It’s weird spring training with limited rosters and few fans and innings that can be rolled, so games that end in draws seem appropriately chaos-Muppetish for ST ’21. The Mariners thanked today for ending the game in a draw for the second consecutive day, ending today with the Rockies by 9-9.
Justus Sheffield’s start was as good as a walk in early spring. He threw about 30 shots at his two innings, allowing for two strokes, but no runs. The first hit was a groundball single by Greg Bird that sneaked past JP Crawford; the second, off the baton of the Colton Welker Rocky Mountains prospect, was legitimately hit with the gap for a permanent double. Sheffield also did not issue free passes and hit Ryan Vilade swinging while working ahead of most hitters.
The rest of the launch was … less sharp. No Mariner pitchers worked a shift without base traffic, and only Sheffield, Kendall Graveman and Casey Sadler worked with the goalless (and it is worth mentioning that Sadler, experienced in MLB, was facing the Rockies bench in a team that already felt composed of bank players). Graveman, who was the first to leave the pen, sat down 94-96 and had a little trouble finding the strike zone, walking towards the starting hitter, but recovered to get two quick flyball exits and then help himself eliminating Alan Trejo (who) initially. Keynan Middleton also had some base traffic, giving a double down-the-line followed by an RBI base hit, but recovered with a double play strike-in-out / throw-in-out to end the inning. Running into Tom Murphy? It couldn’t be me.
Rule 5 pick Will Vest really struggled today, giving up a single followed by consecutive doubles, then a walk, another basic blow, and you know what, let’s just throw this in the trash can and forget about it. Anthony Misiewicz also gave up on a solo HR, spoiling what would otherwise be a good start, and Paul Sewald also had a difficult time, delivering a two-race home run to Casey Golden, who I remember torturing the pitchers of. Modest in 2019, although he recovered to strike the side; no other Mariners pitcher has had more than one strikeout. On the positive side, the pitching team took just two collective hikes (Colorado’s pitchers hiked five), but the highlight today was not the pitch, unless you count Justus’s solid start in the spring.
No, today’s highlight – the game that was unfortunately not televised – came in the third entry. The Mariners’ bats started, as before, slow. JP Crawford reached out to start the game on a single infield, but was sent off in an attempt to crash and run when Haniger flew away and JP failed to catch Manny Acta’s signal to return to the first. Spring training! After that flyout, Chi Chi Gonzales induced four straight groundouts to subdue the Mariners in their two innings.
That changed when Phillip Diehl – a 26-year-old with 13 MLB entries to his name and a similar shot to the head – came into the game in relief for Gonzales. With two eliminations, Braden Bishop decided to donate some money to his charity:
This apparently opened the floodgates for the Mariners’ hitters. JP Crawford would then arrive on a four-shot walk, and then Mitch Haniger showed what a healthy Mitch Haniger can do:
That’s 110 EV on that rocket. Kyle Seager found it unfair that fans on the other side of the park did not receive a souvenir, so he followed Haniger’s photo with the following:
And then Ty France decided that the scoreboard looked a little lonely:
Tom Murphy entered a 3-0 count before hitting an internal single, and then the magic of two heats came in half when the Rockies pulled Diehl to a new pitcher, Garrett Schilling, who eliminated Evan White. This was White’s first strikeout in the spring, which is encouraging, as he seems to be making more contact, even though he doesn’t always go for hitting.
The next player to go up to the Mariners was Middleton, who dropped out of a race, but in the next inning the Mariners got that race back from Rock Rule 5 and chose Jordan Sheffield – with younger brother Justus hanging from the rail to watch – when Taylor Trammell took a walk followed by a stolen base, and Sam Travis chose him home. The older Sheff recovered with a double play and flyout to end the inning, and any other scoring threat from the Mariners.
Unfortunately, the Mariners’ next pitcher was Vest, who allowed the Rockies to tie in one, and then Misiewicz, who gave up on a tied homer. Lail allowed another in the eighth and Sewald in the ninth. The Mariners’ clubs have recovered a few times, but have not been able to overcome their bullpen problems, in a game that was technically Spring Training 2021, but it looked like it could have been any game of the 2020 season. in the end.