Mariners 11, Rangers 10, at Peoria Sports Complex
Notable
The Mariners rallied from an 8-2 deficit to win their fourth consecutive Cactus League game before a crowd of 7,845 on a sunny Sunday afternoon at Peoria Sports Complex.
Mariners ace Luis Castillo, in his third spring training start, struck out four in 3.1 innings. He allowed three runs on two hits with one walk.
Castillo gave up a two-run home run in the first inning when he left a changeup in the zone on an 0-2 pitch that Rangers slugger Nathaniel Lowe pulled over the fence in right field.
Otherwise, Castillo was solid. And for him, the most important thing is he said he felt good out on the mound, particularly in his first warm-weather start of the spring.
“Luis Castillo looked good again today,” manager Scott Servais said. “He made one mistake on the 0-2 pitch for the home run. But I thought he looked really good. So some good signs there.”
It was an off day for virtually all of the Mariners regulars such as Ty France, Cal Raleigh, J.P. Crawford, Jarred Kelenic and Kolten Wong.
Cooper Hummel hit a double off the wall against Texas starter Andrew Heaney in the third inning, and Evan White followed with an RBI groundout to tie the score 2-2.
After Castillo exited, the Rangers scored four runs in the fifth inning and another in the sixth to take an 8-2 lead.
The Mariners minor-leaguers scored a combined nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take an 11-8 lead.
Jake Scheiner hit a two-run homer in the sixth, and Zach DeLoach and Brian O’Keefe added RBI doubles.
In the seventh, O’Keefe delivered a three-run home run to give the Mariners the lead for good. It was his second homer of spring.
“The ‘B’ team did a nice job swinging the bats,” Servais said.
Left-hander Brennan Bernardino threw 2.1 effective innings of relief, allowing one earned run and striking out six.
The Mariners were able to work through four errors in the game.
Player of the game
Scheiner’s home run was his second of the spring, a 419-foot blast and registered 106 mph off the bat.
Scheiner, playing third, then had the defensive gem of the game in the top of the ninth. With one out and the tying run at third base, Texas’ Kellen Strahm hit a ball that deflected off the backside of Mariners reliever Devin Sweet.
Scheiner scooped up the ball barehanded off the infield grass and on the run threw home to O’Keefe, who applied the tag to the runner, Ryan Dorow, just in time for the second out.
Sweet then struck out Davis Wendzel for the final out. It was Sweet’s first save of spring.
Quotable
“I feel good. As spring training rolls around, the intensity builds up a little bit and I just keep on working to get ready for the season. … Obviously we’re not where we want to be. We want to keep going and keep building up the intensity as we get closer to the season.” — Luis Castillo (through Mariners interpreter Freddy Llanos)
On tap
The Mariners travel to play the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Robbie Ray is scheduled to start for the Mariners, with Bryce Miller, Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Tayler Saucedo and Ryder Ryan also slated to pitch. The game will air on Seattle Sports 710-AM and mariners.com.
Video highlights
Boxscore