The Mariners took part in a spring-training special in just their second Cactus League game.
Saturday's affair with the Angels featured 21 runs, 25 hits, six errors, even more mistakes in the field and on the basepaths, and was played in a tidy three hours and 15 minutes. Not even the pitch clock could save this mess from turning into a marathon.
The game somewhat fittingly ended with a mistake in the field.
Up 10-9 going into the bottom of the ninth, Mariners right-hander Jimmy Joyce tried to close out a wild win. He struck out the first two batters he faced. But a two-out bunt single from Nelson Rada put the tying run on base. Angels top prospect Christian Moore singled to center to put runners on first and second.
The game ended moments later when Kyren Paris hit a single to left field to easily score Rada from second for the tying run. Mariners left fielder Rhylan Thomas fielded the ball and made an awkward throw, trying to get the ball in quickly. Shortstop Brock Rodden fielded the offline throw and fired to second, but the ball skipped past second baseman Michael Arroyo and into the outfield, allowing Moore to score the winning run.
Starter Logan Evans gave up four runs in the first inning on five hits, while committing a throwing error that allowed a run to race home.
Of the 10 pitchers used by Seattle, Carlos Vargas was the only one to throw a clean 1-2-3 inning.
The Mariners rallied to take a 5-4 lead over the next three innings. A botched rundown in the second inning by the Angels allowed Seattle to pick up two runs on a Leo Rivas sac fly and a throwing error. Seattle added three more runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by Tai Peete's RBI single and Nick Dunn's 12-pitch battle that resulted in a two-run double off Angels right-hander Caden Dana.
"That's what you are looking from all of our guys," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. "Just another example of battling and getting pitches that are tough, but getting the bat to it, to foul it off. And then he finally got one that was something he could handle and did a really nice job. He didn't try to pull it and just stayed up the middle."
Player of the game
For at least half an inning, it appeared that Hogan Windish was going to be the hero for the Mariners. With Seattle trailing 9-8 in the top of the ninth, Windish smashed a two-run homer off the batter's eye in center field for a one-run lead.
If the name sounds familiar, Windish made headlines last season when he hit four homers in one game for Double-A Arkansas.
"That was a really well-struck ball," Wilson said. "I think it must be 430 feet out there."
Quotable
"That's one of those spring-training games right there. We got behind a little bit early with some mistakes, defensively, and then lost it late on a couple of defensive mistakes. But all in all, I thought we had some good at-bats today from some of the younger guys, advantage of middle of the field and driving in some runs when he had some opportunities. It happens down here (in) spring training. Everyone's getting their feet wet. Everyone's getting their feet on the ground a little bit. And this was just one of those games today. It looked like it was going to go our way, but it didn't in the end." - Wilson
On tap
The Mariners return to the Peoria Sports Complex to host the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon. Right-hander Emerson Hancock will get the start for Seattle with right-handers Luis F. Castillo, Eduard Bazardo, Shintaro Fujinami, Darius Valdez and Adonis Medina and lefty Josh Fleming scheduled to pitch. Arizona will start lefty Tommy Henry. The game will be televised via webcast on mariners.com.