By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times
Mariners 7, Brewers 2 at Peoria Stadium
PEORIA, Ariz. — Cooper Hummel admittedly loves hitting homers against the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that selected him in the 18th round of the 2016 draft out of the University of Portland and later traded him to the Diamondbacks.
After blasting a deep homer against the Brewers at American Family Fields earlier this spring while batting right-handed, the switch-hitting catcher/utility player did it again from the left side at Peoria Stadium in Monday’s win. Batting against Brandon Woodruff, Hummel smacked a solo homer to deep right-center in the Mariners’ three-run third inning. He’s tied with Jarred Kelenic for the team lead in homers with four. He hit a homer off Woodruff last season while playing with the Diamondbacks.
Acquired this offseason from Arizona in exchange for Kyle Lewis, Hummel appears to be playing his way on to the team in a bench role. He started in right field and made a nice sliding catch on soft fly ball. He also added another hit in the game. In 15 games this spring, he’s got a .333/.389/.818 slash line with 11 hits 33 at-bats, including two doubles, a triple, four homers, seven RBI, three walks and 13 strikeouts.
Ty France added a two-run double in the third inning.
Jose Caballero also had a solid game, driving in a run with a sac fly and hitting a two-run homer.
Reliever Andres Munoz made his first Cactus League appearance this spring and struck out all three batters he faced.
Player of the game
Logan Gilbert delivered a dominant outing in his penultimate start before the 2023 regular season. The lanky right-hander tossed four scoreless innings, allowing just three hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
Quotable
“I’m probably a little ahead of last spring. I don’t remember exactly how I felt. It’s probably pretty similar, honestly. But for where my pitches are at. I’d say it’s probably ahead of last year in comfortability. I think just getting out there as much as possible and having one more to go five innings next time is going to help me be ready to go for the season.” — Gilbert
On tap
The Mariners have Tuesday off from Cactus League play. They’ll return to action on Wednesday evening at Peoria Stadium, hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers. Right-hander George Kirby is scheduled to make the start for Seattle.
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