The Seattle Mariners are within the thick of the American League’s pennant race, however they’ve already claimed some {hardware} this season.
Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading fiftieth dwelling run of the season because the Mariners clinched the inaugural Vedder Cup with a 9-6 victory towards the visiting San Diego Padres on Monday evening.
The Mariners improved to 4-0 towards San Diego this season, with video games remaining Tuesday and Wednesday in Seattle.
After being interviewed outdoors the dugout following the victory, Raleigh was handed the Vedder Cup trophy, a 1963 Fender Telecaster guitar just like the one Eddie Vedder, frontman for the legendary rock band Pearl Jam, himself performs. Raleigh strummed the strings earlier than posing for images with the trophy, which Vedder helped design.
George Webb, Pearl Jam’s longtime gear supervisor, introduced the guitar to Seattle. He stated Vedder jammed on it for about an hour final week after its arrival from Fender’s customized store.
“He needed to make one thing that doubtlessly may dwell within the group’s clubhouse in the course of the season and be performed by gamers, and appreciated and used,” Webb stated. “He would not need it to be a hang-on-the-wall trophy piece. He desires it to be performed. That is his perspective with the whole lot. It is a dwelling, respiration instrument. It sounds nice.”
Writers who have been followers of the band nicknamed the interleague sequence the Vedder Cup a couple of decade in the past, because of the musician’s ties to each Seattle and San Diego, and Main League Baseball made it official this season. With the San Francisco Giants and Athletics in addition to the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers each being geographic rivals on the West Coast, the Padres and Mariners — who share a spring coaching complicated in Peoria, Ariz. — have been paired when interleague play started in 1997 and have met in all however one season since.
Raleigh kicked off Monday’s present with a solo shot into the second deck within the first inning. He grew to become the primary MLB catcher to succeed in the 50-homer plateau and solely the second participant in franchise historical past to take action — Ken Griffey Jr. hit 56 in each 1997 and 1998.
Jorge Polanco went 3-for-4 with a double, dwelling run and 4 RBIs Monday for the Mariners, who scored 5 runs with two outs within the fifth to interrupt a 4-4 tie.
“When you may hit dwelling runs and you may rating form of extra conventionally, I believe that is a great signal,” supervisor Dan Wilson stated. “And that is what the blokes did tonight.”
Gavin Sheets, Jake Cronenworth, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ramon Laureano homered for San Diego.
“I completely liked our at-bats tonight,” supervisor Mike Shildt stated. “We had visitors, we had visitors, we had visitors … the bat high quality was nice; we simply could not hold that up later within the recreation.”
Tuesday’s matchup is scheduled to characteristic a pair of right-handers within the Padres’ Dylan Stop (6-11, 4.71 ERA) and the Mariners’ Luis Castillo (8-7, 3.57).
Stop, who’s 3-1 this month, is coming off an 8-4 victory towards visiting San Francisco on Thursday. He is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA in a single earlier begin towards Seattle.
Castillo gave up three runs on 10 hits over 4 innings final Wednesday in an 11-2 loss at Philadelphia. He is 3-3 with a 3.13 ERA in eight profession begins towards the Padres.
–Area Degree Media