Padres 5, Mariners 5: Friars notch fourth tie of the Spring

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Another tie game is in the books for the Padres after they played their first night game of the season on Tuesday against the Mariners.

Nine of the ten runs scored between the two teams came off relief pitching after veterans Josh Johnson and Randy Wolf each put up 4+ innings of work. Johnson allowed one run in the bottom of the 3rd on a leadoff homer by Brad Miller. But other than that he was nails, allowing only two more hits and striking out five through 4 1/3 frames. Our Padres couldn't get anything going off former Friar Randy Wolf, who only gave up two hits and two walks through 4 innings.

The first relievers, Charlie Furbush for the M's and Kevin Quackenbush for the Friars, each came into the game in the 5th and pitched scoreless frames. But the 6th is when all the action got underway. In the final four innings of the game, the Padres and Mariners changed leads five times leading up to the end result, a 5-5 tie.

Everth Cabrera led off the top of the 6th with a walk, followed by a single by Chris Denorfia. Jedd Gyorko then hit a line drive double to score Cabrera and move Alex Castellanos (who came in to pinch-run for Deno) over to third.
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Castellanos scored on a passed ball during the next at-bat to put San Diego on top 2-1.

Huston Street entered in the bottom of the 6th and allowed only a walk in his 2014 debut. The Padres went down in order in the 7th, but the Mariners had other plans. Alex Torres came to the mound in the bottom of the inning and things immediately went awry. He gave up a leadoff single and then threw a couple of wild pitches to allow the runner to advance all the way to third base before then issuing a walk, putting runners at the corners. A stolen base and another walk later, Torres had loaded the bases with just one out. At that point, Buddy Black came to the mound to have a talk with the struggling pitcher, but kept him in the game. A sac fly brought one run home and knotted the game at 2, but that was all the damage the M's would be able to do.

San Diego got back on top in the 8th inning on a 2-RBI double by Carlos Quentin to score Castellanos and Alberto Gonzalez, who had gotten on base via walk and single, respectively.
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But Seattle would snatch the lead right back off Tony Sipp in the bottom of the 8th. Miller got his third hit of the night, a 2-out double, which began a three-run rally for the M's. Miller came home on a single by Endy Chavez, who then advanced to second on a wild pitch. But the wildness didn't stop there as Willie Bloomquist singled to score Chavez and then came home himself on an unusually errant throw by Austin Hedges. But Hedges did a brilliant framing job in the next at-bat, resulting in a strikeout by Logan Morrison, who proceeded to run his mouth and get himself ejected. In the 8th inning of a Spring Training game. Right.

Hedges further redeemed himself in the top of the 9th by getting one of those runs back. Mallex Smith walked and stole second to lead off the inning, then Hedges drove him home with a single to center.
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That wound up being the final run of the night as the Padres and Mariners ended the game after 9 full with a 5-5 tie.

The Padres big leaguers are off today, but there will be a minor league game this afternoon featuring a start by Eric Stults and an appearance by a certain third-baseman recovering from a strained calf. Cactus League action will continue tomorrow night when our boys take on the Giants in the second of three televised night games this week. The season is getting closer, folks!

'Twas a slow day in game thread land, but B Cres came out on top with 23 comments while Axion got the sole rec of the night.