This recap should belong to James Paxton as the main character. Paxton looked stunning today in his last spring training warm-up, giving up just two strokes on four innings with nine eliminations. Paxton was dealing with a postage stamp-sized zone from home plate referee Alex Tosi (just like a ship captain’s goal is never to have the name of his green ship linked on Wikipedia, an arbitrator’s goal is not to have his name hotlinked in a recap), but that did not stop Big Maple from negotiating, accumulating nine eliminations in four entries with two hits and no runs.
It took Pax a little while to settle and get around that small area, as he saw some traffic at the bases in the first round with a walk and then hit Wilmer Flores with a backfoot slider, but Pax recovered to clean the first one. He started the second with an initial hike to LaMonte Wade (Jamal’s brother, a former Mariner farmer), but again he was able to recover and attack from the side. If the zone was not there for him to summon attacks, Pax was able to reach out and blow it up by the hitters. Darin had a Ruf time:
Marco Luciano was not lucky:
Putting the bloody on Longoria:
The only real damage against Pax was an initial double from Alex Dickerson, who Pax promptly ran into third. We’ve seen some Very Competent Mariner releases over the past two seasons, but we haven’t seen divine level releases like what Paxton offers at its best, and it’s very, very exciting to have that again.
But, really, today it belonged to this guy:
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Today Taylor Trammell was informed that after years of grinding in the minor leagues, almost enjoying the dubious distinction of being twice the Futures Game MVP, being traded twice, he will make his major league debut on Thursday at T-Mobile Park . We are obviously thrilled by Taylor, a really nice guy who visited us on the podcast earlier this winter (and signed for a truly “sports day for very happy women and girls” and thanked me for being here, consolidating him as my favorite for ever); he gave a touching interview on the broadcast talking about what it means for him to get a call for the big ones, which is worth watching if you can.
But, as he did all spring, today Trammell spoke louder in the field. He put the Mariners on the board in the second with this base-loaded single from a fighter Scott Kazmir:
(The bases were loaded thanks to a single by Torrens, a single by Evan White and a walk by Jake Fraley, all of which were good things. Fraley would later score in the rare spring training tie to make 3-0 Mariners.)
But that was not enough for Taylor “can’t mean Seattle without TT” Trammell, who took advantage of a mistake by the Giants (a failed pop-up) to get this argument that he absolutely Taylor Trammell tattooed:
The attack on Trammell would be all that the Mariners needed, especially with the Seattle Mariners launching a team recording 20 eliminations. Half of that was Paxton, of course, but Vinny Nittoli added one to his clean inning, Drew Steckenrider added two more while continuing to look solid upon returning from injury, as did JT Chargois in the ninth, and Paul Sewald ended up eliminating the side, although he has made it an adventure, going-scratched-hiking-scratched-hiking-scratched. Please, Paul, I just ate. Keynan Middleton also hit the side, displaying some new Mariners-colored dreads and some extra dirt on his fastball, which hit 96, by defeating the Giants hitters who marched to face him:
Technically, there’s another spring training game on Monday (but it’s only on the radio, so does that count?), But let’s all pretend that this was it. It’s very easy to get excited about the idea of seeing James Paxton taking the mound every six days and knocking down hitters like he did on his last two outings, a cheerful Taylor Trammell crossing the field and Keynan Middleton and Co. throwing flames out of bullpen. That will, in fact, serve. This will do just fine.