Mariners blanked by Padres in final spring tuneup

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 26, 2019

By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — The combination of the final game of the spring and Wade LeBlanc’s ability to throw pitches that seem really hittable until they aren’t made for a pace of play on Tuesday afternoon that would make Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred smile.

With the entire league slated to play Thursday in what will be opening day for everyone other than the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland A’s, the last game of spring is one where expected regulars play sparingly and many a first pitch is put into play.

The San Diego Padres’ 1-0 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park was quite reflective of that. It took just 2 hours and 21 minutes to play nine innings.

“Last day of spring training, it seemed like that’s the approach they had,” LeBlanc said. “I just tried to keep it off the barrel.”

Because of the opening two-game series in Japan, the veteran left-hander hadn’t pitched in a game situation since March 12, when he threw an intrasquad game just before the team left for Tokyo. While in Japan, LeBlanc threw a series of bullpens to try to stay sharp. But he didn’t pitch in either of the exhibition games vs. the Yomiuri Giants and wasn’t on the active roster in the two wins over the A’s.

The last time he pitched in a MLB game, March 6 vs. the A’s in Cactus League play, he tossed just 3 2/3 innings.

“This spring was a little funky,” he said. “It was funky for every pitcher on the staff. Generally, you get around 20 innings and I think I got there after today. I’ll take that and try to carry it over.”

Given his vagabond existence in professional baseball and the various roles he served to try to stay in the big leagues, LeBlanc has learned to adjust to such things as a 14-day absence.

“I felt pretty good,” he said. “I threw a couple of heavy bullpens in Japan. It wasn’t something where I was just going through the motions. I was pretty aggressive with it. I was just trying to stay sharp since we have Boston coming in.”

Indeed, LeBlanc will start on Sunday afternoon in the series finale vs. the defending World Series champions.

“He really threw the ball well,” manager Scott Servais said. “Wade was on top of his game. I think it had been 13 or 14 days since he’d been out there. He had a really good cutter and a good changeup going. They were very aggressive.”

Not blessed with an overpowering fastball, he’s always relied on command to generate soft contact. With Padres hitters looking to swing early and often, LeBlanc efficiently cruised through their lineup Tuesday.

He rolled through 5 1/3 shutout innings, allowing just three hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Other than Wil Myers’ two-out double in the fifth, no Padre reached second base against LeBlanc.

How efficient was he?

He needed just 46 pitches to get his 5 1/3 innings of work. He faced 17 batters, meaning that he averaged just under three pitches to a hitter.

“You still have to throw your pitches and you still have to execute,” he said. “You can’t really change your approach. If they are going to swing, they are going to swing. That’s the attack mode you have to stay in.”

He probably could’ve kept going, but the Mariners needed relievers to pitch in the game as part of their throwing progression.

“I wanted to get everybody into the ballgame and give some relievers an inning,” Servais said. “Wade went down and probably threw as many pitches in the bullpen as he did in the actual game.”

Well, not quite. LeBlanc threw 30 pitches in the bullpen after his start to get his pitch total to 76.

LeBlanc’s replacement — Roenis Elias — entered the game and immediately gave up a solo homer to No. 9 hitter Luis Urias. The diminutive infielder punched an opposite field line drive just over the wall in right field.

The Mariners offense never really mustered much of a scoring threat against a cadre of hard-throwing Padres pitchers. Seattle had only four hits in the game. The first inning offered their best chance. Mitch Haniger laced a one-out single up the middle, and Domingo Santana followed with a double to left-center. But lefty Matt Strahm came back to strike out Daniel Vogelbach and get Ryon Healy to line out to center to end the inning.

Seattle put runners on first and second with no outs in the seventh when Evan White walked and Joe DeCarlo singled to right. But Austin Nola immediately hit into a double play that basically killed the rally hopes.

Seattle was shut out for both exhibition games vs. San Diego. But Servais was conscious of the jet lag and didn’t push his starting position players too much.

“We knew there was some clunkiness with the schedule, but we’ll look back on these two exhibition games and remember nothing about them,” he said. “I’m pretty confident about that. That’s the way it needs to be.”

The lack of offense wasn’t a concern.

“I will say that the Padres have a really good pitching staff,” Servais said. “Their bullpen doesn’t have household names down there but there are some guys with some really good arms. The velocity that they threw out there was very impressive. They have a good ballclub and we will see them throughout the course of the season. We’ll see them again.”