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Rainiers Win Obscured By Ejections – With Video

Rainiers fans at Cheney Stadium had a tough decision around the eighth inning of last night’s game.

After two-and-a-half hours of relatively pleasant weather – it was cool, but dry – a hard rain started to fall. Tacoma was coasting along with a 7-2 lead and seemed to have the game in hand. So the question was, stay for the postgame fireworks while getting wet? Or head for the car, satisfied with a likely Rainiers win and and the dry confines of the car and home?

For those of you who left – and I understand, it was really pouring for a while there – we will now share with you what happened in the bottom of the ninth inning, with two outs and the Rainiers on the verge of closing out the game.

It was the result of nine innings of frustration on the part of the Rainiers, who were unhappy with the inconsistent strike zone of the home plate umpire all game. Eric Filia had been ejected in the fifth inning for yelling about balls and strikes from the dugout when he wasn’t even batting. That last pitch was the boiling point for Raleigh, who was dealing with the situation all night.

Both Edgar Martinez (on twitter) and Scott Servais (in his morning media session today) gave credit to Raleigh for defending his pitcher. As noted in the commentary on the video, Raleigh was ejected before he turned around – he was trying to not show-up the umpire, but he was tossed anyway. He certainly was fired up.

(My favorite part of the video is pitching coach Rob Marcello walking out there to break things up, chomping on his gum, disgusted look on his face like he’s a grizzled bouncer breaking up yet another bar fight)

In other news, Raleigh extended his hitting streak to 20 straight games immediately last night, with a clean single to right field in the first inning. Six more games to tie the Tacoma franchise record.

RAINIERS DAILY

YESTERDAY: Tacoma scored six runs in the second inning and coasted to a 7-2 win over Sacramento on Friday night. Jose Marmolejos started the rally with a leadoff home run, then Tacoma loaded the bases with two outs for Jarred Kelenic. Kelenic hit a sharp grounder up the middle that was deflected into right-center for a two-run double, and Evan White followed with a three-run homer to make it 6-0. Darren McCaughan pitched six innings, allowing two hits and one run to earn his second win.

TODAY: Sacramento (14-18) at Tacoma (16-15), 5:05 PT.

OPPONENT AFFILIATION: San Francisco Giants.

OPPOSING MANAGER: Dave Brundage.

SEASON SERIES: Tied, 1-1.

PITCHERS: RHP Aaron Sanchez (1-1, 3.18) at LHP Williams Jerez (0-1, 12.38)

Jerez gets the call today in the first of Tacoma’s back-to-back bullpen games.

ROSTER MOVES: Evan White‘s rehabilitation assignment started (for real) yesterday. The Mariners optioned reliever Keynan Middleton to Tacoma, but he’s staying with the team on the taxi squad for the rest of the weekend until the M’s road trip ends. He could join the Rainiers on Monday when the Mariners return to Seattle.

HOT HITTERS: Cal Raleigh has a 20-game hitting streak, going 34-for-85 during the streak… Raleigh has reached base safely in 24 straight games… Jack Reinheimer has hit safely in ten of his last 11 games… the Rainiers have homered in each of the last 18 games, clubbing 39 home runs during that time with 17 different players going deep.

OPPONENT NEWS: Sacramento just split a six-game series at Reno… catcher Joey Bart is one of the top prospects in the league; he’s 9-for-24 with two homers in his last five games… Joe McCarthy is on a 14-game hitting streak… former Rainiers outfielder Braden Bishop had his eight-game hitting streak end last night… Jaylin Davis has homered in each of the first two games of the series… Sacramento manager Dave Brundage managed the Rainiers in 2006, and was a Tacoma hitting coach prior to that. He played outfield in the Mariners farm system.

BROADCAST: All games will be broadcast free on a live audio stream which is available right here.

Unfortunately, there is no traditional terrestrial radio station carrying the games at this time.

TRIPLE-A WEST SCOREBOARD: Follow all league games in real-time with links to Gameday screens right here.

STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE:

  • Seattle was shut out in Cleveland last night, 7-0.
  • This Mariners Notebook starts with the news that Kyle Lewis had surgery to repair his torn meniscus.
  • The Rainiers next road trip starts in Las Vegas (where it is supposed to be 115 degrees), and the Aviators ballpark is now open to 100% capacity.
  • Media availability opened up a bit in the minors due to new guidelines sent out Thursday, so maybe we’ll start to get some more stories from our league like this feature on Salt Lake star Jo Adell.

Listen to every home and away Tacoma Rainiers game for free HERE. You can also download the MiLB First Pitch app for a free and easy one-click listening experience at home, work or in your car. Watch an HD video broadcast of every game with an MiLB.TV subscription. Use code: RAINIERS to save $10 on an annual subscription.

About the Tacoma Rainiers

The Tacoma Rainiers are the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The Rainiers are a member of the Triple-A West. Tacoma has been a Mariners affiliate since establishing the Rainiers moniker in 1995.

Find more information and purchase single game tickets here. Questions regarding season tickets can be directed to Tickets@WeRTacoma.com.

The most up-to-date news and notes about the Tacoma Rainiers and Cheney Stadium can be found at WeRTacoma.com, or by following the Rainiers on Twitter (@RainiersLand), Instagram (@tacomarainiers) and liking the team on Facebook.

 

We R Tacoma Team Store

The We R Tacoma Team Store is currently open Monday-Friday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. (non-game days) or until the end of the game on home game days. Team Store purchases can also be made online 24/7. Grab your Rainiers gear, your Defiance ‘fit, and follow the team store on Instagram and Twitter.

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