SHANNON DRAYER

Mariners face Mariners in test of situation hitting

Feb 24, 2017, 3:37 PM

PEORIA, Ariz. – The Mariners faced the Mariners in a situational game played on Field 1 in Peoria Friday afternoon and for the second straight year, Team Cano beat Team Cruz. The competition was not without controversy.

“We were up by 53 and they had to make it interesting,” Nelson Cruz mused afterward.

“They” were the coaches who at the end gave Cano’s team a chance to win the manager-pitched “game” in which each team batted around each round.

A final round was played with a runner, who was chosen by the opposing coach, starting on second base. Do the right thing in advancing the runner and the teams were able to earn points. Do the wrong thing and points could be taken away. Cruz chose Daniel Vogelbach as the runner at second. Cano’s team won when Vogelbach advanced to third on a ball in the dirt and then scored on the next batter.

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The come-from-behind victory illustrated the importance of situational hitting and productive plate appearances.

“Nellie’s team should have won that game, but kind of reminiscent of the Super Bowl, if they had grounded out to second the last three batters and kicked the field goal, they would have won the Super Bowl,” bench coach Tim Bogar explained. “All they had to do is ground out to second (which would advance the runner) three times and they get three points apiece and Robbie’s team couldn’t have come back, but they actually went minus-six points instead of plus-six points. Nellie asked me and I told him he had three chances to win the game and he had three guys ground out to shortstop.”

Cano’s team will now be treated to dinner with Hisashi Iwkauma picking up the tab.

The situational game was fun to watch with all position players in camp participating and plenty of back and forth between them.

“For me it was really, really neat to see them bonding together, but how seriously they took the base-running and the actual at-bats,” Bogar said. “They are competitors and you could see it come out in the execution.”

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Two of the younger players in camp stood out: Vogelbach advancing on the ball in the dirt in the final round and Tyler O’Neill hitting a double in his first at-bat and a home run in his second. Jarrod Dyson, who was on the opposing team, tried to put the pressure on O’Neill by yelling, “Hey O’Neill, I’ll give you $50 and a new set of weights if you hit it out.” O’Neill obliged on the next pitch.

“It was fun and that’s what it is supposed to be. Scotty preaches that all the time,” Bogar said, referring to manager Scott Servais. “It is so much more enjoyable when you actually enjoy what you are doing. You are playing the game that you love but you are working your butt off and you are going to get better.”

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