Mariners 8, Rockies 1 at the Peoria Sports Complex
Notable
Making his third start of the spring, Luis Castillo was efficient early, working the first three innings scoreless Sunday. He reached his pitch limit before making it out of the fourth inning. After allowing a leadoff double to Ezequiel Tovar, he retired Michael Toglia on a ground ball to second and gave up a soft single to Nolan Jones that ended his outing. His replacement, Juan Burgos, allowed a run to score that was charged to Castillo.
Seattle used the homer to score most of its runs. J.P. Crawford tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with a solo blast to right field that had a distance of 412 feet. It was his first of the season.
The Mariners broke the game open with two outs in the seventh inning. Miles Mastrobuoni singled to right to score a run and Jacob Nottingham crushed a three-run homer to left-center to make it 5-1.
Luis Suisbel added to the home run tally in the eighth, smashing a three-run homer to right-center off a 97-mph fastball from Angel Chivilli.
The Mariners got lockdown bullpen work from Andres Muñoz, Gabe Speier, Collin Snider, Trent Thornton and Jesse Hahn. All five pitchers worked a scoreless inning apiece and combined to allow one hit with one walk and five strikeouts.
“They were more true to form of what we’re going to see during the season and using the stuff that they have,” said manager Dan Wilson said. “Just doing their job, throwing strikes and dominating the zone like we talk about.”
Player of the game
Suisbel isn’t a hyped prospect like others in Seattle’s farm system. He’s ranked 29th in MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Mariners prospects and wasn’t invited to MLB camp. Only 21, he’s a big and physical switch hitter that’s starting to sort of fill out as a player. Besides his three-run homer, he also had a single and scored a run. Last season with Low-A Modesto, he played in 119 games, posting a .259/.368/.428 slash line with 23 doubles, four triples, 15 homers, 90 RBI, 49 walks and 144 strikeouts.
Quotable
“A really good ballgame today, everything seemed to fire on all cylinders today, starting with The Rock on the hill. He gave us three plus really good innings. The bullpen was really, really solid today and they all threw the ball very, very well. Some big hits with J.P. hitting the homer and Notti with his big homer. Just a lot of good stuff on the offensive side, on the defensive side, and just a good day overall.” — Mariners manager Dan Wilson
On tap
The Mariners travel to Maryvale to face the Brewers on Monday afternoon at American Family Fields of Phoenix. Right-hander Casey Lawrence will get the start for Seattle with right-handers Gregory Santos and Will Klein listed as probable starters. Milwaukee will start right-hander Tobias Myers. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. PT. The game will not be televised. There will be a live radio broadcast on Seattle Sports 710-AM and mariners.com
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