Mariners earn walk-off spring win over Padres

By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times

Mariners 5, Padres 4 at Peoria Stadium

PEORIA, ARiz. — While the sun was out, it was a chilly afternoon by spring training standards with a first-pitch temperature of 51 degrees. There were plenty of fans in the crowd of 4,970 who were bundled up in heavy coats and using blankets. Of course, fans would happily take that sort of day on March 30 at T-Mobile Park when the Mariners open the 2023 season.

In his first Cactus League outing of the spring, Logan Gilbert pitched 1 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts. An uncharacteristic walk to leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis later resulted in a run when Nelson Cruz blooped a one-out single into right field.

A walk to Rougned Odor to start the second inning followed by a double from David Dahl started Gilbert’s problems in the frame. Gilbert allowed a run on a ground out to second base and struck out Tatis before reaching pitch limit. His replacement, Travis Kuhn, gave up an RBI single to Juan Soto with the run being charged to Gilbert.

Eugenio Suarez hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second to trim the lead to 3-1. In the eighth inning, Cooper Hummel hit a solo homer to trim the lead to 4-3, and Seattle tied the game on a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the ninth with one out, Kaden Polcovich singled to right field. He scored moments later on Alberto Rodriguez’s double into the right-field corner for a walk-off win.

Player of the game

In his second outing of the spring, right-hander Prelander Berroa showed more overpowering stuff and a calm mound presence. The 24-year-old pitched two scoreless innings against a loaded Padres lineup, not allowing a hit and issuing a walk while striking out two batters. Berroa is one of the few pitchers to retire Soto, coaxing a ground ball to second base. Soto has eight hits in 11 at-bats this spring.

Quotable

“Prelander Berroa continues to impress. It was Logan’s first time out there and not typically what we see from him just command-wise. But there no issues, his stuff was good. He just has to get the ball in the strike zone a little earlier in counts.” — manager Scott Servais

On tap

The Mariners travel to Salt River Field at Talking Stick to face the Arizona Diamondbacks. Left-hander Marco Gonzales will make his second start of the spring for Seattle. Also scheduled to pitch are right-handers Darren McCaughan, Taylor Williams, Isaiah Campbell and Juan Then along with lefty Justus Sheffield. Arizona will start right-hander Merrell Kelly. First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m. The game will not be televised. The only live radio broadcast will be on mariners.com or the MLB app. Seattle Sports 710 will have air the radio broadcast on tape delay in the evening.