Mariners Update

Published 9:00 pm Monday, August 27, 2001

Opponent: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

When: 4:15 p.m. today and Wednesday, 9:15 a.m. Thursday.

Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla.

TV: KIRO (Channel 7) today, FSN (cable) Wednesday and Thursday.

Radio: KIRO (710 AM) all three games.

Probable starting pitchers: Today – Seattle right-hander Joel Pineiro (3-0, 1.86 ERA) vs. right-hander Paul Wilson (5-8, 6.12). Wednesday – Seattle left-hander Jamie Moyer (15-5, 3.67) vs. right-hander Tanyon Sturtze (8-10, 4.66). Thursday – Seattle right-hander Freddy Garcia (14-5, 3.33) vs. right-hander Ryan Rupe (5-10, 7.02).

Mariners sign Borders: Seattle General Manager Pat Gillick has brought in another player from his glory days with the Toronto Blue Jays, purchasing the contract of 38-year-old catcher Pat Borders from the Durham Bulls, the Class AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Borders, who helped lead the Blue Jays to World Series victories in 1992 and ‘93 and was MVP of the ‘92 Series, was assigned to Class AAA Tacoma. He figures to serve as an emergency catcher in case of injury to either Dan Wilson or Tom Lampkin.

Borders was part of the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal at last year’s Olympics in Sydney, Australia, hitting .429 and driving in a run in the 4-0 gold-medal victory over Cuba. In 88 games with Durham this year, he was hitting .236 with two homers and 30 runs batted in. He hasn’t played in the majors since 1999, when injuries limited him to just 12 games with Cleveland and Toronto.

He is a career .256 hitter in 12 seasons with Toronto, Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Anaheim, the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland.

The Mariners have two other players from the Blue Jays championship teams of a decade ago: first baseman John Olerud and reserve infielder Ed Sprague, who is on the disabled list. As Toronto GM, Gillick was the architect of those title teams.

Herald staff