RECAP: Mariners 5, Angels 3
- Updated: March 30, 2015
The Mariners and Angels played Monday afternoon in Peoria (Image via Twitter)
With Spring Training winding down and Opening day just a week away, the Los Angeles Angels visited the Seattle Mariners in Peoria for one of the club’s final Cactus League tune-ups.
Taijuan Walker was on point Monday afternoon and stifled the Angels’ bats, holding them to just three hits in seven innings, as the Mariners withstood a late Angels rally to win 5-3.
Nick Tropeano started for the Angels and blanked the Mariners for the first three innings, as the Angels scored in the top of the second on a solo home run by Matt Joyce off Seattle starter Taijuan Walker.
In the bottom of the fourth, though, Tropeano allowed three runs to the Mariners, after Kyle Seager drove in Robinson Cano with a single to left field, and a Mike Zunino double cleared the bases and scored Seager and Nelson Cruz.
The Mariners took a 3-1 lead which would hold several more innings as Tropeano settled down again after the fourth.
Tropeano would be lifted after facing one batter in the seventh inning – Zunino, who hit a solo home run to left field to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Mariners.
Despite his best efforts, and with little help from an Angels offense dominated by Walker all day, Tropeano finished his 6+ innings allowing four runs on seven hits, a walk, and three strikeouts, while logging 71 pitches before being replaced by Cesar Ramos.
Walker, on the other hand, was masterful for the Mariners, going seven innings and allowing just one run – the Joyce solo homer – on three hits and no walks while striking out five Angels hitters. Walker lowered his spring ERA to a measly 0.36 after the start.
After Ramos relieved Tropeano for the Halos, he struck out the side in the seventh. In the eighth, the Mariners got one more run on a Cano solo blast off Joe Smith, who now has a 4.50 spring ERA in relief for Los Angeles.
A Daniel Robertson single to lead off the ninth inning was just the fourth hit of the game for the Angels. After advancing to second on an error, Kaleb Cowart drove him in with a triple off reliever Charlie Furbush to make it a 5-2 game.
On the very next pitch, D’Arby Myers promptly singled home Cowart and brought the tying run to the plate in Alfredo Marte with the score now 5-3 and the Angels’ bats suddenly alive.
That chased Furbush, who gave way with one out to reliever Dominic Leone. Leone got Marte to fly out, and with two outs and the tying run at the plate in Eric Stamets, nearly allowed a two-run bomb that was pulled foul by a small margin. After the scare, Stamets grounded out harmlessly and the Mariners won, 5-3.
The Angels won’t see the Mariners again until Opening Day, playing the next two exhibition games against the Oakland Athletics and the following three against the Los Angeles Dodgers before season opens in earnest next Monday.