If you missed today’s Mariners spring training game, well, that might have been for the best. This one got out of hand early when the Padres put up an twelve-spot in the second and didn’t improve from there. Of all the spring training games, this one was the spring trainingiest (so far).
Luis Castillo got the start today and, well, things could have gone better. Castillo worked out of a jam in the first: after allowing Jake Cronenworth to reach on a hard-hit (104 EV) single, Jackson Merrill fought
off a four-seamer up in the zone for a double, putting runners at second and third with no outs. But, Houdini-like, Castillo escaped the jam, striking out Ramón Laureano swinging on a 95.7 mph four-seamer, getting Gavin Sheets to tap into an easy groundout on a changeup (the Mariners executed their second rundown of the spring, again recording the out even as the runners advanced to second and third), and ending on a sword strikeout of Nick Castellanos on a 96.3 mph fastball. Castillo’s four-seamer had some extra heat in that first inning, registering as high as 96.7.
The velocity held for Castillo in the second, but unfortunately the run suppression did not. He gave up a lot of hard contact to the Padres, including a first-pitch ambush swing for a solo home run to Sung-Mun Song followed by back-to-back doubles to make it 2-0; then some sloppy play ensued including a walk to Cronenworth and a fielding error by Ryan Bliss, which then resulted in two more runs scored on a Laureano single, making it 4-0.
Then the game got silly. Tyler Cleveland came in to try to stop the bleeding and instead allowed in another run, although he didn’t get help from Spencer Packard in left field who dropped a sun ball. Cleveland walked in a run. Luke Raley lost a ball in the sun in right field. The Padres lead doubled to 8-0. Then 10-o. The scoreboard operator made a mistake and put up 11-0. Dan Wilson was forced to get another cannon fodder arm to try to finish the inning. Stefan Raeth threw one pitch to Jake Cronenworth that he hit over the left field wall. 12-0. Laureano doubled. The third out in the second inning was proving to be as elusive as the Mariners getting their fourth win of the spring.
Finally, finally, Gavin Sheets hit a little flare to left field, headed towards the much-abused Packard. It looked like it might drop in to create a touchdown of runs for the Padres, but Packard ran in and, against all odds, made the catch. The crowd went wild.
The Mariners got a run back off Walker Buehler in the bottom of the inning. Patrick Wisdom singled, and Rhylan Thomas tripled into the right field corner. Packard small-balled the second run home with an RBI groundout. While it is probably a better long-term strategy to focus on things that would actually help win games during the regular season, it’s a little disappointing the Mariners didn’t do what the Padres hitters were doing and just put a bunch of stuff up into the swirling wind and hope for the best.
But the Padres got all those runs right back and more off Alex Hoppe, who gave up five runs on two homers to turn the game from a laugher into laughing gas, 17-2. Hoppe baffles me. His four-seamer is a great pitch, with heavy downward plane that comes in around 98-99 and creates swing-and-miss, and he can throw it for strikes. The problem seems to be that pitch’s supporting cast. Today he couldn’t land his slider, which wound up fat and juicy on the plate for hard contact; the changeup didn’t tempt swings, and the cutter location was inconsistent. There’s something there; it’s just not there yet.
Troy Taylor had the fourth and got two quick outs on his sweeper, leading me to mentally retitle this recap “the Troy Taylor Game” before he surrendered a solo home run to Andujar, who dropped the barrel on a sweeper to make it 18-2, but he rebounded to strike out Francisco Acuna looking (thanks to a savvy ABS challenge by Mitch Garver). Troy Taylor game back on!
Then it was trading solo home runs. The Mariners got two, from Patrick Wisdom and Rob Refsnyder. The Padres got two off Casey Lawrence, who gets today’s Sun Visor award for cleaning up this stinker.
But wait. There were still several more innings to play, and another three-run home run for Blas Castaño to give up. And then another two-run home run for Nick Davila to give up.
In the eighth, Jared Sundstrom – who is nicknamed “Sunny” which is one of the better baseball nicknames, especially for the blond-haired golden-skinned Sundstrom – realized that he could also, like Captain Planet, use the power of the wind for his own ends and blasted his first home run of the spring off Tristan McKenzie, who apparently is doing mop-up work in spring training games these days. Rough. Sundstrom’s calling card is his light tower power, so it was fun to see that in action.
The Padres were able to add one more run in the ninth off Reid Van Scoter just so no Mariners pitcher would post a clean line today. But Carson Taylor got that run right back on a solo shot of his own (maybe his pal Sunny clued him in about the wind trick), keeping the deficit at a solid three touchdowns’ worth of runs. The Mariners will try again to secure that elusive fourth win of the spring tomorrow in Surprise against Texas, and surprise, Kade Anderson gets the start, so don’t let today’s stinker preclude you from tuning in to that one (although sadly it is radio only).
Other bits and bobs:
-Brendan Donovan worked a walk in the first inning. His OBP this spring is currently a nice round .500.
-With Donovan on first, Luke Raley hit a hard groundball (103 mph EV) that the shortstop couldn’t handle, bobbling it before tossing it to second, and Donovan probably should have been called safe. In penance, Raley went on to steal second. Healthy Luke Raley is fun.
-Rob Refsnyder hit a solo shot off lefty JP Sears, earning that lefty-killer moniker.
-In the eighth inning Freddy from Mariners PR bought churros from the churros man and I didn’t get one. OSHA violation! Hostile workplace!
-Brock Rodden showed off a very strong arm at third base, making a surehanded play right at the line followed by a strong toss across the diamond. Good third base defense is my love language. (You will see, if you look at the box score, Rodden was given an error on a throw later. This, in my opinion, was not a fair error assignation, and it was also not considered an error by the first baseman Carson Taylor who immediately threw his glove over his mouth and shouted something unrepeatable when he didn’t field the ball cleanly.)
-Spring training games should have mercy rules.
