Angie Mentink probably didn’t expect to go viral on Thursday. Following the Seattle Mariners‘ 5-2 loss to the San Diego Padres in the MLB on Thursday, the broadcaster was filmed by someone in the crowd – unbeknownst to her – of her inputting ‘Good questions after a tough loss in baseball‘ into Google’s AI service on her phone.Angie Mentink did not expect to go viral on Thursday nightX/ @angiementinkThe clip, which was posted to social media platform X, quickly went viral, and the 53-year-old Mariners color commentator was suddenly subjected to huge criticism and shaming around the narrative that she is a woman working in sports media. This also came at the worst possible time, with a huge spotlight having been placed on women in sport in light of the Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel scandal in the NFL, which saw Russini resign from her role as senior insider for The Athletic. The timing of which the video surfaced on social media was also a point of contention, with it having actually been taken weeks ago, and not on Thursday night like the X user had depicted. But Mentink rose above it all. “Currently asking AI how to handle going viral for using AI. ,” Mentink posted on X on Thursday. “In all seriousness, I’m late to the AI party. “Earlier this season I experimented with AI to see if it had any questions to add to my list for my postgame coverage. We’ve come a long way from pen and paper when I started in 1997. Always learning.”While the long-time Mariners reporter made light of the position of which she found herself in on social media, some others flocked to her defense and offered their support. “This woman was an All American softball player who also played women’s professional baseball & has been covering the team since 1990s,” NBC Sports broadcaster Kylen Mills wrote. “Angie knows more about the sport than everyone on the internet criticizing her combined. Oh and she just suffered a stroke 2 months ago – it’s amazing she’s working at all. Some people need to get a life.”Mentink’s ongoing health battleMentink enjoyed a hugely successful collegiate career as a softball player at the University of Washington. One fan filmed Mentink asking AI for some baseball questions to ask after a tough loss for the Mariners, which quickly went viralXMentink has been serving in a broadcasting role since 1998GettyA former All American, she set school records for stolen bases (59) and batting average (.459 season and .429 career) which saw her inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame back in 2001. Mentink also became the first woman in Mariners history to serve a full-time role as an in-game color analyst, before she suffered a stroke back in February which left her paralyzed on her left side. Add to that that she was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2017, and her resilience to recovering as quickly as possible so that she could return to the baseball diamond is even more poignant, regardless of whether she used AI as a tool to do her job to the best of her ability or not. Sports media platform Barstool Sports – who boast 6.9 million followers on X – initially got in the act of slating Mentink from the out of context clip posted online. However, they later deleted their original post and issued a retraction statement after learning of the news of her stroke.“We deleted a prior post of a viral video making light of a reporter seemingly using AI to come up with a question at press conference,” Barstool’s statement read. “At the time of posting we didn’t realize this reporter was recovering from a stroke. In light of that we decided to delete it.”Stay up to date with the latest from the MLB across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.