Greetings from the Cleveland Airport, where a handful of writers - myself, Larry Stone and a few of the Japanese media - await flight 2541 to Detroit, which has been delayed by about an hour. So that means the delay will actually be longer than the flight.

Anyway, much of the story yesterday was Ichiro's catch to end the game. But I was unable to find a picture of it on our AP site. Obviously you can watch the video from MLB.com

Well, the excellent Yahoo blog Big League Stew put together a photo (which I posted above) from the AP and a screen grap and posted it in their Sunday wrap-up of games.

Watching the Indians and listening to some of their beat writers, I was reminded of something - that was the Mariners and our beat writers last season. Their game stories today reminded me of ones that we wrote last season.

Here's the game story from Sheldon Ocker of the Akron Beacon Journal and the game story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

A quick mention of Brandon Morrow's start last night for Tacoma. It was well Morrow-esque. He gave up four runs in the first inning, couldn't spot his fastball and submarined his start because of a inflated pitch count. I don't have all the details. I'm awaiting an e-mail from the venerable Mike Curto and I will keep you posted. Here's the box score.

With the Mariners in the middle of this AL West race, I'm going to try and post daily links, particularly for the Angels and Rangers. I know I've made this promise before, "but this time it will be different, I promise." Believe me? Yeah, neither did any of my ex-girlfriends.

Here's the standings of the AL West as of today ...
TEAM - RECORD - PCT - GB -LAST 10 GAMES
Los Angeles Angels 52-38 .578 -- 7-3
Texas Rangers 49-41 .544 3.0 4-6
Seattle Mariners 49-43 .533 4.0 6-4
Oakland Athletics 38-52 .422 14.0 4-6

Even with the win yesterday, the Mariners still didn't make any ground on the Angels, who are playing the hapless Oakland A's. Even when Oakland lefty Brett Anderson has a perfect game through seven innings, the Angels' John Lackey was equally as good and Bobby Abreu delivered the game-winning hit.

Another note from the Angels, it appears Vlad Guerrero's days of playing outfield are done, at least for this season. Probably a good thing since he moved like he was a 65-year old man with double knee replacements out there.

The Rangers also kept pace as Ian Kinsler led off the game with a home run and ended the game with a walk off home run.

Former Mariner R.A. Dickey gave up the bomb and as expected, he took the blame for the loss.
Also of note, Joe Mauer went 0-for-6 in that game and his averaged dropped to below .360 meaning Ichiro is now leading the AL in batting.

The Rangers are rumored to be in the much-talked about Roy Halladay sweepstakes, but this Jeff Wilson story says they are reluctant to Bavasi their whole farm system for Halladay. You lik e my new word.

From the Divish dictionary...

Bavasi (Buh-vay-zee) - 1. verb, to inexplicably overpay for veteran talent thereby depleting your young prospects. 2. verb, to destroy a baseball franchise and do so in a condescending manner. 3. verb, to grossly underachieve and underperform (see also Silva). Syn - decimate, plunder, set-back, pillage. Ant - Zduriencik.

And one thing I love to do is go to one of the greatest sites on the internet -- baseball-reference.com - and check out the on this date in baseball history.... they NY Daily News just did a story on the guy who started it, his name is Sean Foreman.

Here's the entry for July 20th.

First of all a happy 21st birthday to Stephen Strasburg, who was born on July 20th, 1988. I don't think people will be spending much on his presents.

On this date in 1965, Former M's pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Sr. then of the Yankees becomes the first pitcher to hit an inside-the-park grand slam since Deacon Phillippe did it for the Pirates in 1910. Stottlemyre's bases-loaded drive in the 5th off Bill Monbouquette assures him a 6-3 victory over the Red Sox.

On this date in 2000, Red Sox OF Carl Everett - who was latered Bavasi'd by the Mariners - receives a 10-game suspension for twice bumping an umpire in a game with the Mets last week. A defiant Everett places most of the blame for the suspension on the media.