Anarchy reigns over Laws, Mariners lose 8-4

Mitch goes yard, the rest goes haywire.

Game two from Spring Training was a welcome return to so many warm and comfortable features. The ROOT Sports Northwest broadcast was on in full, bringing a return for the first time in game to the familiar rapport of Dave Sims and Mike Blowers on the broadcast. On the second batter of the game, Seattle Mariners starter LHP Jhonathan Díaz yielded a fly ball to left field that the broadcast read as a deep drive before seeing it settle harmlessly around middle-depth into left fielder Sam Haggerty’s glove. Nature, healing, things of that nature. The greatest panacea of the afternoon came from Mitch Haniger, whose first plate appearance back in (multiple shades of) teal was met with a lengthy ovation from the crowd. After taking a slider off the plate for ball one, Mitch mashed.

It’s only been about 16 months since Haniger last played for the Mariners, not quite even 500 days of winter without him. Seeing the swing that for so long symbolized at least a glimmer of hope and possibility in the heart of lineups oft fleshed out with disappointing depth is a buoying force, and the 1-0 lead it delivered was the highlight of the game for Seattle. The M’s would lose ultimately 8-4 to the Cleveland Guardians, due primarily to a rather catastrophic inning from minor league LHP Holden Laws. The intriguing likely-lefty specialist was awarded a spring invite due to earning the Dominate the Zone Tournament Award in the 2023 season, with 66 strikeouts to just 13 walks at Low-A Modesto across 52 innings. A 7th inning that featured a failure to cover first on a possible double play ball ballooned into disaster against several more experienced hitters, leaving the M’s in an 8-3 hole they could not claw back from.

Additional notes of consequence include...

• Harry Ford demonstrating some lows and some highs behind the dish, making a wild first throw to second upon entering the game that he erased with a solid framing on a third strike, then nabbing another runner later in the contest from his knees.

• Seattle put very little together offensively beyond Haniger’s homer, with several of their more intriguing depth players (or likeliest big leaguers) putting up oh-fers, including Ford, Ryan Bliss, Sam Haggerty, Samad Taylor, and Michael Chavis.
• One player who had a solid day at the dish was Dominic Canzone, who demonstrated a more disciplined approach at the dish and was rewarded with a well-struck double into the right-center gap on a breaking ball.

• Credit to Isiah Gilliam, who came into the game as a pinch-runner for Canzone, advanced to third, and then blazed home to turn a shallow outfield pop-up from Jonatan Clase into a sacrifice fly.
• Díaz started the game and went two innings, flashing an excellent slider en route to four strikeouts in two perfect frames. Cody Bolton could not maintain the no-no, but did wiggle out of trouble with some sharp off-speed of his own, putting both their feet forward in the bullpen depth chart alongside Sean Poppen and Brett de Geus.
• Putting their feet in the opposite direction were Laws (who is not competing for a roster spot realistically yet) and LHP Kirby Snead, who gave up a pair of tanks in the fourth inning, one of which came to Austin Hedges which is a bit like striking out against your six year old child not on purpose.
• Cal Raleigh did an interview from the dugout with his freshly won teddy bear after going 1st to 3rd on a single by Luke Raley.

Tomorrow’s game will be at the Cincinnati Reds spring home of Goodyear Ballpark at 12:05 PM PT, broadcast on the Reds’ TV channel as well as on 710 AM KIRO for those looking to lighten their lunchtimes. It will be Luis Castillo’s spring debut, and may well be Julio Rodríguez’s as well.