Mariners break stalemate, beat Rockies 8-1

Once the hitting starts, it’s hard to stop

The Mariners returned to Peoria Sports Complex today to play host to the Colorado Rockies. Throughout the last 17 games of spring training, the Mariners major league hitters have not set the world on fire, while the minor leaguers have been surprisingly standout. That trend continued into today’s contest, which was a long pitching duel until the M’s blew it open in the 7th and 8th.

Luis Castillo made his third start of the spring today, pitching for 3.1 innings while allowing 4 hits and 1 walk. While the box score may not excite the imagination, it’s important to note that Luis looked in control on the mound, even when he wasn’t. He had some trouble with command, but when his pitches hit their spots, he induced a lot of weak contact and induced a double play in the second. After allowing the first run of the game in the 4th inning (double followed by a single), he was taken out in favor of Juan Burgos. It looks like the Mariners pitchers are being limited to ~55 pitches at the moment, as that’s when the past few have been taken out.

Burgos in turn was replaced by Andrés Muñoz in the 5th, who pitched a scoreless inning despite allowing a walk to Adael Amador. Andrés turned his heater up to 98.8 today, and as a special treat we got a look at his new “kick change.” He threw it in the outside shadow zone twice to Adael Amador, but Amador didn’t bite and was able to take his base. Despite the walk, it looks like the kick change is going to be an impactful part of the fireballer’s repertoire.

The M’s were able to recover that run Castillo let in when Zach Agnos left a changeup right over the middle of the plate to J.P. Crawford. I know J.P.’s not a power hitter, but you still can’t make a mistake like that to a major leaguer.

The 1-1 tie persisted until the bottom of the seventh when, with two outs, the Mariners got a rally going. After Colt Emerson lined out on a 103.8 mph batted ball (.510 xBA), Luis Suisbel got on base with a ground ball single that snuck through into right field. After that, Rockies pitcher Jake Woodford plunked Dominic Canzone to put two on for Miles Mastrobuoni. It was some delayed gratification for Mastrobuoni, who had to wait until the fifth pitch to get something he could turn on. He hit a picture-perfect line drive into right and Suisbel scored easily from second.

Jacob Nottingham stepped in next, and he must have thought Woodford owed him estate taxes, and sent a first pitch sweeper over the wall and into Sherwood Forest, scoring three runs and blowing the game open.

Later on, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Colt Emerson finally got rewarded for good contact, and sent a changeup below the knees bouncing off the centerfield wall for a double. That knock followed up a Ben Williamson single and put runners on second and third for Luis Suisbel. The 21-year-old, who played for the Modesto Nuts last year, has been a welcome surprise in camp this spring. In his 11 at-bats so far he’s already knocked in 8 runs and is currently posting an OPS of 1.091. It is, of course, just spring training, but it’s always good to see a player who can do this to a first pitch 97 mph sinker.

With that the game was all but over, and 35-year-old veteran Jesse Hahn came in to pitch the ninth. Hahn has spent the last 10 years bouncing between the majors and AAA, thought the last time he pitched on an MLB mound was in 2021 for the Kansas City Royals.

Other Mariners who pitched today included Colin Snider, Gabe Speier, and Trent Thornton, all of whom did not allow a hit or a walk. Thornton was the only one to allow a baserunner when he plunked Keston Hiura with a sinker that ran more than it sank. It’s good to see that the middle-innings anchors in the bullpen are looking solid this early in spring training.

The question remains then: when are the Mariners MLB hitters going to start putting rallys together? Their hitting remained disjointed today, with only Luke Raley and Victor Robles collecting singles to go with J.P.’s bomb today. We’ve seen the minor leaguers play with a natural connection. So far for them, the hitting has been contagious, while for the major leaguers it looks like the only reason they get on base at all is to get away from the dugout for a little while. It’s time for the team to start coming together. Time marches on, and opening day is closer with each passing second.

That’s both a promise and a threat.