Mariners open Cactus League play with a loss to Padres
Padres 5, Mariners 2 at the Peoria Sports Complex For the first five innings of their Cactus League opener, the Mariners couldn’t muster a hit, which provided easy fodder for fans upset about the lack of moves this offseason. Blake Hunt broke up San Diego’s combined no-hitter with a two-out single in the top of the sixth inning off lefty Ryan Och.
The Mariners had already scored a run prior to their first hit, though. With Seattle trailing 3-0, Tyler Locklear was hit by a pitch from Padres reliever Tom Cosgrove to start the top of the third. Austin Shenton followed with a walk. With one out, Locklear and Shenton were able to execute a double steal with J.P. Crawford at the plate. The veteran shortstop took advantage of the situation, hitting a deep fly ball to the warning track in right-center, allowing Locklear to tag up and score.
“When you get an opportunity like that, they were able to capitalize on it and put us in scoring position,” said manager Dan Wilson. “That’s what we’re looking to do, we’re looking to gain 90 feet where we can, and help score the run at that point.” The Mariners got behind almost immediately when starter Jhonathan Diaz walked the first hitter of the game and served up a one-out, two-run homer to Manny Machado off the batter’s eye in center field. San Diego added another run in the inning.
Player of the game In the top of the ninth with the Mariners trailing by four runs, Samad Taylor crushed a cutter over the wall in left field for a solo homer and the Mariners second hit of the game. A year ago, Taylor hit a solo homer in the Mariners’ first Cactus League game. Quotable “It felt good to get out here today, get a chance to get game-like reps. We got behind early on the Machado homer. We hurt ourselves a little bit with two outs early in the game, and then our offense was a little quiet today.
But it was good to see Samad get that hanging breaking ball and drive it out of the ballpark. We are off and running and it feels good to get it started.” – Dan Wilson On Tap The Mariners travel to Tempe Diablo Stadium to face the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday afternoon. Right-hander Logan Evans, the Mariners’ No. 8 prospect, per Baseball America, will make his first career Cactus League start. Also scheduled to pitch for Seattle are right-handers Casey Lawrence, Carlos Vargas, Neftali Feliz, Hagen Danner and Tyler Cleveland and lefty Peyton Alford.
The Angels will start right-hander Jack Kochanowicz. First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m. PT. The Angels will televise the game on FanDuel Sports Network West. There will be a live radio broadcast on Seattle Sports 710-AM and mariners.com
