Mariners catcher steady
SEATTLE — Still giddy from one unlikely no -hitter, Seattle catcher Jesus Montero went around the clubhouse on Saturday searching for autographs.
Montero printed pictures of the six pitchers involved in Friday’s combined no -hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers, plus a couple shots of the on-field celebration. He handed out the photos with a Sharpie and asked for a signature, the phrase “no - hitter” and the date.
The rookie catcher turned to scrapbooking to chronicle the surprising gem.
“(I) wanted them to sign it and remember this day,” Montero said. “Last night was so special for me, I want to remember that. When I get to be old, really old, I’ll remember then.”
Montero was the one constant in the 10th combined no -hitter in major league history. Kevin Millwood started the game, then was followed by a parade of relievers after injuring his groin and coming out after the sixth inning.
Millwood had an MRI, but the results were not known prior to Saturday’s game against Los Angeles.
The Hall of Fame requested three items from the no - hitter: a ball signed by all six pitchers, Millwood’s cap and a public relations employee’s scorecard.
New closer Tom Wilhelmsen has the ball from the final out. He’s not sure what to do with it, considering six pitchers — Millwood, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Wilhelmsen — were involved.
“It’s in a safe place for now,” Wilhelmsen said. “I have asked a couple of folks what the right thing to do is, and I will continue to ask until I find the answer I want to hear.”
Wilhelmsen’s joking aside, what happened Friday was quite the accomplishment.
Normally Ryan Fraser never turns his cellphone off. But when he went to stay at his uncle’s beach house on Hutchinson Island in Florida last week to visit his cousins, the former University of Memphis pitcher realized he had forgotten his charger.
That nearly proved costly. Fraser turned his phone off Tuesday night to save his battery.
The next morning, his manager, Ryan Ellis of the St. Lucie Mets, tried calling him but got his voice mail. Ellis asked a teammate, former Christian Brothers and University of Tennessee catcher Blake Forsythe, try to get hold of him to no avail.
Forsythe called Fraser’s dad in Cleveland, Tenn., who finally got hold of his son’s uncle to let him know the Mets needed to talk to Fraser.
They were trying to tell the right-handed reliever that he was being promoted to Double -A Binghamton.
“I ran upstairs to get my phone to call my manager and he said, ‘You almost missed your opportunity. We were about to call somebody else because we couldn’t get in touch with you,’ ” Fraser said.
“I raced out to where I was staying, about 30 minutes away, and packed my stuff. I almost missed the plane.”
It was the culmination of a stellar first half of the 2012 season for Fraser, who was drafted by the New York Mets in the 16th round in 2010.
Fraser, who was converted to a reliever this season, was promoted after going 3-2 with a 2.08 ERA.
Fraser and Forsythe have been key figures in St. Lucie’s dominance of the Florida State League’s South Division. The Mets claimed the first-half title on June 2 with two weeks remaining. As of Friday they were 46-14 with a commanding 18-game lead over second-place Jupiter.
“The one thing I noticed about this team and what helped us to be pretty dominant is regardless of the situations for the ball game, everybody takes each pitch, each atbat, each inning the same way,” Forsythe said. “That’s a big key to this game. You’ve got to approach everything with consistency.”
Consistency is one reason Forsythe, a