By Bel Garcia
Salute to the Negro League
The Mariners traded their jerseys in for the 1946 Seattle Steelheads uniform today in a Salute to the Negro Leagues and an early Juneteenth celebration. To kick off the ball game, Paris Alexa sang the Black National Anthem followed by the USA National Anthem. With the honorary first pitch of the game, we had Mariners legends Randy Winn, Mark Mclemore, and Harold Reynolds. Back in the 90’s, Harold Reynolds donated to Seattle Central Little league, a league that honors the Negro League teams by being named after them and is still going strong. On the scoreboard for the night, it was not T-Mobile Park named as the event location, but rather Sick’s Seattle Stadium in honor of the late stadium where the Steelheads and Seattle Pilots played. The Mariners continued to honor those who came before that have allowed for the game of baseball to grow into what it is today with any given chance. In between innings and in the middle of innings they honored members of the Kansas City Monarch’s with short slideshows. The first short video to be shown on the teleprompter was a brief description of the significance of Juneteenth, which will continue to be celebrated tomorrow on June 19th and Father’s Day. Unfortunately, the Steelheads were not able to rally for the win.
Julio Rodriguez started in the leadoff spot for the first time in his career (Photo Liv Lyons)
Give me some Mo
Opening the scoring for the Steelheads today was Dylan Moore, who hit a home run in the third for his third homer of the season. DMO also added a stolen base to the stat sheet when he recorded his ninth of the season by stealing second in the seventh inning. The Angels would respond to Moore’s solo homer with two scoring runs of their own at the top of the fourth. Kurt Suzuki doubled to left field, sending Matt Duffy and Brandon Marsh home for a couple of scoring runs. The Mariners tied the game in the seventh inning with a Julio Rodriguez single and RBI as Moore had another scoring run. Both teams struggled to break the tie within the nine innings, an extra inning was played with Diego Castillo starting on the mound. Mike Trout would seal the game for the Angels with a two-run homer to center field, scoring Tyler Wade, for his 19th home run this season.
Dylan Moore got the Steelheads on the board (Photo Liv Lyons)
The Mariners got a brief rest, but they will be back on the field at 7:10 for their second game of the doubleheader, once again facing the Angels. The Mariners have had four doubleheaders in T-Mobile Park history, all have had one of the two games go into extra innings. They now sit at 29-37 in the season and have a chance to split the night if they can pull off a win.
Mike Trout has hit four homers in the series (Photo Liv Lyons)
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