Mariners leave early to get Mom's ride to the airport, team still wins

Rockies Announcer:"You got this AL West figured out yet?"

Mike Blowers: "No."

Well guess what, Mike? Starting Monday, we'll all start to figure it out. We made it, you guys. We made it. Today, the Mariners closed out 2016 Spring Training with a 8-5 win over the Colorado Rockies. Or I should say, the grown up Seattle Mariners played three and a half innings, during which they scored one run, and then the JV Seattle Mariners played the rest of the game, during which they scored a bunch more and won.

Robinson Cano got the Mariners on the board in the third, scoring Kyle Seager from first base on a well hit line drive double to left center. Robbie is mashing. Robbie is healthy. Robbie is the answer to our hopes and dreams.

The rest of the Mariners scoring came from that heady Spring Training mix of the bottom of the lineup and minor leaguers. Dae-Ho Lee (professional baseball person) hit a double to left to score Tyler Smith (minor league baseball person) and Alex Jackson (also minor league baseball person). Then, in Drew Jackson's (third minor league baseball person) at-bat (so many Jacksons), Lee scored on a wild pitch. Steve Clevenger singled to drive in Jackson, and suddenly the Mariners were winning their baseball contest. With Lee the right-handed complement to Lind, it's nice to see him produce, even if it is in limited action in a game we don't care about. Lee would add another RBI in the 7th, along with Luis Sardinas (professional baseball person) who scored Arby Fields (yup, he played), and Dario Pizzano (him, too).

The other story was Nate Karns, who had a nice little outing, all things considered. He struck out eight, and gave up three runs on three hits over six innings. His greatest trouble came in the second, when Nolan Arnado singled and Gerardo Parra walked to start things off. Arenado scored on a sacrifice fly from Nick Hundley, and Parra scored on a Ben Paulsen double. But Karns mostly settled down after that, retiring the next nine batters he faced until a small bit of sixth inning whoopsadoodle led to another Rockies run. But all in all, he's performed solidly since being named the fifth starter.

Steve Cishek gave up two runs against the teenagers the Rockies put in to face him in the seventh, but it's ummm... it's still Spring Training, so it is fine? Maybe he was just being nice? Mike Montgomery pitched the eighth without incident, and we got our first look at Nick Vincent in the ninth (Hey Nick! You did a good job! That's so fun!). The Mariners got the win, got on the bus, and prepared to steamroll into Texas.

Monday it's The King Felix Hernandez and Cole Hamels to kick this whole crazy baseball experiment off.

We'd be remiss at Lookout if we didn't thank the tireless and intrepid beat writers who have made our lives so much easier over the last month and a half with their terrific reporting. So thank you to Ryan Divish, Bob Dutton, Shannon Drayer, and Greg Johns. You guys rock.

Thanks to Aaron Goldsmith for joining Nathan, David, and Scott on Dome and Bedlam, and being such a wonderful guest.

And thanks to all of you for reading our preseason coverage. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We can't wait to spend this season with you.

Goms, and happy Regular Season Eve!