To face the Texas Rangers, the defending World Series champions, the Seattle Mariners flew to Surprise, a place known for its retirement villages and strip malls. The final outcome was the same as what we’ve seen from both teams this spring: plenty of offense, a little less pitching, and a 9-5 victory for the visiting Mariners. Both clubs used lineups that were not quite at full health.
Tyson Miller replaced Bryce Miller, who pitched on the backfields today instead of giving the Rangers a closer look at him and his new toolkit, so it wasn’t the most exciting pitching showdown. Adrian Sampson, a former Mariner from Seattle, started the game for Texas, and the Seattle Mariners quickly took advantage of him: J.P. Crawford doubled to start the game, Cal Raleigh singled to drive J.P. home, and Dominic Canzone then sent this baseball to a retirement complex nearby:
After working around a sun double and receiving assistance from Cade Marlowe on a tough play on a ball shot deep over his head in center, Tyson Miller pitched two scoreless innings; he struck out two, both on the slider. However, the Rangers jumped out to a 4-3 lead against Brett de Geus, who had trouble against his previous team. De Geus under extreme pressure from the Rangers, as he only threw four pitches to the first four batters, which led to a flyout, RBI single, hit by pitch, and Baltimore chop base hit—all on the sinker. Before Davis Wendzel could ground into a double play, de Geus was able to get the next three hitters to reach via a ground rule double, walk, and RBI single.
With some small ball in the fourth, the Seattle Mariners knotted the game: Brian Anderson walked to load the bases, Luke Raley (yeah!) and Cade Marlowe singles, and a fielder’s choice out at home allowed the run to score on a wild pitch. Whatever functions. With a two-run, line-drive single later, J.P. Crawford gave the Mariners a 6-4 lead. two outs from the game.
In his Mariners debut, Ryne Stanek looked about as large and vicious as he had been projected to be, with a fastball slugging percentage of 97–99. It wasn’t a perfect inning; after giving up a base hit and requiring a spectacular diving play by Raley in right, he struck out Justin Foscue swinging after 97 pitches.
In the bottom of the fifth, Adolis García gave the Rangers a run back when he pounced on the first pitch he saw from Joey Krehbiel. However, the Mariners, who were now mostly using their reserves, answered back with four singles off Austin Pruitt, touching up four balls (with Michael Papierski’s parachute shot into left scoring the RBI). Canzone’s sac fly added another run, making the Mariners’ lead 8–5.
Troy Taylor, a hard-throwing prospect, worked the bottom of the sixth. Though the Rangers were able to get the bat on it most of the time, with groundouts, line drive base hits, and deep flyouts on the pitch, Taylor lit up the radar gun at Surprise, touching 98 at times. Although he did get some ugly empty swings when the slider was moving where he wanted it to, Taylor also had trouble controlling his slider, which occasionally slid a bit too far to be attractive to hitters. With the pitch, he completely confused Blaine Crim, striking him out.
In the eighth, Michael Papierski, who was on base again because that seems to be all Ol’ Mikey Papps does, scored a run off an RBI double by Nick Solak, who exacted a little retribution on his former squad. We will overlook Solak’s desecration of the day’s subject, which was “hot singles near Surprise.”
For all of these singles, a side of fries:
- After working the longest walk in history against Jacob Latz (12 pitches! ), Josh Rojas got Raleigh to fly out to end the inning.
- With a sharply hit ball to the left side of the infield that the shortstop was unable to corral, Axel Sanchez recorded his first hit in a major league spring training game in the sixth inning. (everything is considered a hit in spring, but this was genuinely a hit). And Axel did this too, yay:
- Alberto Rodríguez loaded the bases once more in the sixth inning after working a walk with two outs. Cheers to Berto’s increased forbearance at the plate.
- After Sanchez made the excellent defensive play, Jordan Holloway worked a quick 1-2-3 inning and recorded a strikeout. At the conclusion of a spring training game crewed primarily by single-A players—among them, one wearing a Seattle Mariners Bill Knight jersey with the number “00”—Sean Poppen performed the heroics by pitching two scoreless innings and sent everyone home on schedule. Even though there is a party going on, Surprise is still Surprise, and the sidewalks open at five sharp.
Source
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