You’re Suspended!

I’m suspended, you’re suspended, the players are suspended, everybody is suspended.

Yesterday’s opening game of the doubleheader was suspended with one out in the top of the seventh (and final) inning due to rain. Las Vegas has the lead, 7-5, on the strength of Andrew Brown‘s two-run home run hit one batter before the umpires called for the tarp.

This has caused a bit of a confusing schedule situation, so let me lay it out for you.

Tonight at 6:05, we’ll finish yesterday’s game. It’s still a seven-inning game, so there are only five outs to go – as long as extra innings are avoided.

About 25-30 minutes after the suspended game is completed, tonight’s regularly scheduled game will be played. That will be a nine-inning game.

The second game of yesterday’s doubleheader has been postponed to Tuesday, July 22, which will now be a doubleheader starting at 6:05.

Game Two yesterday was supposed to be Tacoma Tigers Throwback Day. The club still plans to do that, but we are going to re-schedule it for a different date. We’ll let you know when we figure it out.

Monday’s action starts at 6:05 – the Alaska Airlines Pregame Show begins at 5:50 on South Sound Sports 850 AM and streaming online right here. In the nine-inning game, Tacoma starts RHP Andrew Carraway (2-1, 3.80) against Las Vegas RHP Noah Syndergaard (4-2, 3.94). Syndergaard is a huge prospect – keep an eye on him if you are attending the game.

Bob Robertson will join me on the air for the regularly scheduled game, and he’ll call the middle innings.

—

We have a roster move today. The Mariners optioned outfielder Abraham Almonte to Tacoma, and called up outfielder James Jones.

Almonte won the Mariners leadoff job with his performance last September and this spring. Manager Lloyd McClendon showed a lot of patience, sticking with Almonte for an entire month hoping for a breakout. Unfortunately, Almonte couldn’t pull out of his slump.

Hopefully Almonte can come to Tacoma, relax, get back on track, earn another call-up, and start contributing in Seattle later this season.

Links:

• It was a long day of rain delays at Cheney Stadium, Christian Caple writes.
• The Almonte transaction leads off Bob Dutton’s Mariners Notebook.
• Very quietly, the Mariners appear to be turning things around. They beat Houston last night and are now 4-1 on the current road trip. Four games over three days in Oakland begin tonight – a big series for this time of the year.
• In the PCL, El Paso rallied to beat Sacramento 7-4. The Chihuahuas are going for a sweep today.
• Goodness gracious. Reno went bonkers in Salt Lake City and beat the Bees, 19-4. Salt Lake’s infield is in tatters, after 75% of it was called up to Anaheim.
• Fresno mopped up Albuquerque 11-5. It was the eighth win in a row for the red-hot Grizzlies. Adam Duvall hit a pair of three-run homers.
• Nashville is also scorching hot, winning for the ninth time in ten games on Sunday. Sean Halton had three hits and two RBI in a 5-1 win over Iowa.
• Sugar Ray Marimon tossed a gem and Omaha knocked off Oklahoma City, 4-1.
• Colorado Springs is currently enjoying some good pitching which helped them beat Memphis on Sunday, 8-3.
• Round Rock outscored New Orleans, 15-12. The Express had 16 hits – 12 singles and four doubles. They drew five walks. How did they score 15 runs? They went 11-for-17 when batting with runners in scoring position – that is a .647 batting average.
• Las Vegas still needs a new ballpark. Hopefully something will happen on this front soon.
• Baseball America’s Minor League Roundup covers the weekend action from a prospect perspective.

Hopefully we can get both games in tonight. If these get washed away, we’ve got some serious scheduling issues…