Padres’ Prospects Outslug Mariners’ Prospects, 13-10 in Inaugural Spring Breakout Game
By Brittany Wisner
Peoria, AZ – After a rare Arizona rain storm canceled the Mariners’ highly anticipated Spring Breakout game last Friday, Seattle’s top prospects finally got the chance to take the field today, facing off against the top prospects of the San Diego Padres in what would turn out to be a battle of offenses.
The offensive barrage began in the top of the 2nd for the Padres when Seattle’s starter and No. 20 prospect, right-handed pitcher Logan Evans, began to labor after giving up a solo homerun to San Diego’s No. 30 prospect Tirso Ornelas. Evans, a 12th round pick by the Mariners in 2023 out of the University of Pittsburgh, would then issue a 9-pitch walk to Romeo Sanabria followed by an 8-pitch walk to Leodalis De Vries. Nerwilian Cedeño would follow with a broken-bat blooper behind shortstop to load the bases for the Padres.
Seattle Mariners prospect Ryan Bliss during the March 5th, 2024 Spring Training game against the Texas Rangers. (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Looking for a double play ball, Evans induced a grounder from Padres’ Jakob Marsee right to second baseman Ryan Bliss, but Bliss was unable to come up with the ball. Two would score on the error by Bliss and another run came across on a sac fly from Marcos Castañon. Evans then issued his third walk of the inning to Padres’ No. 1 prospect Ethan Salas, ending Evans’ outing for the day.
Kyle Hill, a 10th round pick by the Mariners in 2019 out of Baylor, came on in relief of Evans and surrendered a 3-run homerun to San Diego’s Nathan Martorella, bringing the score to 7-0.
The Mariners would push one run across in the bottom of the 2nd when both Harry Ford and Aidan Smith singled on sharply-hit balls up the middle off Padres’ starter Robby Snelling. Ryan Bliss scored Ford on another hard-hit ball to left field.
Seattle Mariners prospect Lazaro Montes during the teams March 5th, 2024 Spring Training game against the Texas Rangers. (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Snelling, who gave up only four hits and one earned run over three innings, would give way to Dylan Lesko in the bottom of the 4th. The Mariners would touch up San Diego’s No. 4 prospect for a total of seven earned runs over two innings, beginning with a hard-hit grounder up the middle from Tyler Locklear. After a Lazaro Montes walk, Aidan Smith smoked a line drive into right field to score Locklear, the throw home getting away from Padres’ catcher Ethan Salas. Lesko, backing up home, fielded the passed ball then made an errant throw that would allow Montes to score from third. An RBI groundout from Ryan Bliss in the next at bat plated the Mariners’ third run of the inning.
Seattle would add four more in the 5th, taking advantage of a struggling Lesko who would walk Ford, walk Montes, hit Smith, then walk Bliss after nearly hitting him in the head with a high and in fastball. Seattle’s No. 7 prospect Tai Peete then doubled to score Montes and Smith, and the Mariners would take the lead 8-7 on a sac-fly from Jonatan Clase.
Seattle’s No. 28 prospect Marcelo Perez would hold the Padres in check, pitching three scoreless innings for the Mariners and allowing only one hit.
But the San Diego bats were not done for the day. They would score three runs off a wild Brody Hopkins who took over for Perez in the 7th inning. Hopkins walked two then surrendered a homerun to Ornelas, Ornelas’s second homer of the day.
Taking the mound for Seattle in the 8th was young Jeter Martinez who was signed by the Mariners in the 2023 international signing period. Martinez, just 18 years of age, worked through some obvious jitters, walking three and giving up three earned runs in his outing.
The subs would come in and tack on two more for the Mariners in the bottom of the 8th. Alberto Rodriguez hit a sharp grounder to right field and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Ben Williamson, Seattle’s No. 16 prospect who would also make a smooth defensive play later in the 9th, followed with a 108 mph line drive to left field, picking up his second hit of the day. Ford scored Rodriguez on a groundout to short and Luis Suisbel doubled into the right-center gap to score Williamson.
One more run for the Padres in the 9th would end the day’s scoring barrage, the Mariners’ bats going down quietly in the bottom of the inning to end the game, 13-10 final.
Standouts on the day for the M’s:
Ford: 1-4, 2 R, RBI, BB. 1 CS.
Smith: 2-2, 2 R, RBI
Bliss: 1-2, R, 3 RBI, BB
Peete: 1-2, 2 RBI, BB
Williamson: 2-2, R
Suisbel: 1-2, RBI
Alford: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K
Perez, Ma: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER
What’s next?
Following today’s Spring breakout game, the Seattle Mariners will begin sending these prospects to their respective affiliates for the year, which has already been somewhat taking place for a few others as we near Opening Day. Some may end up in minor league camp as well as the organization will look to figure out where some of these players should end up for their development, but expect much of this exciting Mariners prospect pool to end up in AA affiliate Arkansas or even with AAA affiliate Tacoma, as many of them dominated the lower affiliates in low A and High A ball this past season. Some others will just move up to High-A Everett after playing with low-A Modesto, such as Tai Peete, Colt Emerson, and Jonny Farmelo, all who were selected in the first round of last years draft by Seattle.
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Cover photo of this article by Ben VanHouten
