Mariners win battle of long balls, defeat Reds 7-6

The ball was flying blissfully in Peoria tonight

Tonight was the Mariners’ first and only night game of the spring training season, exactly one week before they will face the Boston Red Sox in their home opener. The ball probably won’t be flying as much as it was tonight on a warm night in Peoria, where the Mariners and Reds combined for six homers, but hopefully the Mariners will be able to pull out a similar win as they did tonight.

Jhonathan Díaz, pitching for position in Tacoma this year, didn’t exactly have his best showing against the Reds. He struck out Jonathan India to begin the game, winning the battle of the J(h)onathans, but then gave up a triple to Elly De La Cruz and a homer to Spencer Steer, putting the Mariners in an early 2-0 hole.

The Mariners got those runs right back off Reds starter Nick Martinez, though, showing the early offense that’s been a consistent of their Cactus League play. J.P. Crawford led off with a single, but then got caught stealing (another, less positive, consistent in Cactus League play over the last week or so as players take advantage of those eternal green lights on the bases). Julio Rodríguez then walked, though, and Jorge Polanco, reprising his role of Mail Carrier, doubled him home to get the Mariners on the board. Two batters later, Cal Raleigh homered to give the Mariners a 3-2 advantage.

Díaz would in turn give that lead right back, leading off the second giving up a solo home run to former Mariner Mike Ford. But he rebounded to get the next three outs, and then got some help from his defense in the top of the third, as both J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodríguez made solid defensive plays to hold baserunners after a bad-luck ground-ball double and fielding error by Josh Rojas at third, and Cal Raleigh picked off the runner at third to end the inning. Defense! We love to see it (even if we don’t actually see it, because non-televised spring training game).

The Reds took the lead in the sixth with a pair of solo home runs off Tayler Saucedo, off the bats of Will Benson and Mike Ford, again. After a walk and two steals from Seattle-born Stuart Fairchild, Sauce was out of pitches and Jarod Bayless had to come on and clean up the inning, getting Jonathan India to fly out. Yay, Jarod.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Mariners took the lead back with their reserves facing former Mariner Sam Moll. Taylor Trammell walked, Josh Hood singled, and Axel Sánchez also worked a walk. Samad Taylor then hit into an RBI fielder’s choice, but Ryan Bliss came through with a homer of his own to give the Mariners a 7-5 lead.

2023 draftee Ty Cummings was tasked with protecting that lead in the eighth and issued a two-out walk to Mike Ford, but got Stuart Fairchild to ground out, helped out by a nice defensive play by Axel Sánchez to get the speedy Fairchild. Sánchez is, in my view, the best defensive shortstop in the system right now, and if he can put that together with anything resembling Something in the bat, he’s a very interesting prospect to watch. The Reds continued to run out their starters against Cummings in the ninth and he did give up a run, mostly because Elly de la Cruz is an abnormally fast human being, but managed to secure his three outs with the lead intact for a 7-6 win.

Other random notes:

• Michael Papierski had another single, and is batting a cool .476. Ol’ Mikey Papps has been really opening some eyes this spring.
• Taylor Trammell had two walks and no strikeouts tonight, which we love for him.
• Collin Snider earned tonight’s win, working a clean eighth inning with a strikeout. Other than Bayless and Troy Taylor, who struck out the one batter he was tasked with facing, he had the most efficient outing of a Mariners pitcher for the night, so consider it a well-deserved win.