Seals still 0-for-June

When I was a kid, I spent many a night listening to the dulcet tones of Dave Van Horne and Duke Snider broadcasting the games of my beloved Expos. Believe me, those guys could tell some tales. I remember Van Horne telling the story of the Expos' epic 20-game losing streak in 1969 on more than one occasion (I was too young in 1969 to remember it myself). As the story goes, Van Horne made it a habit in the early years of the team to end the broadcast of a loss with the phrase "Well, you can't win 'em all". He used the phrase 20 straight times from May 13th to June 7th of their inaugural season. But on June 8th, the Expos eeked out a 4-3 win at Dodger Stadium thanks to home runs by Rusty Staub and Mack Jones. After the game, Van Horne cheekily ended the broadcast with the phrase "Well, you can't lose 'em all."

Let's hope the Victoria Seals aren't headed for the same fate, but they're half-way there after they lost their tenth consecutive game on Thursday night, 12-10 to the Calgary Vipers.

The top of the eight inning summed up their season so far. After taking a 9-7 lead in the bottom of the seventh, the Seals sent Andrew Arreola back out for his second inning of work. Arreola started the inning by plunking Luis Taveras. After getting the first out, he then served up a two-run homer to Dillon O'Krane to tie the game up. Then Wilver Perez booted a routine grounder, but luckily for Perez the runner was thrown out attempting to steal second by Josh Arhart. With two outs and nobody on, Arreola walked both Jorge Mejia and Matt Edgecombe, which forced Kip Gross to make a pitching change. Anthony "Nuke Laloosh" Pluta came in and promptly threw two wild pitches to give the Vipers a 10-9 lead. Pluta then walked a batter before giving up a single to Drew Miller to score a pair of runners and make the score 12-9. For all intents and purposes, it was game over.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

Seal Blubber Bits

• The Seals released reliever Nick Martin (16.62 ERA) and signed pitcher Jeff Duda. Duda is from Surrey B.C., so he joins fellow-Canadians Colin Moro and Charlie Strandlund on the squad. Duda pitched for the Okotoks Dawgs of the Western Major Baseball League.
• Josh Arhart hit a pair of round-trippers on Thursday night and had five RBIs to pace the Victoria attack. He came within a few feet of tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, but his long fly ball was caught at the base of the wall in left-centre field.
• The Seals were the first team to get to Calgary starter Erik Dessau this season. They scored five earned runs in five innings to raise his ERA from 0.60 to 2.70.
• The Seals play the Vipers in Calgary on Saturday and Sunday night before moving on to Edmonton for a three-game series. The Seals then return to Royal Athletic Park for a seven-game home stand starting on June 18th. 
• Although the crowd was reported to be 2,810 on Thursday night, those numbers seemed incredibly optimistic.  The crowd was fairly sparse, but there were more fans in attendance than on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. The biggest reason for the increased attendance was the large number of American sailors at the ballpark.
• The Seals are averaging 1,815 fans through their first 11 openings (there was one double-header amongst their 12 home games). This is less than the league average of 2,091 fans per game and well below Victoria's average of 2,342 last season. Hopefully, we'll get some better weather for the remainder of the season and the fans will come out to support the team like they did in 2009.