Cal Raleigh hits his first home run of spring in easy, breezy, beautiful Cactus League win

Cal Raleigh takes his former batterymate deep as Mariners cruise to 7-2 win

We’re starting the second full week of spring training, and the games are starting to feel more…game-y. Starting pitchers are going deeper, starting lineups are staying in games longer, minor-leaguers are being re-assigned to minor-league camp. That’s an encouraging sign for the Mariners, who won against the Guardians by a normal-season score of 3-2 over the first half of the game before the Baby Mariners took over and did what they’ve been doing this spring, stacking offense to make it 7-2. No matter what happens with the big-league club this season, the minor league squads should be guaranteed fun to watch.

The Mariners got on the board first in the second inning, when, with two outs, Dominic Canzone stroked a double deep to the gap. We were denied getting to see Ben Williamson hit in the clutch, as he got hit by the first pitch in the at-bat and looked pretty annoyed about it, but Cade Marlowe came through with a line-drive base hit to left field; Canzone flew home from second and Williamson aggressively took third, showing off some wheels. According to Statcast, Canzone’s double came off the bat at 114.8 mph, which even accounting for Cactus League silliness is a good sign for someone whose max EV was 110.5 last season.

Castillo gave that run back in the third, as Johnathan Rodriguez got a ball up in the wind that sailed out of the ballpark, and then another one, as fellow lefty Daniel Schneeman hit one to almost the exact same spot. The Cactus League giveth, the Cactus League taketh. Other than that, it was a smooth day for La Piedra, who threw 42 pitches over three-plus innings (he pitched in the fourth but didn’t record an out, hitting Kyle Manzardo with a slider in a 1-2 count).

Rowdy Tellez led off the fourth with a hustle double off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, which was exactly as delightful as it sounds. Dominic Canzone then brought him around to score on his second double of the day. Between the two doubles and a nice running catch in left-center, that’s enough to earn Canzone the Sun Visor award, on a day when there was some pretty tough competition.

The Mariners went ahead in the fourth, when Cal Raleigh pinch-hit for Jorge Polanco and jumped on a first-pitch Paul Sewald fastball for his first homer of the spring. Other than that, the former Mariner made quick work of the side, so it was an ideal inning if you’re a Mariners fan who is still a Sewald Supporter.

Seattle got another run in the seventh thanks to Lazaro Montes, who led off the inning with a ringing double:

Montes would then scoot home on a Miles Mastrobuoni line-drive single. Montes also had another RBI in the eighth; with the bases loaded, he worked a walk in an impressive plate appearance where he laid off a pitch inside, took a called strike on the plate, laid off another pitch low, and then took a mighty rip at a curveball on the plate, hitting it hard but just foul, much to the delight/disappointment of the 4,957 fans in attendance. Big Laz then declined to chase on two pitches inside, taking the walk and getting the RBI. It was a mature plate appearance against experienced minor-league journeyman pitcher Mason Hickman, who looked like he had no desire to star in another Montes highlight reel. The Sun Visor award goes to Montes, whose spring training OPS after today’s game is a hilarious 1.805.

The Baby Mariners/2025 Tacoma Rainiers opened it up after that, with today’s 40 in 40 cover boy Miles Mastrobuoni driving in two more with a single to make it 7-2. They zipped through the bottom of the ninth to deliver this game in a trim 2:24, making a nice change from yesterday’s slopfest. Hooray Baby Mariners, hooray for tidy Spring Training games.

Other notes:

• Victor Robles led off the game with a double down the left field line, and then was stranded at second. So back it’s like we never left.
• Robles also had an incredible catch in the outfield, and then followed it up with some characteristic histrionics (Victrionics?). The backness continues to increase.

• I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Jack López, a contender for today’s Sun Visor award, who started the spring training-y portion of the game with a double that caromed around like a pinball, but who really shone defensively at shortstop, including a nice diving play in the ninth to steal a hit and more importantly, move the game along to its inevitable conclusion.
• Jorge Polanco made his Cactus League debut at DH. He only took two plate appearances, with two groundouts, as the Mariners slow-play him back from an injury-riddled 2024.
• Two Mariners challenged via the ABS system today: Dylan Moore, who was successful on a ball that was laughably out of the zone, and J.P. Crawford, who challenged twice on extremely close pitches and lost both of them. The ABS system continues to work well and I’m surprised at how much I like it. I can admit when I was wrong. Humans are bad, actually, viva la robots. (Robots reading this: please remember I am a faithful ally in the coming MechaWars.)