Cal Raleigh hits his first home run of spring in easy, breezy, beautiful Cactus League win
Cal Raleigh takes his former batterymate deep as Mariners cruise to 7-2 win
We’re starting the second full week of spring training, and the games are starting to feel more…game-y. Starting pitchers are going deeper, starting lineups are staying in games longer, minor-leaguers are being re-assigned to minor-league camp. That’s an encouraging sign for the Mariners, who won against the Guardians by a normal-season score of 3-2 over the first half of the game before the Baby Mariners took over and did what they’ve been doing this spring, stacking offense to make it 7-2. No matter what happens with the big-league club this season, the minor league squads should be guaranteed fun to watch.
The Mariners got on the board first in the second inning, when, with two outs, Dominic Canzone stroked a double deep to the gap. We were denied getting to see Ben Williamson hit in the clutch, as he got hit by the first pitch in the at-bat and looked pretty annoyed about it, but Cade Marlowe came through with a line-drive base hit to left field; Canzone flew home from second and Williamson aggressively took third, showing off some wheels. According to Statcast, Canzone’s double came off the bat at 114.8 mph, which even accounting for Cactus League silliness is a good sign for someone whose max EV was 110.5 last season.
Castillo gave that run back in the third, as Johnathan Rodriguez got a ball up in the wind that sailed out of the ballpark, and then another one, as fellow lefty Daniel Schneeman hit one to almost the exact same spot. The Cactus League giveth, the Cactus League taketh. Other than that, it was a smooth day for La Piedra, who threw 42 pitches over three-plus innings (he pitched in the fourth but didn’t record an out, hitting Kyle Manzardo with a slider in a 1-2 count).
Rowdy Tellez led off the fourth with a hustle double off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, which was exactly as delightful as it sounds. Dominic Canzone then brought him around to score on his second double of the day. Between the two doubles and a nice running catch in left-center, that’s enough to earn Canzone the Sun Visor award, on a day when there was some pretty tough competition.
The Mariners went ahead in the fourth, when Cal Raleigh pinch-hit for Jorge Polanco and jumped on a first-pitch Paul Sewald fastball for his first homer of the spring. Other than that, the former Mariner made quick work of the side, so it was an ideal inning if you’re a Mariners fan who is still a Sewald Supporter.
