Mariners channel the power of friendship, beat Brewers 4-2

all it takes is everyone doing their part

As I’ve written before, it’s hard for baseball players to work together. On defense, position players can, but until the bat hits the ball, baseball is a duel between a hitter and a pitcher.

Teamwork in baseball, then, means something a little different, something more ~vibes~ based. Players uplift each other and provide energy, motivation, and confidence. We do say that hitting is contagious, after all. Today the Mariners were able to spread the contagion through the dugout, tagging Milwaukee pitchers for 7 hits and 3 dingers. But we’ll get back to that later.

First, we have to talk about Bryan Woo. Woo has bounced back incredibly after his difficult spring training debut against the Rockies two weeks ago. Since then, he has been untouchable, throwing 2.2 no-hit innings against Anaheim, and today 4 perfect innings with just 38 pitches. He also struck out 5 Brewers along the way, almost half the batters he faced.

For those keeping score at home, and you should be, he as not allowed a hit in his last 7 innings pitched, and he has not allowed a baserunner in his last 5.1, a walk to Jo Adell being the lone blemish. I know they don’t give out awards for 9 more-than-very-good innings across multiple games, but maybe they should. Something for you to keep an eye on at his next start.

And that excellence today put the Mariners’ hitters in the right place to do some damage offensively. It got going early as, in th efirst inning, Mitch Haniger took a distinct disliking towards a specific baseball and expressed his distaste by depositing it over the right field fence.

In the bottom of the 4th, Cal got himself onto first with a solid line drive into left. After Ty France flew out, and Dom Canzone lineout, Brewers pitcher Robert Gasser tried to end the inning by picking of Cal at first. Cal may have viewed this attempt as either a dare or an insult, because on the very next pitch he took off for 2nd. Luckily, our own Nick Tucker was on the scene to report what happened.

Stolen base #1 for Cal this spring. Catcher speed is real, y’all.

But Cal’s not one who’s satisfied by just making his mark on the basepath. In the 5th, Mitch checked in again with a single, and Cal followed him up by proving why MLB The Show gave him a 94 power rating this year.

Though, the game’s not out yet. They still have time to bump it up to 95 after that blast.

An inning later, in the 6th, Luis Urías hit a blast of his own, his second of the spring, to give the Mariners their 4th run of the game. From there, it was an easy cruise for the collection of pitchers (Thornton, Snider, Buttrey, Diaz) to close it out. Thornton and Diaz each gave up a solo homer of their own, and everyone else also allowed a single hit.

So the Mariners won today quickly, efficiently, and powerfully. No need to worry about trying to make the hit-and-run work if you get all your RBIs off of homers, after all. The thing about recapping smooth wins is that you run out of things to say very quickly. The M’s got an outstanding from Woo, hit a few dingers, and left the park with another one in the W column.

And on a picture perfect Thursday afternoon, there’s nothing more to ask for.