Mariners defeat Dodgers with slingshot firing 89 mph fastballs and youth, win 8-1

Mariners use Youth Movement to defeat MechaDodgers, it’s super successful!

When Scott Servais announced this morning the Mariners would be pushing back Bryan Woo’s start to instead start Casey Lawrence against the Dodgers’ 350 million dollar off-season acquisition, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, as well as the rest of, you know, the Dodgers lineup, in what promised to be a sold-out game in the Dodgers’ final spring contest at Camelback, things didn’t bode well for the visiting Martiners. But the Mariners used a combination of veteran wiles and youthful energy to bring down the mechaDodgers, sending them out of a packed Camelback (12,230 announced) with a seven-run loss.

Initially, it seemed the game would go much to script. Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked as good as advertised, striking out the top of the Mariners’ order: he caught J.P. Crawford looking at 96, got Julio Rodríguez swinging after a curveball, and then put away Jorge Polanco on the splitter. Seems fair.

Casey Lawrence opened the game with a slightly less hot fastball at 89 to Mookie Betts, eventually getting the newly-minted shortstop to pop out, and managed to get ahead to Shohei Ohtani 1-2 before Ohtani launched a pitch that looked destined for the berm, only to be hauled in by an athletic leap from [checks notes] Mitch Haniger.

However, the Dodgers lineup will keep lineupping, and Freddie Freeman singled followed by a Chris Taylor line drive double past a diving Josh Rojas to put runners on at second and third for Jason Heyward, but it was once again Mitch to the rescue, tracking down another deep flyout to keep the Dodgers off the board. Say it with me: Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch. Lawrence also worked around a leadoff double in the second to James Outman, and a terrible missed call on a pickoff throw that should have gotten Outman out, man at second base (Josh Rojas was so angry he went into a Fury Squat and stared the ump down for a good couple beats, which was equal parts charming and hilarious), getting three quick outs in the air. There was retribution for that in the third, however, when Lawrence and J.P. teamed up for another pickoff that erased a leadoff double from Mookie Betts. The Fury Squat works! Also working: Casey Lawrence dotting up Ohtani at 89, and Josh Rojas hanging with a tough popup high in the icy blue Glendale sky off the bat of Freeman to help Lawrence skate through his final inning unscathed.

Meanwhile, after the first inning the Mariners gradually improved their approach against Yamamoto: their first baserunner came in the second, when Ty France worked a two-out walk, and their first hit came in the third, a two-out oppo line drive base hit off the bat of J.P. Crawford. Finally realizing that they needed to ambush Yamamoto’s fastball rather than wait around and get destroyed by his off-speed offerings, the Mariners opened the fourth with three straight singles, all on fastballs, before Ty France found a cutter to his liking and punished it for a two-run single.

The Dodgers got a run back off Andrés Muñoz, in on relief, thanks to the pesky Outman smoking a ball past a diving Josh Rojas, followed by an unfortunate RBI double off the bat of catcher Austin Barnes that snaked away from Trammell in the outfield like a paper lantern caught by the wind. But Muñoz also struck out two, running his fastball up to an easy 99:

The Mariners continued to pressure Yamamoto in the fifth, with J.P. Crawford and Julio each hitting line-drive singles and then moving into scoring position on a wild pitch. Mitch Garver then took the first pitch he saw, a curveball that didn’t quite curve, into left field for a two-run double.

Tasked with protecting a 4-1 lead, Gabe Speier struggled some with his command but got bailed out by Mookie again getting caught on the bases, this time trying to steal. The Seattle Mariners Making Mookie Batts Look Silly On The Bases was not on my spring training bingo card but we will take it. Speier ended his outing striking out Ohtani looking at 95 mph and did a little yell into his glove about it. Good for Gabe. The Mariners would tack on another run in the sixth, as Josh Rojas walked, stole second, and then motored home on a Seby Zavala sac fly.

At this point, Gameday sort of stopped updating, maybe because it was overloaded by the parade of Youths the Mariners ran out onto the field. By the seventh inning, the only two players the Mariners had on the field who had played Double A ball or above were Michael Papierski and Ryan Bliss: Colt Emerson, Michael Arroyo, Jonny Farmelo, Lazaro Montes, Luis Suisbel, and Tai Peete at DH all took the field and made a strong impression in the big-league environment of Camelback.

They made some daring defensive displays, like this one by Michael Arroyo that helped bail out his pitcher after a triple:

Or this diving catch by Aidan Smith:

They collected some big hits, as well, like this two-run triple from Lazaro Montes, who steamed around the bases like an escaped jetliner, and later scored on a Luis Suisbel sac fly:

(He also got robbed of another hit by a Dodgers outfield prospect who made an outstanding diving catch)

And really, they were just a lot of fun to watch. If you have access to MLB TV I highly recommend watching the seventh inning on of this game just to see this next wave in action. Having a ton of really good pitchers you can watch come up quickly through the system is cool, but having a ton of fun young position players is a whole other level.