Home Team Wins Second Scrimmage of Mariners Bye Week Ahead of ALDS

By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - The second scrimmage of this bye week for our Seattle Mariners ahead of their ALDS matchup against the Detroit Tigers saw the “home” roster defeat the “road” roster by a final score of 4-1, as Josh Naylor, Leo Rivas, and Julio Rodríguez all hit solo home runs in route to the victory. Naylor’s homer came in a three-hit day, as more of Seattle’s relievers got work in this contest and the Mariners bats looked to stay sharp. Luke Raley’s solo home run that just barely cleared the fence in left-center field represented the lone run of the game for the road side. Now all eyes turn to tomorrow’s workout, which is closed to the public after today’s scrimmage was sold out at T-Mobile Park, in preparation for Saturday’s game one.

The road (Northwest Green jerseys) team was able to create two baserunners overall in the top of the first off Casey Legumina, but neither got further than second base. Randy Arozarena drew a leadoff walk for the home (White jerseys) team, but was doubled up as Dominic Canzone grounded into a 5-6-3 double play, and Eugenio Suárez doubled to right field but was stranded as Victor Robles struck out to end the top of the frame. Suárez hit a ball into the right field corner, forcing Ichiro Suzuki to make an attempt to nail him at second, but Geno got in easily.

Logan Evans was able to handle the home team lineup somewhat easily, recording three outs in order including strikeouts of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez before a Josh Naylor single was doubled up on a Leo Rivas groundout, resulting in five total outs in the bottom of the first.

The lack of rules and structure continued in the top of the second inning, as home team reliever Casey Legumina ended up recording six total outs in the top of the frame as the team continues to work on different things and situations in this scrimmage. J.P. Crawford grounded out to shortstop Leo Rivas, Mitch Garver struck out swinging, Luke Raley grounded out to second baseman Jorge Polanco. Randy Arozarena drew a walk to represent the lone base runner of the inning, but he was doubled up when Dominic Canzone grounded into a 6-3 double play.

It was the bottom of the second inning that saw the first two runs of this scrimmage, with both of them coming off solo home runs. Josh Naylor and Leo Rivas went back-to-back with one out, as Naylor lasered a ball about ten rows into the right field seats while Rivas had his blast clang off the LED board just below the venue formerly known as the “Hit it here cafe.” The outs, four to be exact, in that inning came from a Jorge Polanco pop out to Miles Mastrobuoni at third, a Cal Raleigh pop out to catcher Mitch Garver, a Julio flyout to Luke Raley in center, and a Harry Ford, 5-3, groundout.

The top of the third inning saw a pitching change, as Caleb Ferguson took over for the home team to replace Casey Legumina after two innings of work. The left-handed reliever got Cole Young to ground out, 6-3, Mitch Garver to flyout to right fielder Ichiro Suzuki before base runner Nick Raposo was placed on second. A grounder to Ferguson from Rhylan Thomas advanced Raposo to second, giving the home team infield the situation of a runner just 90 feet away from home plate. Ferguson was able to avoid potential damage, getting Arozarena to pop out to Josh Naylor at first.

Luke Jackson took over for the road team in the bottom of the third inning, replacing Logan Evans. Jackson started the inning strong with punchouts of Jorge Polanco and Cal Raleigh before Julio Rodríguez took him deep, a solo shot to the seats in right-center field. Josh Naylor grounded out, 4-3, for the third out before the fourth out was represented by Victor Robles, who is on the road team if you remember correctly. Robles grounded out, 5-3, to end the inning as rules and order remained clearly lacking in this scrimmage.

Michael Fulmer, a right-handed reliever, took over for Ferguson in the fourth. Fulmer, who posted a 0.75 ERA across 12 games in Tacoma with the AAA Rainiers, got J.P. Crawford to ground out, Randy Arozarena to strike out looking, and Eugenio Suárez to strikeout swinging for a 1-2-3 inning.

Austin Kitchen took the fourth inning for the road team, and he didn’t have the immediate success that Fulmer did. Kitchen gave up back-to-back singles, to Josh Naylor and Cal Raleigh, before a Julio single scored a run as Colt Emerson came in to run for Naylor at third base. The home team wasn’t able to capitalize further on the runners on corners situation, as Leo Rivas was hit by a pitch in his left leg (but didn’t take his base, instead going to the dugout) and Jorge Polanco popped out to Eugenio at first base.

The road team finally got on the board in the top of the fifth inning, as Luke Raley took Fulmer deep with a ball that just barely cleared the wall in left-center field to ensure that those in the Northwest Green jerseys wouldn’t get shutout. Fulmer was able to work around the homer to ensure that there wasn’t a late comeback push, as Victor Robles flew out to Samad Taylor in left field, Miles Mastrobuoni grounded out, 4-3, and Dominic Canzonze flew out to Julio in centerfield.

The bottom of the fifth, and final frame of this contest, ended on a single. Harry Ford began the inning with a swinging strikeout against Austin Kitchen, Cal Raleigh grounded out, 4-3, before Jorge Polanco singled for the first base runner of the inning. Colt Emerson got a plate appearance, and he came a few feet of taking Kitchen deep over the left field fence but instead the ball ended up as a long flyout to Rhylan Thomas, who made a leaping effort against the wall. In a move that perhaps showed the game was winding down, Jorge Polanco joined Emerson on their walk to the dugout after the fly out, despite Polanco not being thrown out. Samad Taylor singled in the last plate appearance of the game, as things were waved off after that. Final score, 4-1, in favor of the home team after the roar roster won last night.

Lineups for both sides in this intra squad scrimmage

• Road (Northwest Green jerseys) team

  • Mitch Garver, catcher

  • Eugenio Suárez, first baseman

  • Cole Young, second baseman

  • J.P. Crawford, shortstop

  • Miles Mastrobuoni, third baseman

  • Randy Arozarena, left fielder

  • Luke Raley, centerfielder

  • Dominic Canzone, right fielder

  • Victor Robles, designated hitter

  • Rhylan Thomas, designated hitter

  • Nick Raposo, designated hitter

  • Logan Evans, RHP

  • Luke Jackson, RHP

  • Austin Kitchen, LHP

• Home (White jerseys) team

  • Cal Raleigh, catcher

  • Josh Naylor, first baseman

  • Jorge Polanco, second baseman

  • Leo Rivas, shortstop

  • Colt Emerson, third baseman

  • Samad Taylor, left fielder

  • Julio Rodríguez, centerfielder

  • Ichiro Suzuki, right fielder

  • Harry Ford, designated hitter

  • Ben Williamson, designated hitter

  • Casey Legumina, RHP

  • Caleb Ferguson, LHP

  • Michael Fulmer, RHP
    

Notes from the scrimmage

• Eugenio Suárez was seen taking first baseman drills with Perry Hill hours prior to the scrimmage, and ended up playing the position for the road team in the contest.

• Pitching lines

  • Home team

    • Casey Legumina: 2 IP, 1 hit allowed, no runs allowed, two walks, three strikeouts, ten batters faced.

    • Caleb Ferguson: 1 IP, no hits allowed, no runs allowed, no walks, three batters faced.

    • Michael Fulmer: 2 IP, 1 hit allowed, one run allowed, two strikeouts, one home run surrendered, seven batters faced.

  • Road team

    • Logan Evans: 2 IP, 3 hits allowed, 2 earned runs against, no walks, two strikeouts, two home runs surrendered, 11 batters faced.

    • Luke Jackson: 1 IP 1 hit allowed, one run allowed, two strikeouts, one home run surrendered, four batters faced.

    • Austin Kitchen: 2 IP, 5 hits allowed, one run allowed (unearned), no walks, one strikeout, one hit batter, ten batters faced.

• Some of the Mariners coaching staff still seemed thrilled with their visit to last night’s Kraken game, as three of them were seen wearing their customized jerseys during the scrimmage: Pitching coach Pete Woodworth, first base coach Eric Young Jr., and third base coach Kristopher Negrón.

What’s next?

Following tonight’s scrimmage, the second of this “bye week” for the team in their preparation for the ALDS, our Seattle Mariners will have a closed workout tomorrow at T-Mobile Park ahead of Saturday’s game one against the Detroit Tigers at T-Mobile Park. There will be coverage from the workout on Circling Seattle Sports social media channels and likely a write up coming from it, but be on the lookout for other content coming from this bye week ahead of Saturday’s game one. With the New York Yankees currently taking a four run lead into the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox, it looks like the first pitch time of game one will be 5:38PM PDT.