If you take out the eight runs given up by Casey Lawrence in the final three innings, this game is a decisive win for the Mariners, and I invite you to live in that reality instead of this one, where the Mariners lose 11-7 to the Colorado Rockies, which even in Spring Training, feels embarrassing. But let us focus on some individual strong performances today: a solid start from Luis Castillo in his third spring tuneup, a great day by Cole Young, and some very strong performances from the bullpen.
Castillo got some of his signature Houdini moves out of the way early in this one. Leadoff hitter Tyler Freeman singled on Castillo’s second pitch of the game and then immediately stole second, advancing to third on an overthrow by Mitch Garver to put a runner on third with no outs. Despite a walk to Charlie Condon, Castillo was able to wiggle out of trouble with an easy popout, a strikeout on the slider, and a flyout to deny the Rockies a high-percentage-chance score.
Unfortunately Castillo’s occasional homer problem also cropped up in this game, with Adael Amador dropping the barrel on a 93.4 mph fastball right in the lefty loop zone for a solo homer to lead off the second. Castillo was able to cap the damage there, however, despite a Nicky Lopez double.
The Mariners got that run right back for Castillo in the bottom of the inning. J.P. Crawford looped an opposite field single (a beautiful sentence, that) and Cole Young drove him home on an opposite-field double, a very satisfying pair of hits.
Connor Joe then drove a pitch right back at Rockies starter Chase Dollander, using that up-the-middle approach he’s been showing off this spring and both getting a double out of it and scoring Young from second to give the Mariners a 2-1 advantage.
But the Rockies continued to swing it against Castillo, who dealt with runners in scoring position in every inning. Brett Sullivan doubled on a slider in the third, eventually coming around to score on a sacrifice fly to tie up the game.
Chase Dollander had some command issues in the third, hitting Refsnyder and Garver, neither of whom were happy about it (Garver had the stronger complaint about it, getting 97 right on the back). A wild pitch moved them both into scoring position, and then J.P. Crawford checked in with yet another opposite-field hit to score Refsnyder. Cole Young then took 98.5 right back where it came from, smoking an RBI single at 105.8 mph right up the middle over the second baseman’s head to double up the lead on the Rockies, 4-2.
Luis Castillo pitched to one batter in the fourth inning, getting Amador—who had homered earlier—to ground out, and then José Ferrer took over. Ferrer looked nasty, striking out the two hitters he faced.
In the fifth we got to see our first Matt Brash appearance of the spring. Brash, whose slider command looked a little wonky, got a pair of soft-contact lineouts before the third one dropped for a base hit. Dan Wilson then brought in Carlos Vargas and Charlie Condon greeted him rudely, turning on a sinker well inside and just muscling it down the left-field line for an RBI double. That was poor luck, but walking Troy Johnston on five pitches was bad process. To his credit, Vargas was able to bounce back and strike out Braxton Fulford, which is not a name of a baseball player but a company that sells commemorative plates, getting him swinging after a 96 mph cutter up.
The Mariners were able to add a run in the sixth, thanks to Colt Emerson smoking a line-drive single and then stealing second base. Rhylan Thomas then drove him home on a double. But the Rockies struck right back against Casey Lawrence in the seventh, tagging him for three runs on some hard contact and giving the Rockies a 6-5 advantage.
One of those runs had come thanks to an error on new shortstop Brock Rodden, and the normally sure-handed Brockstar made up for it in the seventh by sending a Brocket to the moon for a game-tying solo home run. Because he is secretly very selfish and look-at-me and not the nice humble scion of Pittsburgh he pretends to be*, Cole Young immediately trumped that with a majestic moonshot of his own that made me say “jeebus” out loud in the press box. 108.7 off the bat! Cole Young is a power hitter, tell your friends.
*this is A Joke do not come for me Cole Cultists
Unfortunately, Casey Lawrence couldn’t stop the onslaught of runs from the Rockies B-squad. He gave up a three-run tank in the eighth to put the Rockies up 9-7, and another two-run shot in the ninth to put the game well out of reach, and that’s all that needs to be said about that. Just watch the Cole Young homer a few more times.
Other notes:
- Colt Emerson got the start at third today and made a solid catch on a sun ball in the first. In the third, he made a nice charging play on a slow-rolling (58.2 EV) grounder to get the runner at first.
- Victor Robles worked a walk in the first inning, which is very good to see. He did get thrown out running from first to third on a single, which was less good, but it was nice to see Victor flying around the bases again.
- Rob Refsnyder checked in with a solid base hit off righty Chase Dollander, whose name I promise I only said like Ilya saying “Hollander” a couple of times to myself in the press box.
- Michael Arroyo, freshly returned from the WBC, got into the game in the sixth, playing in left field. He didn’t get to do much at the plate because he had to wait a while to get a turn to bat, and then in his second at-bat he got hit square in the back with a pitch. He got a challenge in LF in the eighth inning, but wasn’t able to reel in what would have been a very very tough catch on a ball slicing quickly to his right. He made a good effort though!
- In the sixth, Cole Young made a play where he had to go to his right, which was a problem for him last year, and although it was routine, it came off the bat at 107 mph and he fielded the ball cleanly and made a solid throw to first. He then made a similar, even more difficult play like that in the seventh, ranging even further to his right and making a nice cross-body throw. This has been a problem for Young in the past so it’s good to see.
- Yosver Zulueta pitched another scoreless inning, adding another two strikeouts, and continues to be quietly very good this spring.
- Connor Joe tripled in the home run parade of the seventh but was stranded at third. The ball came off his bat at 102.3 mph for another hard-hit ball from Joe, who is just smacking the ball around this spring in a way his ice-blue Statcast sliders would belie. I talked to Joe today a little about how he’s liking Mariner camp and what he feels like he might have unlocked here so keep an eye out for that soon-ish.
