Stephen Nelson, formerly of Mariners Wheelhouse, dropped me a line recently to point out an interesting fact: the M's might be the first $100M payroll team to reach 100 losses. Zach Greinke of the Royals held the M's scoreless through seven, and Kansas City pitching generally limited the team to three hits. With Jarrod Washburn shut down due to an abdominal injury, and one of their key RBI men, Adrian Beltre, down for the season due to shoulder and hand injuries, the M's are looking pretty weak.

Seattle is currently 57-95; to reach 100 losses they would have to lose five of their remaining ten games, four of which are against the Angels. From division contender to August elimination to possibly the worst dollars-per-win figure in major league baseball history. Wow.

Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News points us at an ESPN/ESPN News documentary airing this Sunday (6 am on ESPN, 9 am on ESPN News) revisiting the murder of Lyman Bostock. Reporter Tom Rinaldi tracked down Leonard Smith, but it's not clear that he actually got an interview.

Roberto Lopez of the Orem Owlz finished the Pioneer League season with a .400 average.

The San Diego native and Pioneer League Most Valuable Player tops the statistics columns in several offensive categories, including average, hits (108), doubles (28), RBIs (72), runs (68), on-base percentage (.481) and slugging percentage (.668). He is tied for second in the league with teammate Angel Castillo and Helena's Brock Kjeldgaard with 14 home runs. Orem's Luis Jimenez leads the pack with 15.

The former USC product is a 25th-round pick in this year's draft.

Torii Hunter hit the wall hard in Friday's game, and got to eat a piece of it making that great catch to rob Marlon Byrd of a two-run homer. Doug Padilla's blog:

"It was pretty painful," Hunter said. "I wish I could describe it, but I think you saw my facial expression afterward. I was in pain. ... That was one of my favorites because I went face first and everybody was talking about me. It felt like Mike Tyson hit me. It was pretty ludicrous."

And if that wasn't enough, Hunter said the wall tasted like "collard greens." He suggested the team install a strawberry flavored wall in the near future.

The Red Sox have scratched Josh Beckett from his next start, and have sent him to see Dr. James Andrews about numbness and tingling in his elbow. (For what it's worth, that reminds me of the symptoms the Dodgers' Brad Penny complained of about two years ago before becoming steadily ineffective.)

The side effects could include a postseason without the Sawx and Yankees, with the Angels, Chisox, and Rays taking their respective divisions, and the Twins winning the AL Wild Card.

Bob Timmermann at The Griddle points out that the Mariners' division elimination number is now one (one Angels victory or one loss by the Mariners). They will be the first team eliminated from any division race; the current standings show the 47-85 Nationals with a worse record than Seattle (50-82), but the spread in the NL East is tighter.