win in a row

and the sox are trying to do ya a favor if they can pull out a win in extras O0

[bobby]

b o t t o m is bleeped :P

[bobby]

and there ya' go game winning bunt 5-4 sox O0 O0

[hades]

give it a few days and theyll be right back in it  :-X

[SaintHiρρo]

Well heck, since jimbo is posting stories for his team, I say we all post stories we copied off the net for our favorite team and post 'em as well. Tonight/tomorrow night I'm posting comments/stories from all teams that played tonight.

[hades]

after one sweep its funny how jims looking for world series rings for his team  ::)

[DoubleOscotty]

M E T S METS METS METS! What a game. Sorry everybody asleep and I can't scream

[hades]

if johnson keeps pitching like that he should be given away free to the mariners  ;D

[SaintHiρρo]

SEATTLE (AP) -- Ramon Hernandez is paying off handsomely for the Baltimore Orioles.

Hernandez, signed to a $27.5 million, four-year contract last winter, hit a three-run homer and a grand slam Tuesday night -- the latter in a nine-run ninth inning that finished off the Seattle Mariners in a 14-4 victory.

Hernandez matched his career high with seven RBIs, accomplished twice before, in leading the Orioles to their second win in 10 road games. It was his fourth career two-homer game. Corey Patterson reached safely six times while homering and doubling twice, ending Seattle's season-high four-game winning streak.

Hernandez, a career .262 hitter in seven previous seasons with San Diego and Oakland, is batting .316 with 36 RBIs in his first 42 games with the Orioles.

The catcher is apparently so dedicated to his new team, he was away lifting weights 45 minutes after the game after all of his teammates had changed and filed out of the clubhouse for the night.

"Ramon's been outstanding all year long," Baltimore manager Sam Perlozzo said. "He really has been great -- on both sides of the field."

Hernandez hit a three-run shot over the Orioles' bullpen bench far beyond left field in the first off starter Joel Pineiro. Hernandez's grand slam off Jake Woods capped Baltimore's big ninth.

It was Hernandez's fourth career slam and first since Sept. 27, 2005, with the Padres against San Francisco. He had seven RBIs in that game and on Aug. 9, 2003, with the Athletics at the Chicago White Sox.

Patterson's two doubles and a long home run in the fifth inning all came off Pineiro (4-5), who allowed 10 hits and five earned runs in another poor outing. Pineiro has allowed at least five earned runs in each of his last three starts and five times overall.

Patterson is hitting .344 (33-for-96) since going 1-for-15 to begin the season.

Pineiro said it was obvious during Baltimore's four-run first inning that he had no life on his fastball, so Patterson, Hernandez and friends attacked his off-speed pitches.

"I let my team and myself down, after the way we've been playing," Pineiro said.

Orioles emergency starter John Halama didn't. The 34-year-old lefty, filling in after rookie Hayden Penn had an appendectomy Monday night, allowed four hits and two runs over five innings in his first start since Sept. 7. Halama (3-1), a former Mariner, earned his first win as a starter since Oct. 3, 2004, with Tampa Bay at Detroit.

He hadn't thrown more than 50 pitches in any game this season before firing 67 effective ones at his former team.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you I wasn't tired. It caught up to me," Halama said. "I didn't want to jeopardize the bullpen."

Before the game, Perlozzo said Adam Loewen, who made a brief major league debut Tuesday after being called up from Double-A Bowie, was the likely starter on Sunday at the Los Angeles Angels. But that was before Halama's crafty work.

"I don't know. We're going to have to discuss that," Perlozzo said after the game.

Loewen, who arrived from a game in Altoona, Pa., eight hours before Tuesday's first pitch, relieved Halama to begin the sixth. His first major league pitch skidded to the backstop. But he rallied to freeze cleanup batter Richie Sexson as strike three crossed the inside corner.

But then Loewen walked Carl Everett and hit Adrian Beltre with a pitch. Kenji Johjima followed with a single that pulled Seattle to 5-3.

LaTroy Hawkins entered in the eighth and gave up an RBI triple to Adrian Beltre that made it 5-4. But Johjima and pinch-hitter Roberto Petagine popped out before Chris Ray fanned pinch-hitter Jeremy Reed to end the threat.

"That last at-bat is something I'm regretting right now," Johjima said through a translator.

Baltimore then scored nine times off J.J. Putz and Woods. Rookie Nick Markakis had his third hit and second RBI, a run-scoring double. Kevin Millar, Brandon Fahey and Javy Lopez had RBI singles. Then came Hernandez's grand ending.

Ray got four outs for his 11th save in 11 chances. He laughed and said he's never had a 10-run save.

Notes
Orioles RF Jay Gibbons missed the game after the death of his mother in Southern California on Tuesday morning. The team is not sure whether Gibbons will go on the bereavement list. Perlozzo said Gibbons told him late Tuesday afternoon he will try to play Wednesday. ... Suzuki had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, longest in the AL this season.

[SaintHiρρo]

Early Tuesday night, the Safeco Field message board carried an announcement that "two lucky fans" would win survival backpacks when Seattle scored its first two runs.

By the time the winners got their gear in the third inning, the Baltimore Orioles had four runs en route to a 14-4 win, ending the Mariners' four-game win streak.

By the time the game was done, it was the Mariners who needed the survival backpacks and the lucky fans who stayed home and did not have to see this.

The really lucky ones left before the ninth when Seattle, having flailed and failed to enlarge on solo-run rallies in the sixth and eighth innings, could not keep the Orioles from turning this game into garbage with nine runs.

Ramon Hernandez, who started the scoring with a three-run homer in the first, closed the onslaught in the ninth with his fourth career grand slam for his fourth career two-homer game.

In contrast to Baltimore starter John Halama and the relievers who shut down Seattle's bid while it was still a ballgame, the Mariners' Joel Pineiro had a third straight rough start to render his two brilliant starts opening this month a distant memory.

"Part of the game, part of the season," said Mariners manager Mike Hargrove, who called the pitcher into his office for a chat.

Pineiro said the manager told him not to worry, that he had good stuff, to stay positive.

"I like the idea of being positive," Pineiro said. "I feel like I let the team down, let myself down, from the way we've been playing."

The four straight wins came since the last start in Oakland by Pineiro, who allowed only three runs in 17 innings in those first two May starts against Minnesota and Cleveland, and allowed that many on Hernandez's shot into the visitors' bullpen in the first.

Of the 16 earned runs he has allowed in 14 innings since, 13 have come in the first three innings of the three starts.

"I was talking to [Jarrod] Washburn and he told me to warm up like I'm facing batters," Pineiro said. "I've got to try something. Getting ready in the bullpen next time, I'll act like I'm pitching to the first three batters and see how that goes."

The first three batters were only part of Pineiro's problem last night. He walked Brandon Fahey to open the game, and got breaks when Melvin Mora lined out to third and Adrian Beltre threw Fahey out trying to score on Javy Lopez's grounder.

But Pineiro is currently doomed to give up early runs, and he missed out over the plate with a so-so fastball at 89 mph that Hernandez drove into the O's bullpen for a 3-0 jump.

By the time the inning was done, Pineiro had thrown 35 pitches, dooming himself to a short night.

Halama, a former Mariner, had a leg up in an emergency start after Hayden Penn wound up in Swedish Hospital with appendicitis. Seattle touched the lefty for two runs in the third, but he basically stunted a three-on, no-out bid after he walked Jose Lopez to force in a run.

"Halama did outstanding," Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo said. "He hadn't pitched in a week and the most pitches he threw was about 55.

"He came in when we needed and gave us five great innings."

Halama's third was the first of three innings in which the Mariners scored some and missed much more.

The Mariners got a run in the sixth, but former Mariner Todd Williams fanned Yuniesky Betancourt and Ichiro to end the rally with the bases loaded.

In the eighth, Beltre tripled home a run when Corey Patterson dropped his deep fly after a long run, making it 5-4 with no outs. But LaTroy Hawkins got Kenji Johjima and pinch-hitter Roberto Petagine on infield pop-ups, and Chris Ray came in to fan pinch-hitter Jeremy Reed, leaving Beltre stranded at third.

"I thought about letting [Willie] Bloomquist go up and maybe bunting for a run," Hargrove said.

"But Petagine's done a good job pinch-hitting for us. He just couldn't get the ball out of the infield this time."

Still, it was still 5-4 into the ninth after three shutout innings by the bullpen.

Mariners closer J.J. Putz got up on Patterson 0-2, then hit him. And, after two broken-bat hits, the deluge came, capped by Hernandez's slam off Jake Woods.

"It was an avalanche," Putz said. "We just couldn't stop it."

[bubblegum]

I know this is on the humor side of things, but its also about baseball.

Top Ten Signs Your Baseball Team Won't Be Playing in the World Series

10. Team's idea of a double play -- bourbon with a beer chaser.

9. Home games played in parking lot of local bowling alley.

8. Players refuse to slide for fear of ruining their manicure.

7. Manager is in excellent shape from walking out to the mound after every pitch.

6. Players keep pointing at the bat and saying, "Is that some kinda ball-wackin' stick?"

5. Team uniforms are made from duct tape and bedspreads.

4. When team takes the field, they are carrying folding chairs.

3. On pop fouls, catcher takes off his mask, jersey, socks, and pants.

2. You best hitter's nickname: "The Sultan of Suck."

1. Instead of tobacco, players chew asbestos.

[hades]

jim what happened to that twenty game mariners win streak you predicted?  :))

[bubblegum]

Since Jim says the mariners are going to win a 20 game streak.....

Then I say the Mariners and the Yankees are going to go head to head at the world series this year.  Both teams will force a 7th game and drag the final game out into the 16th inning in which the Mariners will win by 22-21.

Can anyone top that?

[SaintHiρρo]

jim what happened to that twenty game mariners win streak you predicted?  :))

It's probaby in the same place as his comments he edited yesterday that said the Mariners were going to come back from 5 runs down.... only to get blown out! Seems he edited it and put a  O0 in it's place.

[hades]

hes rather quiet since the loss.  ::)