Credit: Brandon Pollard/ EVT Sports

The tenants of the Peoria Sports Complex, Padres and Mariners, came together Saturday Afternoon. This marked their second of five matchups this spring.

No Machado or Tatis Jr.

Dominican stars and core of the Padres, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr, flew out of Arizona Friday night to prepare for the World Baseball Classic. Saturday will be Bogaerts’ final game until he is off for the WBC. With Craig Stammen out of town for Friday and Saturday’s game, bench coach Randy Knorr is taking over managerial duties. Knorr’s lineup can see some regulars, as well as those competing for a spot.

Saturday starters. pic.twitter.com/O5XZuBwi8S

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) February 28, 2026

Cheers for Sears

After allowing four earned runs versus Milwaukee on Monday, JP Sears was sent back out Saturday to look for better results versus Seattle. He did just that with a stat line of three innings thrown, three hits allowed, an earned run allowed, and a strikeout of Cal Raleigh. Sears had one mistake pitch on a hanging sweeper on a 1-2 pitch to left-handed Luke Raley. Raley sent it 439 ft over the center field wall, just right of the batter’s eye. This gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the second.

Other than that, Sears looked solid while working efficiently. He threw 34 pitches, 23 of them being for strikes. In his three innings of work, Sears induced two double-play ground balls. They were against lefties, Josh Naylor in the first, and Colt Emerson in the third. This outing further put JP Sears into the mix for the rotation after a tough outing earlier in the week.

Offense gets to Seattle’s arms in the second

It was the No. 3 overall pick in 2025, left-handed Kade Anderson on the mound to start the game for the M’s. Anderson looked sharp in the first inning, striking out three Padres major leaguers. In the second, Freddy Fermin led off with an opposite-field single. Jake Cronenworth followed that up with a double lined to the left-center gap. Minor league arm, Houston Roth, then relieved Anderson. With an out in the inning, non-roster invite, Nick Solak, roped his third double of the year to plate Fermin to tie the game at 1 apiece.

Netherlands WBC representative, Xander Bogaerts, plated Cronenworth and Solak with a double to widen the lead to 3-1.

The very next pitch, Jackson Merrill hit a 90.8 mph fastball by Roth over the left center field wall. This made the margin 5-1, San Diego.

Moonshot for Merrill ? pic.twitter.com/QVjrOY8j2e

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) February 28, 2026

Major leaguers in relief

The Padres threw several arms with major league experience. Jeremiah Estrada pitched the fourth inning. In his second outing of the spring, he threw just 10 pitches in a super clean and quick inning. He would strike out Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley on his “chitter”, facing the minimum three batters.

Team USA and San Diego closer, Mason Miller, was just as good as Estrada, taking over in the fifth. Miller struck out Dominic Canzone to the back door slider and Patrick Wisdom to the up an away fastball. The fireballer logged six of his fastballs at a speed of 101.0 mph or higher.

Alek Jacob replaced Miller in the sixth. He faced three very talented left-handed hitters in Colt Emerson, Brendan Donovan, and Cal Raleigh. Jacob filled the zone for nine strikes in his 13 pitches. He recorded two fly outs to Emerson and Donovan, getting Raleigh to line out.

The 22-year-old Venezuelan, Bradgley Rodriguez, pitched the seventh for the Friars. Lighting up the radar, Rodriguez topped out at 98.9 mph on a four-seamer. He would go on to strike out Josh Naylor, who chased a changeup away and out of the zone. Johnny Farmelo also played victim to the strikeout, which ended Rodriguez’s 1-2-3 inning.

More runs in the seventh

Up to this point in the seventh inning, Mariners pitching retired 15 Padres in a row, with the Padres’ last base runner coming in the second. Substitute for right fielder Nick Castellanos, Jase Bowen hit a two-out double that deflected off the glove of third baseman Will Wilson. After the double, pinch-hitting Nick Schnell, took a first pitch slider by Randy Dobnak off the batter’s eye to make it 7-1, San Diego.

Schnell gets it done ? pic.twitter.com/6bq4BndIh1

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) February 28, 2026

Closing the final two innings

Ty Adcock looked sharp in his eighth inning he pitched in relief. Adcock, being much better against right-handed batters, did well against the lefties today. He got ground balls from lefties Dominic Canzone and Miles Mastrobuoni. Adcock made nice work of the Mariners’ bats, throwing 12 pitches, while stuffing the zone with nine strikes.

Left-hander Kyle Hart closed it out for the Padres. Brock Rodden hit a lead-off single off Hart, which broke the 16 streak in a row, recorded by Padre pitching. Following the base hit, Hart struck out Connor Charping looking on a slider. To conclude the game, Hart got Cal Raleigh to chase a splitter that ended in a game-sealing double play.

On the back fields in Peoria

Additional action took place on the back fields at the Peoria Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon. Walker Buehler faced the NC Dinos’ hitting in three innings of work. San Diego’s rotation battle added some intrigue in Peoria today.

Walker Buehler tossed three innings today in Peoria against the KBO’s NC Dinos.

After the outing, Buehler said it was “all in all, a good day” and that he thinks “the velocity was a little bit above kind of where we thought it would be.” pic.twitter.com/FORwCsZjLo

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) February 28, 2026

 

Off to Scottsdale

Sunday afternoon, the Padres will go to Scottsdale to take on the San Francisco Giants. The game time is set for 12:05 PST/1:05 MST. Longtime Rockier, German Marquez, will make his first start for the Padres, as ace Logan Webb will make his second start of the spring for the Giants. The Padres will not have a video webcast available, but will have audio for listeners on 97.3 The Fan.

Angel grew up a San Diego sports fan, following the Padres, SDSU athletics, San Diego FC, as well as the Chargers. He is currently a third year community college student, and will transfer to SDSU to pursue a career in Journalism.

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