Mariners fall to White Sox for 3rd straight spring loss

By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times

White Sox 10, Mariners 1 at Camelback Ranch

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Seattle Mariners dropped their third straight game of the spring in an ugly contest that featured minimal offense and some inconsistent pitching. A day after tallying 14 hits against the Royals, Seattle mustered just four against Chicago. First baseman Evan White provided the only run in the second inning, blasting a towering solo homer to left field off White Sox starter Jesse Scholtens.

All of the White Sox’s offense came against the Mariners relievers used in the game. The eight pitchers after starter Chris Flexen gave up a combined 10 runs on 13 hits with five walks and three strikeouts. Nick Margevicius gave up a mammoth two-run homer off the bat of Jake Burger that hit near the top of the batter’s eye in center field. Right-hander Isaiah Campbell was charged with four runs in an eighth inning he couldn’t finish.

Of the pitchers that followed Flexen only right-handers Taylor Williams and Juan Then were able to work scoreless innings.

Player of the game

Making his first start of the spring, right-hander Chris Flexen pitched two scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out two batters. In the last two spring trainings with the Mariners, Flexen has struggled in Cactus League outings. But this year, he arrived at camp with an improved slider and some mechanical changes that he hopes will lead to the command that seemed absent for much of 2022 and had made him one of the team’s best pitchers in 2021.

Quotable

“I thought Chris Flexen threw the ball outstanding today. He filled up the zone. I think he only threw one or two balls. But (overall) today, we did not pitch well. You’ve got to throw strikes and you’ve got to stay after it. We just didn’t do that. So you’re going to end up on the bad side of things, like what happened today.” — manager Scott Servais

On tap

The Mariners return to Peoria Stadium to face the Cleveland Guardians, who will be bringing a split squad for the game. Right-hander Luis Castillo will make his first start of the spring.

Also scheduled to pitch for Seattle are right-handers Bryce Miller, the organization’s top pitching prospect, Trevor Gott, Penn Murfee and Riley O’Brien along with lefty Blake Weiman. Cleveland will start lefty Logan Allen, the No. 6 prospect in the organization per Baseball America.

First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m. PT. The game will not be televised. A live radio broadcast will only be available mariners.com or the MLB app. Seattle Sports 710-AM will have the broadcast on tape delay.