By Charles Hamaker 

Peoria, AZ – On day four of the Circling Seattle Sports + Converge Media Spring Training trip, Liv and Charles experienced their first day game down here in Arizona, saw both of the rosters of the split squad games that the Mariners played have their bats go quiet, and went out after the game they covered to try and enjoy some hockey. It was a sort of jarring day for the two, considering the catching up that needed to be done, battling with the sun to not get burned, outfit decisions, and dealing with a frantic situation at the Buffalo Wild Wings they ended up at for dinner. All in all, it’s not as though it was a bad day, perhaps just a bit hectic.  

Charles’ scorebook for the season, and Liv’s camera and hat (Photos by Liv Lyons)

Wake up, we’ve got a day game! 

The start of Saturday was chaotic and frantic, to be totally honest with you. Charles had fallen asleep on the couch while trying to finish the work from the day before and try to get work for the next few days prepared, and man is there a lot of content to look forward to, so be ready for that. He was caught asleep of course, by Liv, and once a laugh or two had taken place, it was time to wake up and get ready to head out and arrive at the Mariners facility. Considering that the Kraken, Sea Dragons, and Sounders were all playing that day as well, gameday posts and coverage of those games had to be created, albeit later than they normally go up. After a bit, some of that had been done and Charles was ready to head out the door, Liv already having been ready for about an hour.  

Arriving at the facility provided a fun surprise, as Mariners general manager Justin Hollander had bought lunch for the media work room and the members within it. Lunch, from Hollander, had purchased the food from Tacos Calafia, a local spot in the area that Seattle Times writer Ryan Divish recommends. A nice gesture, and certainly made some of the folks who were working in the media room happy, including Liv who had been craving Mexican food prior to entering the building.  

Bats go quiet for M’s in both games of Split Squad showings 

For the first time over the course of the now four games that the pair had been at (Can’t really include the split squad game against the Giants that we covered as we weren’t physically in Scottsdale), the Mariners hitters went relatively quiet. In the first three games that Liv and Charles had witnessed, Seattle had tallied 37 runs in total which comes out to about 12 and 1/3 runs per game. Those are wacky, video games on sliders numbers for some baseball games, which made for fun and eventful games to cover. Not to say that the two games that took place today weren’t eventful, but it is an interesting perspective to go from lighting up the scoreboard to being nearly shutout, in the case of the game against the Diamondbacks.  

Liv’s day at the game, through photos (Photos by Liv Lyons)

A little fun, if you can call it that 

Following the conclusion of the Seattle loss to Arizona, the two headed back to the hotel to drop off a few things and then head back out to a restaurant so that they could take a load off and catch some hockey, as some of the games that took place today were involved in playoff scenarios for the Kraken and the two wanted to keep an eye on those. Buffalo Wild Wings was the winning choice, considering the number of televisions that would be ready so that they could watch the games that they wanted to. Upon arrival, seeing the line and chaos that was taking place inside set the bar for what was to come. An hour wait for food to come out and struggling to get to someone so that the bill could be paid to get out of there was a bit stressful to say the least. Since the hotel was just a short walk from that Buffalo Wild Wings, the two embarked on foot to return but made a stop on the way at “Bruster’s Ice Cream” where Charles got an Oreo milkshake. After that, THEN it was time to head back and get to work on some things.   

What do you have going on tomorrow? 

Tomorrow is another day game at Peoria Sports Complex, this time against the San Diego Padres who the Mariners share the ballpark with. The Padres are listed as the home team in this contest, which is interesting, but one of the two teams do have to be listed as the home team when they meet at this park, so it makes sense. First pitch for that game is at 1:10PM PST, and Charles and Liv will obviously have live coverage of that game coming at you as it takes place. Following that day game, Charles will likely record CSS on Converge so that it can be scheduled to run at its standard time of 4PM PST on Monday considering that Monday’s Mariners game against San Diego is all a day game.  

To tune into our game recap, click here

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