Mariners notebook: O’Malley with the walkoff as young guys lead the way in comeback win over Cubs

The Mariners beat the Cubs for the second straight day, this time in front of a full house in Peoria with the fireworks coming late.

Trailing by seven runs heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Mariners put four on the board on a Joe DeCarlo three-run home run and a sacrifice fly by Kyle Waldrop. Seattle tacked on three more runs in the eighth with a wicked, ricochet-aided inside-the-park home run by Luis Liberato.

“That kid hit two triples in the exact same spot in the B game the other day,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said on the field following Seattle’s 11-10 win. “That must be what he does. Be who you are, right?”

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The Mariners scored three more in the bottom of the ninth off former mariner Maikel Cleto for the comeback win with DeCarlo getting things going with a leadoff single, D.J. Peterson driving in a run with a double and Shawn O’Malley first-pitch swinging for the two-run walkoff single to right.

“Our guys hung in there well just having good at-bats,” Servais said. “It’s good to see young kids, DeCarlo a big hit, Liberato is one of our better prospects. Get them out there and see them produce. Good day. It was nice to have a comeback like that.”

Chris Heston, making his third appearance of the spring, threw three scoreless innings and has yet to surrender a run in Cactus League play. The Mariners had 18 hits in the win. Ben Gamel and Daniel Vogelbach each went 2 for 3 with Vogelbach going the other way with two strikes on both hits.

“It’s part of his game,” Servais said. “I know it’s the big bruiser, everybody thinks he knocks it out of the park, but he uses the whole field to hit. It’s why he is a good hitter.”

Mariners improved to 9-5 with the win and host the Reds on Saturday with Chase De Jong scheduled to start.

Notes

• Felix Hernandez and possibly Edwin Diaz will be pitching Friday night as Venezuela faces Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. Six players from the organization appeared in WBC games Thursday night. In the Dominican Republic’s win over Canada, Robinson Cano went 1 for 4, Nelson Cruz 1 for 3 with a double, and Tyler O’Neill 0 for 3. Mariners pitchers struggled in Italy’s comeback win over Mexico with Yovani Gallardo surrendering four runs in four innings while striking out five and Pat Venditte giving up three runs in his inning. Sebastian Valle went 0 for 4.

• Even with the WBC absences, with the starters getting stretched out there are fewer and fewer innings available for the pitchers. The Mariners have set up a B game against the Reds with Dylan Unsworth, Peter Tago and Zac Curtis scheduled to get innings. With minor-league games starting March 18, Servais said Friday morning that we should see the first round of cuts early next week.