New look Rainiers sweep opening series: Tacoma Rainiers series recap
By Berlin Kofoed, edited by Charles Hamaker
Tacoma, WA - Minor league baseball is back, and the Tacoma Rainiers had their debut mini-series over the past weekend. Logan Evans, Cole Young, Harry Ford, and Ben Williamson all made their triple-A debuts, helping with quite the start to the season for a Rainiers team that will be led by a mixture of MLB veterans and the Seattle Mariners’ top prospects! Tacoma outscored Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers affiliate) 17-4 over the weekend, hopefully giving a good insight into how the season is going to go for this team in 2025. The moves that happened in the off season have really been exciting for me, as I’ve been ready to see some of these guys finally get their time with Tacoma and hopefully make the jump to the major leagues at some point throughout the season. With how amazing Williamson is defensively, and how Young has been getting work at second base, I really anticipate the likelihood of seeing them, especially if any of the current Mariners roster needs to go on the injured list or get a rehab assignment.
Outfielder Cade Marlowe is starting the season on the 60-day injured list, per the Tacoma Rainiers transaction roster as of March 22nd. He played in just seven Spring Training games this year, with 13 total at bats. During his short time, he had a slash line of .231/.375/.385, adding in a couple of stolen bases. This was after missing the end of the 2024 season with back issues, though nothing specific has been brought up at this point with Marlowe. He was subbed out in his last Spring Training game along with the rest of the batters, so it doesn’t seem like his game on March 6th had anything to do with this news, but we may learn more about his and other minor league injuries when Mariners general manager Justin Hollander provides organization injury updates to begin the next Seattle homestand on Monday.
March 28th-30th, 2025 series wrap up
Game one, Opening Day, final results
Tacoma Rainiers (1-0) - Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers) (0-1)
Final score: 6 - 1
W: Blas Castano (1-0)
L: Caleb Boushley (0-1)
The Tacoma Rainiers came out strong in their first game of the 2025 season, with two home runs resulting in four runs as the pitching staff only allowed the Express to get a single mid-game run. Logan Evans got the first turn on the mound, and he went 3.2 innings while only allowing a single run on six hits and a walk, striking out four batters. Tacoma’s opening day starter left with an ERA of 2.45, which definitely feels like where he was when the 2024 season ended. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to earn a win for this first appearance. That was awarded to reliever Blas Castano, who came in for 3.1 innings and only allowed a single hit and walk to interrupt an otherwise spectacular time on the mound.
The first homer of the season came from first baseman Tyler Locklear in the second inning, also scoring fellow infielder Austin Shenton, and things were uphill for the team after that. Infielder Leo Rivas knocked a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth, bringing in Locklear and Spencer Packard, further adding to the Rainiers lead. There were only two innings that put runs on the board for Tacoma, but putting up six runs on ten hits was definitely more than enough to give them a massive lead while Round Rock was only able to get a single run scored. On the defensive side of things, Locklear ended the seventh inning with an unassisted double play courtesy of a line drive, clearing the bases and ending the inning. Seeing these players step right back into the swing of things after the off season is fantastic, and taking the first win so strongly really gives me a bit of hope with how things might go for the remainder of the year.
Game two final results
Tacoma Rainiers (2-0) - Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers) (0-2)
Final score: 3 - 1
W: Casey Legumina (1-0)
L: Jacob Latz (0-1)
S: Cody Bolton (1)
Once again, Tacoma only allowed Round Rock to get a single run in, even though they got twice as many hits on the board. This time, the runs didn’t come off of multi-RBI home runs, but that didn’t change the strength that Tacoma has already been showing. Veteran pitcher Casey Lawrence got the start, and he went 5.2 innings, allowing only that one single run to score from six hits and a walk, striking out five batters. This was definitely a great start for Lawrence, who had some shaky games in 2024, and helps give the Mariners some starting pitching depth behind Emerson Hancock and alongside Logan Evans. However, the win ultimately would go to reliever Casey Legumina. Legumina came in for 1.1 innings, allowing a single hit and striking out two batters, locking his first game ERA at 0.00. Since the Rainiers didn’t get as wildly ahead this time, every inning was a hold or save situation, and reliever Cody Bolton locked it down to get his first win after coming in for the ninth inning. It got a bit nerve wracking when he got two Express players on base from walks, but the defense had his back, ready to keep their lead and take game two for a series clinching win to set up a potential Sunday sweep.
A sac-fly might have given Round Rock an early lead in the top of the third, but Tacoma was having none of it. The defense really stepped up after that run, and pitchers pretty often faced the minimum courtesy of strikeouts and ground outs, with only seven batters making it on base, mostly from walks. In the bottom of the fourth, a single from Spencer Packard to score Ben Williamson tied things up. A very error-filled bottom of the sixth for Round Rock allowed two more runners from Tacoma to score, and they took their 3-1 lead and ultimate victory. The final batter up striking out felt very justified in the end, especially after those couple of walks to start the ninth. Tacoma walks away with their second win of the season and a series win against Round Rock.
Game three final results
Tacoma Rainiers (3-0) - Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers) (0-3)
Final score: 5 - 2
W: Hagen Danner (1-0)
L: Joe Barlow (0-1)
In game three of this shortened series, Round Rock definitely showed a stronger force, holding the lead into the eighth until Tacoma tied things up. But in the final inning of the game, Tacoma put up three runs on a walk-off homer from Austin Shenton which gave Tacoma a sweep of the series. Luis F. Castillo took to the mound for 5.2 innings, allowing only a single earned run off two hits and two walks while also striking out two of the 21 batters he faced. Given the back and forth nature of this game, and that walk-off finale, the win was awarded to reliever Hagen Danner, who went one inning, walked and struck out one each, but didn’t allow a single run to score.
The name of this game was home runs. Every single run scored for Tacoma came from a homer. The first one came from infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor, tying the game up in the fifth inning. After falling behind again in the seventh, infielder Leo Rivas sent his second ball of the season out of the park, tying it up once more in the eighth. Danner was able to hold the fort down on the mound in the top of the ninth, keeping things tied at 2-2. A single from Harry Ford and Ben Williamson gave Tacoma some hope, but a force out started to turn up the heat. However, after taking a ball to the count, Shenton sent a ball with an exit velocity of 100.4 mph of the bat 364 ft out of the park, scoring Ford and Williamson, and securing a sweep as the first series for Tacoma and the 2025 season.
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