Brent Mayne won a game in 2000, didn't he?

Burke is obviously more of a "gamer" than Bedard.

Arthur Rhodes and Brandon Morrow were still available. Just weird stuff from Riggleman.

Jose Oquendo, I think.

I have a call on line 2 for a Mr. Piazza from Old Primer...

BTW, Burke got a swinging strike and was hitting 85 on the gun with his fastball. Make him a middle reliever!

The Tigers offense sucked the last 3 games, I am surprised that Burke did not take them all down. Edgar Renteria is terrible in so many different ways.

My father plays in an over-40 men's hardball league, and watching Burke pitch reminded me of the pitchers on Dad's team (who throw high 70s/low-80s, as Burke did).

The Tigers really need Magglio back healthy. They're just treading water with him out of the lineup. The AL Central is the White Sox's division to win.

Ichiro seems to have been very keen to pitch - I'd have loved to have seen that. As for Morrow and Rhodes, the justification is this (from ESPN):

Riggleman was forced to use Burke because his bullpen was spread thin. Reliever Arthur Rhodes woke up with a sore arm and couldn't get loose. Brandon Morrow had pitched four of the previous five days and Riggleman wanted to give him a day off. Tuesday's scheduled starter, Carlos Silva, had thrown on the side earlier Sunday. Saturday's starter, R.A. Dickey, volunteered to throw, but had tossed more than 100 pitches in his start.

IMO, that's pretty weaksauce - send up Silva Dickey or Morrow. Mariners may suck but this is the major leagues you've got to try to win. Instead Riggleman makes the situation into a joke, the players are laughing and it's a novelty act.

And that's got to be pretty dispiriting from a player's point of view, to have pitchers left on the bench and the game lost by a position player being sent to the mound. If the manager doesn't care, it must make it hard for the players to care. Seems to me like Riggleman may be feeling like Dave Miley.

Dickey's a knuckleballer, what does he need the rest for?

IMO, that's pretty weaksauce - send up Silva Dickey or Morrow. Mariners may suck but this is the major leagues you've got to try to win. Instead Riggleman makes the situation into a joke, the players are laughing and it's a novelty act.

Yeah except what manager in their right mind is going to risk an injury to one of their team's best young pitchers (Morrow) for the sake of a game that doesn't matter to the team? A manager is supposed to win games, but he's also supposed to protect the players he's got from pointless injury.

And that's got to be pretty dispiriting from a player's point of view, to have pitchers left on the bench and the game lost by a position player being sent to the mound. If the manager doesn't care, it must make it hard for the players to care. Seems to me like Riggleman may be feeling like Dave Miley.

If you think this is the kind of thing that gets players dispirited, you obviously haven't paid any attention to the kind of year the M's have been having up until this point.

Riggleman was forced to use Burke because his bullpen was spread thin. Reliever Arthur Rhodes woke up with a sore arm and couldn't get loose. Brandon Morrow had pitched four of the previous five days and Riggleman wanted to give him a day off. Tuesday's scheduled starter, Carlos Silva, had thrown on the side earlier Sunday. Saturday's starter, R.A. Dickey, volunteered to throw, but had tossed more than 100 pitches in his start.

Here's a thought: if you only have five relievers available (assuming that Rhodes and Morrow really weren't), and your starter only lasts 5 innings, don't burn three of those five relievers in one inning appearances. I mean, why the hell did he pull Batista in a tie game after just one inning when Batista was his 4th of 5 relievers?

I was at Safeco for this game (and yesterday's - thanks Tigers for treating me to three runs all weekend!) but unfortunately we had to leave in the bottom of the 12th to head back to Canada, the first time I can remember leaving a game early. I was telling my English friend I went with that you never leave early cause you might see something you've never seen, like a triple play or a bench-clearing brawl.

Or a backup catcher coming in to throw in a tie game.

Riggleman's management of this game was terrible. Not only did he burn tons of guys like Green and Corcoran, who could have given them some innings, but his refusal to put Jeff Clement in the game earlier, even as a PH, was puzzling. You would have thought you might want the guy who parked 2 no doubt shots Saturday night to get a look in, especially with Sexson and Cairo managing to get about 12 ABs between them.

If only Jim Riggleman had been commissioner at the time of the 2002 All-Star game...

Why wouldn't Silva wait until the game was over to throw on the side? If he had waited he could have been available to pitch.

Why wouldn't Silva wait until the game was over to throw on the side? If he had waited he could have been available to pitch.

He probably wasn't anticipating a 15-inning game where his manager blew through three relievers in one inning. I think it's fairly common for starters to get their side work in during the game.