Cubs 9, Mariners 8 at Sloan Park
Notable
With the sun and slightly warmer weather returning Saturday afternoon following a day of overcast skies and rain, the Mariners basked in the glow, smashing four homers, but still lost to the Cubs in front of a sellout crowd of 16,161.
Seattle got two-run homers from Rowdy Tellez and Jorge Polanco along with solo homers from Harry Ford and Colt Emerson in the loss.
Facing local product Matthew Boyd, the Mariners grabbed a quick 2-0 lead on Tellez’s deep drive to dead center.
The Cubs answered with back-to-back solo homers from Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya off Seattle starter Logan Gilbert.
The Mariners’ All-Star pitcher struggled with his command and release point, exiting the game with two outs in the second inning. His final line: 1 2/3 innings pitched, two runs allowed on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Chicago broke the game open in the third inning against reliever Eduard Bazardo, who struggled to throw strikes and gave up hard contact when he did finally get a pitch over the plate. Bazardo walked in a run and then served up a grand slam to Crow-Armstrong in what was a five-run inning.
Polanco’s two-run homer off one-time Mariner Tyson Miller cut the Cubs’ lead to 7-6 in the top of the fifth.
But the Cubs answered with Seiya Suzuki’s two-run homer to left off Brandyn Garcia in the sixth inning.
Ford’s blast — a deep shot well up the berm in left-center came in the eighth off reliever Julian Merryweather. Facing the Cubs’ No. 4 prospect, Cade Horton, Emerson hammered a fastball over the berm in right field.
Player of the game
Randy Arozarena went 2-for-3 with an RBI double and two runs scored. After Julio Rodriguez doubled off Boyd to lead off the third inning, Arozarena sent a line drive into the gap in right-center to drive in a run. He also helped manufacture a run, tagging up and hustling to third on a fly ball to center and scoring on Mitch Garver’s sac fly to center. In the fifth inning, he singled to right and watched from first base as Polanco’s deep blast carried over the fence for a homer.
Quotable
“It felt a little off. I think it was the release point or something. I don’t want to make more of it than what it is, I just felt off today. But I’ll look on video and just see if it’s anything really small, if it’s direction or release point, or whatever it was. It’s kind of what spring is for. You don’t want to waste a start like this, but it’s kind of what it felt like. I had one like this last year against Texas, so it’s kind of like, get it out now and it lets you recommit to what is important and you need to work on.” — Gilbert
On tap
The Mariners will be back in action Sunday afternoon at the Peoria Sports Complex, hosting the Colorado Rockies. Right-hander Luis Castillo will make his third start of the spring for Seattle. Also scheduled to pitch for the Mariners are right-handers Andrés Muñoz and Collin Snider and lefty Gabe Speier. Colorado will start right-hander Bradley Blalock. With daylight saving time going into effect for every state but Arizona and Hawaii, first pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on ROOT Sports and MLB.TV. There will also be a live radio broadcast on Seattle Sports 710-AM and mariners.com.
