SEATTLE -- Five weeks ago, Cooper Criswell was lengthening out in Spring Training, in a neck-and-neck battle to earn the fifth spot in the Mariners’ rotation with Bryce Miller injured.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, and the right-hander found himself in a much different scenario, taking the hill for the eighth inning of the Mariners’ 5-4 win over the A’s, tasked with holding a one-run lead in a high-leverage spot, in a game that felt about as much of a must-win contest as one can in April.
A lot can change in five weeks.
But if the moment was a big -- or new -- one, it didn’t look like it at all for Criswell, who needed just nine pitches to retire the side in order and register the first hold of his six-year career.
“I feel like I made it clear to the staff in Spring Training: I’m open to doing whatever role they need me to do and I’m excited for any opportunities,” Criswell said.
Criswell came to Seattle in January after being designated for assignment by the Mets, having spent the first five years of his career bouncing between starting and relieving with stops in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay and Boston, and racking up a 4.48 career ERA. He lost that competition to make the rotation but made the Opening Day roster as a depth piece in the bullpen; his first seven appearances for Seattle came with the Mariners either trailing or winning big. In that role, he’d been solid, coming into Wednesday with a 1.80 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP in 10 innings.
But plenty has gone off-script to start the year in Seattle's bullpen, which gave up three runs in four innings in each of the first two games of the series vs. the A’s. In the week leading up to Wednesday, Mariners relievers had combined to allow 17 runs in 22 1/3 innings, with a collective 2.15 WHIP.
Carlos Vargas landed on the injured list before he could make his first appearance of the year. Casey Legumina was tasked with the eighth in a tie game Monday -- with every higher-leverage arm either already used or down for the day -- gave up three runs, and was promptly DFA’d the next day. Matt Brash, one of the top setup men in baseball last year, has appeared earlier than the eighth inning in each of his past three outings and has thrown just 25 pitches since April 13. The coaching staff is trying to limit early-season back-to-backs, and both Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier pitched Tuesday.
Why not let one of the newer faces in the group get a shot in a high-leverage situation? Wednesday, Criswell began warming up in the bottom of the seventh with the game tied 3-3. But as the Mariners took the lead on Rob Refsnyder’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly, manager Dan Wilson chose to stick with him.
“He’s been around, he’s been in different situations,” Wilson said. “For him, he will take the ball at all times. Sometimes it’s going to be a length situation, and sometimes it’s going be today where we need to him to get the eighth inning and get to [Andrés Muñoz] in the ninth. What he has done for us so far, he’s really excelled in all those roles. To have a guy down there where you know you can count on him, that’s big.”
Criswell landed everything early, getting lefty Jeff McNeil to chop an 0-2 changeup straight to Leo Rivas at third. Max Muncy swung at a first-pitch sweeper on the outside corner and lifted it lazily to left field. That brought up Lawrence Butler, who worked a comparatively long five-pitch at-bat before swinging through a high cutter.
For a first chance at a new role, it couldn’t have gone much better.
“I just tried to treat it like any other situation,” Criswell said. “Not trying to put too much pressure on yourself in the situation, go out there and stick to our game plan, which is attacking the strike zone. I felt like I did a good job of that. I liked the results.”