Mariners News

The Mariners are back home tonight as they look to shake off a rough road trip. They’re hosting the Los Angeles Angels on the heels of a disastrous meltdown yesterday.

The M’s fell to the Cleveland Guardians 6-5 to fall below .500 and out of the division lead for the first time in over a month. Seattle led by three runs entering the eighth inning, but Cleveland rallied to score five runs and earn the win.

With the Rangers’ sweep of the Blue Jays over the weekend, the M’s now sit half a game behind Texas for first place in the AL West.

They’ll now look to rebound tonight against an Angels squad that sits at the bottom of the division. Coverage begins at 5:30 and first pitch is at 6:40 on KPUG with George Kirby on the mound.

Bells News

The Bells salvaged a rough weekend series yesterday, but fell just short of booking an early ticket to the playoffs.

Bellingham throttled the Victoria HarbourCats 10-2 on the road to avoid the sweep.

The Cats took the first two games of the series to end the Bells’ 10-game win streak. But Noah Cassie, Bryce Johnson and Aspen Alexander all homered to back up three perfect innings from Robby Zimmerman on the mound in yesterday’s win.

The Bells finished in a tie with the Wenatchee AppleSox for first place in the North Division to end the first half of the season. But Wenatchee had the head-to-head tiebreaker after taking two out of three games in the first series of the season, which gave the AppleSox the first-half division title and a guaranteed playoff spot.

The Bells have the day off today before continuing their road trip against the Riverhawks in Edmonton tomorrow.

World Cup News

The FIFA World Cup continues today as we hit Day 2 of the knockout round.

32 teams were left standing after group stage play before Canada beat South Africa yesterday in the first knockout match. Brazil followed with a dramatic 2-1 win over Japan this morning and Paraguay upset Germany in shootouts.

The day wraps up with Netherlands taking on Morocco in a match between two of the top 10 teams in the world, per the official FIFA rankings.

The US will play its first knockout match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara at 5 pm on Wednesday. The next match taking place in Seattle will be played just hours before the US takes the pitch, when Belgium plays Senegal at 1:00 that afternoon.

Kraken News

The Kraken came out of the NHL draft with a franchise first.

The team selected defenseman Chase Reid with the seventh overall pick on Friday. It was the first time in team history that they’ve taken a defenseman in the first round.

The 6-foot-2, 194-pound 18-year-old hails from the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds. He dished out 40 assists in 45 games last season.

NBA News

We’re still waiting for the latest word on the Sonics, but a big NBA star is on the move to the Pacific Northwest.

ESPN reports that the Portland Trail Blazers are acquiring point guard Ja Morant from the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

Morant rose to stardom in 2022, earning a 2nd-Team All-NBA selection and finishing 7th in MVP voting. But ever since making his second straight All-Star game in 2023, the 26-year-old has only played 79 games over the past three seasons due to off-court issues and injuries.

He served two separate suspensions totalling 33 games, stemming from incidents of him showing a gun on an Instagram live stream.

Morant now joins a young Blazers team that is coming off its first playoff appearance since 2021.

Storm News

The Storm picked up another win over the weekend. 

Flau’jae Johnson had 24 points and 11 rebounds, fellow rookie Awa Fam scored 21 points and Seattle never trailed in a 105-90 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Saturday night.  The Storm have now won two straight following a franchise-record 11-game losing streak.

Next up, they’ll head to Phoenix for a game against the Mercury on Thursday.