By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times
PEORIA, Ariz —The Mariners jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and cruised to an easy win, banging out nine hits, including five extra base hits, with five walks.
Jarred Kelenic continues to have a strong spring training. With the bases loaded, he punched a single up the middle to score a pair of runs. He also added a double. In eight games this spring, he’s posted a .429/.478/1.048 slash line (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) with a double, four homers, seven RBI, two walks and six strikeouts.
“Jarred’s at-bats have been very consistent all spring,” manager Scott Servais said. “In that at-bat, you do what the game calls for. You don’t have to hit a homer, just put a good swing on it and find a hole up the middle. Then later, he gets ahead in a count and drives the ball to right field. Really good spring, he’s got it moving in the right direction.”
Batting left-handed, Cooper Hummel hit his third homer of the spring — a two-run blast over the wall in left-center in the sixth inning.
“He has had a good spring,” Servais said. “He has played around the field more. We wanted him to focus on his catching here early in camp, but you’ll start to see him play some other positions as well.”
Facing a lineup that featured former Mariners Jake Fraley, Curt Casali, Stuart Fairchild and Noelvi Marte, George Kirby pitched into the third inning but was only credited with two innings pitched. He allowed one unearned run on one hit with a walk and a strikeout. After a throwing error by J.P. Crawford, an infield single and a throwing error from Colin Mora, Kirby had reached his pitch limit and was lifted for reliever Ryder Ryan, who allowed a sac fly.
Seattle’s bullpen gave up two runs over the final seven innings.
Player of the game
Tom Murphy crushed a solo homer off Reds starter Connor Overton to start the second inning. The blast measured 440 feet with 108-mph exit velocity. In his third plate appearance of the game, Murphy came up with bases loaded and pulled a single through the left side of the infield to score a pair of runs. Over his last four Cactus League games, Murphy has six hits in 12 at-bats with two homers and six RBI.
Quotable
“It’s probably the best offensive game we’ve had. We took some walks and we got a couple of hits with runners in scoring position. We did some nice things.” — Servais
On tap
The Mariners travel to Salt River Field at Talking Stick to face the Colorado Rockies. Right-hander Chris Flexen will get the start for Seattle with right-handed relievers Easton McGee, Penn Murfee, Trevor Gott, Riley O’Brien and Juan Then scheduled to pitch. Colorado will start right-hander Jose Urena. First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on Root Sports. There will be a live radio broadcast on Seattle Sports 710 and mariners.com
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