Bells News

The Pacific Northwest’s version of the Midsummer Classic is in town tonight. Bellingham is hosting the West Coast League All-Star Game for the second straight year.

Five Bells will play in the game, including Nate Kirkpatrick, Preston Watkins, Rob Jacobsen, Andrew Lamb and Brock Sell.

Tonight’s game will pit the Bells’ North Division against the South. Last year, the North had a walk-off win to cap off a late-game rally in the return of the All-Star Game.

The Fan Fest is already underway and first pitch is at 6:35 from Joe Martin Field.

MLB News

Meanwhile, the MLB All-Star Game ended in spectacular fashion last night. The National League led 6-0, but the American League rallied to tie it after nine innings. That sent the game to its first-ever home run swing-off, where three batters from each team had three hits each to launch as many homers as they could.

The Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber went yard on all three of his swings to help the NL win and earn All-Star Game MVP. Randy Arozarena was one of the AL’s batters and swatted one homer in his three chances.

Cal Raleigh went 1 for 2 in the game, Bryan Woo pitched one sparkling inning of hitless ball and Mariner’s closer Andres Munoz threw two-thirds of an inning in relief.  

Storm News

The Seattle Storm beat the Golden State Valkyries 67-58 earlier this afternoon. Storm All-Star starter Nneka Ogwumike scored 22 points to move into sixth-place on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. Erica Wheeler added 15 points and Skylar Diggins pitched in with 10 points and 6 assists.

It was Seattle’s first-ever win against the Valkyries in their third meeting against the league’s newest franchise.

Sonics News

Good news for Sonics fans. The NBA is moving forward in its plan to explore expansion.

After speaking with the NBA’s board of governors this week, commissioner Adam Silver says the league plans to conduct additional research into the matter. He says the next steps will be to look at specific markets and investigate the facilities and appetite in those markets.

Although the conversation hasn’t tangibly moved closer to potentially awarding teams, Silver described the latest update as “a significant step.”

Kraken News

The Kraken’s schedule for the upcoming season has been released. The team will open its season with back-to-back home games against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, Oct. 9, and the Vegas Golden Knights the following Saturday.

It’s the final 82-game schedule they’ll play before the new collective bargaining agreement kicks in and increases it to 84 games. You can view the full schedule here.