Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco shine, but Mariners drop both split squad games to Reds and Royals

Mariners make a last-minute comeback in one of the games, but can’t come out on the winning end of a pair of close contests

Today’s split-squad games were mostly close contests, signaling the end of Spring Training Silliness as the starters played deep into games. The away game against the Royals got out of control late, when Trent Thornton couldn’t complete his inning and prospect Juan Burgos wound up giving up a three-run difference-maker, only for the Mariners to almost storm back in a ninth-inning comeback, but mostly these games were marked by back-and-forth lead changes.

Home game: Mariners 3, Reds 5

The game started out with dueling solo homers: leadoff man Victor Robles pounced on the first pitch he saw from Reds starter Hunter Greene, and then Gavin Lux answered right back, jumping on a first-pitch fastball from Logan Gilbert. The Reds pulled ahead as Austin Wynns took a 2-0 pitch at the top of the zone over the left-field fence, but the Mariners were able to tie it up in the third with back-to-back singles from Ryan Bliss and Victor Robles.

The Reds pulled ahead in the fourth; Jacob Hurtubise doubled, scoring Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who had walked, as Gilbert couldn’t get him to chase after his curveball. Logan came back for an inning-ending strikeout, getting Austin Wynns swinging after a splitter.

The Mariners did what they could in the bottom of the inning, with Luke Raley and Jorge Polanco going back-to-back with singles; with one out, Harry Ford Did His Job with a sac fly to tie the game back up.

But the Reds again jumped ahead in the seventh; Casey Legumina hit a batter and then surrendered a monstrous home run on a slider to Reds prospect Ruben Ibarra. The Mariners couldn’t find any additional offense, so that stood as the difference-maker in the game.

Loses aren’t fun, but the big takeaway from this game is Gilbert’s performance; aside from those two solo homers, he had seven strikeouts and went almost six innings in his final spring appearance before he takes the mound for his first-ever Opening Day start. He said postgame he was pleased with the shapes on his pitches, but he was super proud that he beat out speedster Elly de La Cruz running to first base on a groundout.

Other notes:

• In the fifth inning, Victor Robles got hit by a 99 mph Hunter Greene fastball. He was okay, but please no more of that. Other than that, Robles had a great day, with a homer, and two singles to right field.
• Luke Raley took two bases on a pitcher throwing error, because Luke Raley.
• Casey Legumina was called on to get the final out for Gilbert in the sixth. He gave up a double, but got a groundout to end the inning. There was then a long layoff for Legumina with a mid-inning pitch change and some lengthy at-bats in the sixth before he was called back to the mound in the seventh and gave up the home run. We’ll call it rust.
• Cal Raleigh challenged a ball in the seventh for Legumina and won, getting a ball overturned for a strike. Unfortunately, the next pitch was in the same place and got hammered for a home run. Cal then challenged another pitch and again got it overturned, and this time it wound up as an inning-ending strikeout to Matt McLain. Cal would challenge another ball in the eighth, flipping the count from 2-1 to 1-2 and making him a perfect 7/7 on the season.
• Jorge Polanco didn’t see a ton of action at third base, but he handled the liner hit at him in the eighth cleanly. Between that, a nice at-bat where he worked a single off Greene, and a double that just missed being a home run, it was a solid day for Polo, and he gets the Sun Visor Award for today.
• Luke Raley should have another hit in this game, but he got robbed on a spectacular diving play at first.
• Carlos Vargas had a scoreless eighth, and Gregory Santos worked a scoreless ninth, with some help from prospect Bill Knight in the outfield running down a deep flyout.

Away game: Mariners 7, Royals 8

This game was colored by the news of the loss of legendary Kansas broadcaster Bob Davis, who was the father of Steven Davis, the play-by-play voice of the Arkansas Travelers. Bob was preceded in death by his wife Linda, who had been battling Parkinson’s for years and passed away earlier in the week. It’s an unimaginable heartbreak for the Davis family, but it’s also a testament to the love the two shared; some people cannot be separated, in this world or the next. If you listen back to the broadcast, they told some wonderful stories about “BD” over the course of the air. He sounded like quite a character. Our deepest condolences to Steven and the entire Davis family.

The majority of this game was closer than the final score. Mariners were able to get some hits off Reds starter Michael Lorenzen. A two-out double off the voice of Randy Arozarena went for naught in the first inning, but the Mariners got something going in the second, when Dominic Canzone tripled over MJ Melendez’s head and was driven in on a Miles Matstrobuoni single. In the third, it was another triple, with Dylan Moore tripling again to Melendez. Arozarena then came through again with a single to plate the Mariners’ second run.

Logan Evans danced in and out of trouble, getting ahead of hitters but then struggling to put them away. A dangerous situation in the first with two on and no outs was alleviated as Evans got three ground ball outs, and a leadoff single in the second was wiped off by a double play; lucky, because the next batter, Harold Castro, also doubled, but instead of a run scoring, Evans was able to produce another ground ball out to end the inning.

Again in the third, Evans allowed two leadoff singles to Jonathan India and Bobby Witt Jr., but Salvador Perez grounded into a double play. Evans couldn’t close things out there, though, issuing a four-pitch walk to Melendez, bringing up Freddy Fermin, who jumped on his first pitch for an RBI single. And that’s why you don’t issue two-out walks. Evans redeemed himself by coming up with his first strikeout of the day, getting Cavan Biggio swinging after a slider.

Evans issued a leadoff double to Maikel Garcia in the fourth, ending his day and bringing in former Royal Gabe Speier. After a stolen base and a sac fly, the game was tied at 2. Speier was able to put down the rest of his hitters and not allow any more than that, however.

The Mariners surged ahead again in the fifth, thanks to a solo home run from Arozarena, who did a beautiful job of using the whole field with his hits today: a double to left, a single up the middle, and a home run to right. You know Edgar loves to see that.

Trent Thornton had some annoying batted ball luck in the sixth, giving up a ground-ball single to Garcia, whose pinch runner then swiped second and moved to third on another single, looping a slider into center. The Royals tied it up with yet another single, and then Thornton didn’t help his own case, grazing India with a pitch to bring up Bobby Witt Jr. with the bases loaded and just one out. The damage wasn’t as significant as it could be—just a go-ahead sac fly—but it ended Thornton’s day, requiring JICy (Just In Case) player, Juan Burgos from A-ball, to be summoned from the bullpen to face Salvador Perez. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Burgos’s first pitch went wild, moving up the runners, before he gave up a monster blast to Salvy, essentially putting the game out of reach. That was Perez’s first homer of the spring.

The Mariners had an opportunity to come back in the seventh; Miles Mastrobuoni led off the inning with yet another single, but was erased on a Samad Taylor double play. J.P. Crawford then doubled into the corner, but Dylan Moore grounded out to end the threat. They had yet another opportunity in the eighth, as power-hitting prospect Jared Sundstrom led off the eighth with a double off Daniel Lynch IV and advanced to third on a bloop single from Blake Hunt, but three straight strikeouts from Donovan Solano, Austin Shenton, and Dominic Canzone ended that threat.

The Royals put the game further out of reach in the bottom of the eighth, tacking on another run against another JICy player, former UW Husky Stefen Raeth. The Mariners retaliated in the ninth with some garbage-time runs of their own off Lynch, in for another inning of work, once again spearheaded by Mastrobuoni, who led off with a double down the left field line; Samad Taylor singled and stole second, while Mastrobuoni came home on a wild pitch, and then J.P. Crawford drove a double to left field for another run. Dylan Moore then picked a great time for his first homer of the spring, working an eight-pitch at-bat and crushing a fastball to center field at 107 mph (416 feet!). It’s been a slow spring for Moore, so that’s great to see. The Mariners almost came up with a huge moment at the end, but Dominic Canzone got robbed on an incredible diving catch by Joey Wiemer in center.

Other notes:

• Mitch Garver challenged another ball today in the first inning and got it overturned for a strike. Feel free to check my math, but I believe Garver is also perfect this spring, going 5/5 on his challenges.
• Collin Snider worked a scoreless inning against his former team, although he gave up a single to Salvador Perez, who advanced on a wild pitch.
• Shintaro Fujinami had the seventh and didn’t allow a run to cross the plate, although not without some bumps, as he gave up a single where the runner moved over on a wild pitch, then issued a walk, but he was able to get an inning-ending double play off some weak contact on his splitter.