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PEORIA, Ariz. — The Chicago Cubs scored nine runs in the first four innings, including a six-run fourth inning, en route to a 9-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in Cactus League action Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 11,634 at Peoria Stadium.
Mariners starter Marco Gonzales took the loss, allowing 12 hits and nine earned runs in 3 2/3 innings pitched. Gonzales entered the game with a 1.29 earned-run average on the spring, having allowed only one run in seven innings prior to Friday.
After the Cubs scored a pair of runs in the top of the first, Jay Bruce tied the score at 2-2 with a long home run to right-center field, his first homer of the spring. Bruce finished the game 2-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI and is now hitting .409 in Cactus League play.
The Cubs scored a single run in the third, before chasing Gonzales in the fourth. Seattle added another run in the fifth, trimming its deficit to 9-3, on a Dee Gordon sacrifice fly.
Nick Rumbelow helped restore order in the game for Seattle, allowing only hit and striking out two across two scoreless frames, and Shawn Armstrong followed with a scoreless seventh inning, striking out two. Matt Tenuta tossed a scoreless eighth and Ryan Garton worked around a two-out walk to toss a scoreless ninth.
The Mariners return to Cactus League play Saturday, visiting the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch. Right-handed pitcher Erik Swanson is scheduled to start for the Mariners against Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda.
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