Technically the Major League Baseball seasons has started, but to be honest I think the idea of these two games being played in Japan counting as regular season games is stupid.
It’s the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland A’s that are opening their season in Japan with a two games series. Now after this series wraps up the teams will head back to spring training for about a week before they play another game that’s going to count in the standings.
I know that you’ll hear the term grow the game a lot when it comes to playing these games, but that’s complete b.s. Baseball is already a pretty well established sport in Japan as we see players not only come over form Japan to play in the majors, but players from here go over there all the time to play in their professional baseball league. So how does this grow the game?
Now I think when the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox head over to England for a series later this season that will be more inclined to grow the game. It will be the first time that Major League Baseball has played a regular season game in England; so it should be a real attraction. Unlike a game in Japan where Major League Baseball has played regular season games before and they just toured Japan this off season with a traveling group of what they called All-Stars.
Anyway since the game counted in the standings; here’s what happened. The Mariners beat the A’s 9-7; so at least the crowd which was announced at 45,787 got to see some offense.
Steven Piscotty got the A’s on the board in the bottom of the 1st with a 2 out solo home run. Oakland took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd when Marcus Semien singled to left to drive in the A’s 2nd run. The Mariners got their offense rolling in the top of the 3rd inning. Gordon Beckham led off with a single and advanced to 2nd base on a wild pitch. After an out Dee Gordon drove Beckham in with a single to right to make it a 2-1 game. After the second out was made Jay Bruce was hit by a pitch and Edwin Encarnacion drew a walk to load the bases. Carlos Santana unloaded the bases with a grand slam to right to give the Mariners a 5-2 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd Matt Chapman doubled for Oakland with 1 out. After the second out was made Khris Davis hit a 2-run home run center to cut the Seattle lead to 5-4. Seattle added a run back to it’s lead in the top of the 4th. Beckham and Ichiro Suzuki drew back to back walks. Gordon sacrificed the runners to 2nd and 3rd; then Mitch Haniger drove Beckham home with a sacrifice fly to right field to make it a 6-4 game. In the top of the 5th Encarnacion led of with a walk before the next two batters made outs with Encarnacion going to 2nd on a ground out. Ryon Healy doubled to left to score Encarnacion making it a 7-4 game. Beckham then hit a 2-run home run to center to make it a 9-4 game. In the bottom of the 7th Semien led off with a walk for Oakland. Robbie Grossman reached safely on an infield single as Semien moved up the 2nd. After a strikeout Chapman hit a 3-run home run to right to cut the Mariners lead to two at 9-7. That was it for the scoring though as the Mariners held on for 9-7 win.
Marco Gonzales went 6 innings to pick up the win for Seattle. Gonzales gave up 7 hits, 4 runs with 3 of them being earned. He also struck out 4 while walking 1.
Mike Fiers lasted just 3 innings for Oakland and took the loss. Fiers gave up 5 runs; all earned on 4 hits. He struck out 3 while walking 2.
Hunter Strickland worked a perfect 9th inning striking out 2 as he picked up the save for the Mariners.
The teams will wrap up their international series tomorrow. Yusei Kikuchi will make his debut for the Mariners on the mound while Marco Estrada gets the start for Oakland. The game will be carried live in ESPN and has a 4:30 a.m. start time if you’re interested in watching or just happen to be awake. As for me I’ll be at work at that time; so I’m out.
The NCAA tournament officially started last night as there where two play-in games. In the opener Fairleigh-Dickinson beat Prairie View A&M 82-76 to advance. While in the night cap Belmont oved on by beating Temple 80-71.
There are two more play-in games tonight. North Carolina Central will play North Dakota State for the right to move forward while the other game has St. John’s taking Arizona State with the winner advancing.
With their win Fairleigh-Dickinson becomes the 16th seed in the West regional and they’ll face Gonzaga. Belmont moves into the 11th seed in the East regional and they’ll play Maryland. Both these game will take place on Thursday.
Now if you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that I’m not the biggest college basketball fan or basketball fan in general, but like just about everyone else I enjoy filling out a tournament bracket. To be honest my bracket never does very well and if I remember correctly I had two of the teams I had going to the final four last year get knocked out in the first round, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.
As I was putting my bracket together this year I ended up with a lot of the top seeds advancing; so I guess I’m not big on the upsets this year. Anyway; here’s who I have in the final four. I have Duke out of the East regional. I have Michigan out of the West Regional. I have Virginia out of the out of the South regional and I went with Houston out of the Midwest regional. I have Duke and Virginia meeting in the championship game with Duke winning the NCAA title. Let’s see if I have better luck this year. What’s your final four look like?
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