Mariners lose to Jacob Wilson-powered Athletics, 7-6

Wilson drives in five of the A’s seven runs as the Mariners get unlucky on St. Patrick’s Day

Fun fact: “Jacob Wilson” is apparently an old Irish name that means “Mariners killer.” The A’s top prospect looked like the Rookie of the Year contender many A’s fans think he is, driving in five of the A’s seven runs to power the A’s in their on-theme kelly green uniforms to a win over the Mariners on St. Patrick’s Day. Still, there was some joy to be had for Mariners fans. Shoutout to Nick Tucker, who was at today’s untelevised game and gave us video of some of the biggest highlight plays of the game.

After going down in order in the first against A’s starter Hogan Harris, the Mariners got something cracking in the second, when with one out, Luke Raley walked. Rowdy Tellez smoked a ball to the right of Zack Gelof, who made an errant throw trying to start a possible double play against the slow-footed Tellez, but instead was distracted by the majestic sight of Luke Raley in full flight and almost threw the ball into the Mariners’ dugout, allowing Rowdy and Raley to rumble to second and third. Unfortunately, Ryan Bliss and Austin Shenton couldn’t get the runners home, striking out against new pitcher Justin Sterner.

The A’s got on the board first in the third, when A’s top prospect Jacob Wilson demolished the first pitch he saw for a solo home run. That’s his third homer of the spring, something that’s very encouraging for A’s fans given that was the area Wilson most needed to improve in. Just wait, hypothetical A’s fans.

The Mariners answered back in the fourth. Randy Arozarena chopped a ball softly to the left of new pitcher Jason Alexander, who is lucky Tyler Soderstrom is approximately ten feet tall and was able to corral Alexander’s wildly off-base throw. The defensive miscues for the A’s continued, as Lawrence Butler let a Raley double get past him in right, bringing home Arozarena and allowing Raley, in full crazy-legs mode, to gallop to third.

But the A’s took that run and then some more right back in the fourth. Tyler Soderstrom reached on an infield base hit fielded cleanly—albeit slowly—by Jorge Polanco, Zack Gelof reached on a solid line drive base hit, and then it was Jacob Wilson again, making sure he’d make some highlight reels tonight with a three-run bomb to put the A’s ahead 4-2.

The Mariners clawed one of those runs back in the top of the fifth; Shenton doubled to deep right field (109.8 EV) and made it home on a Victor Robles single. But there was a scary moment in the inning, where Robles appeared to get injured diving back into first on a pickoff throw, calling for the trainer to come out and check him out. He remained in the game, but could be seen stretching out between pitches. Postgame, Dan Wilson said he thinks Robles just had the wind knocked out of him, and he should be find.

The core didn’t seem to be bothering Victor as he made a little leaping catch to end the sixth inning. Ironically, that was the only ball that was really squared up against Gregory Santos in the inning (105.7 EV), who gave up a run on a couple of singles and some fielder’s choices, with the dastardly Jacob Wilson beating out what would have been an inning-ending double play for 95% of the rest of the league, scoring the A’s fifth run of the day, and also Jacob Wilson’s fifth RBI of the day. Despite the run, Wilson was pleased with Santos’s outing, as he reached 98 on the sinker and threw “some good sliders.”

Collin Snider got into some hot water in the eighth, although it wasn’t entirely his fault: Ryan Bliss couldn’t corral a ball hit well to his right, albeit only at 88 mph (he was charged with an error, which felt like a tough scoring decision). A soft single put two on with none out, and brought up power bat Tyler Soderstrom, who drilled a ball deep to center-right. Luke Raley, playing center in place of Julio, made a brilliant leaping catch at the wall to rob Soderstrom of a three-run home run with a play that drew gasps and applause from Mariners and A’s fans alike.

In the fourth inning, Cal Raleigh just missed a homer to right field; it went very high and very far at 104.1 mph, but hooked just right. Yesterday Raleigh got in some extra ABs against the minor leaguers and also went yard, with a majestic home run that the minor leaguers were still goggling over as they came back into the minor league clubhouse. In the eighth inning, he again laced a ball to right, this time keeping it fair, depositing it in the A’s bullpen to bring the Mariners to within a run.

The Mariners would go on to tie it up, though, as Arozarena followed Cal’s homer with a modest line-drive single, then swiped second. That would prove to be an important stolen base, as Raley smashed a double to the gap, allowing Randy to score easily. Luke would later be caught in a prolonged rundown between second and third, because Raley’s legs giveth and they taketh.

But the A’s went ahead again, this time with A’s prospect Brennan Milone—not to be confused with Pirates pitching prospect Brennan Malone—hitting an RBI single off Gabe Speier, who got some ground ball bad luck (as well as the bad luck of not having Raleigh behind the plate any more to control the running game).

With Jacob Wilson out of the game and off to craft more maleficent tokens designed to curse the Mariners’ pitching staff, the Mariners took the opportunity to tie up the game. Victor Robles, playing a full nine despite the injury scare earlier, got hit by a pitch, continuing his day of ouchies, and then took second on a wild pitch. Austin St. Laurent, a 2024 draftee we haven’t seen much of despite possessing one of the most mellifluous names in the system, drove him in with a single to tie the game again at six.

Ultimately, the A’s prospects bested the Mariners prospects, as The Other Max Muncy hit the game-winning single off Mariners prospect Brandyn García, who also suffered some bad luck, with Shenton missing a catch at first on an infield single allowing the runner to reach second. Maybe next time the Mariners should consider kelly green uniforms on St. Patrick’s Day, too.

Other notes:

• With groundball-getter Casey Lawrence on the hill, all the infield positions saw significant work today over the fist five innings. Lawrence gave up a leadoff double to start the game, but wiggled off the hook thanks to some groundballs, smoothly fielded by J.P. Crawford. In the fourth, Polanco had three chances at third, and while his arm just does not look strong in throwing across the diamond, his throws are accurate, as is his footwork; it’s just slow. Ryan Bliss also saw several balls come his way at second base; he fielded them cleanly, but like Polanco, it’s more methodical than streamlined. However, when he has to react quickly, he’s very smooth, like in an inning-ending play in the fifth where he had to get to a ball hit deep in the hole quickly and make a tough off-balance throw across his body. It seems like when he thinks less and just lets his athleticism take over, he does better. Case in point: the “error”/misplay on a challenging but not impossible ball hit relatively slowly (88.4 EV) off to his right in the seventh inning.
• With the A’s running out a slate of lefties, the Mariners’ left-handed hitters got a chance to get in some left-on-left work. Luke Raley was especially proud of his left-on-left double:

• Austin Shenton had the untimely inning-ending strikeout with RISP, but also worked two walks in this game.
• With the loss, the Mariners fall to 7-17 this spring, dead last in the very real Cactus League standings. Seven games is the fewest number of games won by any team in MLB this spring except for...the Miami Marlins. Yeouch.