White Sox 18, Mariners 9 at the Peoria Sports Complex
Notable
You know a spring training inning has gone completely awry when a team removes a pitcher mid-inning due to number of pitches thrown and then later re-enters that same pitcher into the same inning because his replacement was even less effective.
Logan Evans, one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects, started the third inning with his team trailing 2-0. The young right-hander started off against the top of the White Sox order. He lost a nine-pitch battle to the first batter he faced, issuing a walk. He then misplaced a 2-2 slider to Luis Robert Jr. that was turned into a vapor trail. Robert smashed the ball over the berm in left field for a two-run homer. Evans walked Josh Rojas and gave up a single to Lenyn Sosa. With Evans’ pitch count at 26 and still no outs in the inning, manager Dan Wilson called on right-hander Gage Boehm, a call-up from minor league camp, out of the bullpen.
Boehm, who signed as a non-drafted free agent last summer, walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but came back to strike out Joey Gallo looking. It would be the only out he would record in the inning. Korey Lee singled to left, scoring a pair of runners. Veteran infielder Brandon Drury took advantage of hanging breaking ball on a 2-2, sending a ball over the wall in left field for a three-run homer. Boehm then gave up single and issued another walk. With a fair amount of time passed, Wilson called on Evans to come back in for the inning and face Robert again. They had planned to start him again in the fourth inning. Robert got Evans, singling to center to drive in another run to make it 10-0. The inning mercifully came to an when Evans got Rojas to ground into a double play.
“It was more of a timing issue,” Wilson said of bringing Evans back into the game. “We still only had one out. I think we had about 14 minutes past already. We had a timer going in the dugout. By the time we would have gotten him out, gotten our at-bat and then gone back out, it would have been too late for him to go back out.”
Things didn’t get much better for the Mariners as the game devolved into a Cactus League special, including a six-run seventh inning for Chicago where veteran right-hander Jesse Hahn gave up six hits, including a two-run homer to Andre Lipcius.
The Mariners trailed 18-2 going into the ninth inning. Aided by the swirling winds, Seattle scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth, highlighted by Laz Montes’ line drive two-run homer to right-center.
Player of the game
Playing in his second Cactus League game of the spring, talented young shortstop Felnin Celesten gave an impressive performance. The switch-hitting, 19-year-old showed why he’s ranked No. 89 in Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects despite barely playing games due to injury.
In the top of the ninth, he made a nice backhand stop, ranging far to his right and firing to second for a force out. In the Mariners’ run explosion in the bottom of the ninth, Celesten, batting right-handed against lefty Shane Murphy, singled to left to lead off the inning. With the Mariners batting around in the inning, Celesten came to the plate with two outs and two runners on base. Batting left-handed against right-hander Jordan Mikel, Celesten fell behind 0-2 immediately. But he managed to work a full count, refusing to chase at pitches out of the zone. He jumped on a 3-2 changeup, lacing a line drive into the gap to score two runs.
Quotable
“He’s a kid and he’s really young, but he made a really nice play at short, and made a nice feed to Ryan (Bliss) there in the top of the ninth, and then couple of really nice at-bats in the bottom of the ninth. He is young, the sky’s the limit with him and it’s great to see him get a chance to play here.” — Wilson on Celesten.
On Tap
The Mariners travel across the valley to face the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Field at Talking Stick. Right-hander Logan Gilbert will make his second start of the spring for Seattle. Also scheduled to pitch for the Mariners are right-handers Casey Lawrence, Carlos Vargas, Neftali Felix, Hayden Danner, Tyler Cleveland and Adonys Medina along with lefty Peyton Alford. The Rockies will start right-hander German Marquez. The game will not be televised on any platform.