By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Mariners won their third straight Cactus League affair, limiting Colorado to two runs despite giving up 11 hits in a 4-2 win.
Making his third start of the spring, right-hander Chris Flexen pitched 3.1 innings, allowing one run on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts. After a quick 1-2-3 first inning, he worked through traffic in the second and third innings without allowing a run. He exited the fourth inning after giving up a one-out single to Mike Moustakas. That runner scored when Flexen’s replacement, Juan Then, allowed a double and a two-run single to Zac Veen.
The Mariners got scoreless innings from Trevor Gott and Penn Murfee and two scoreless frames from Easton MeGee while Riley O’Brien notched his third Cactus League save with a scoreless ninth.
“I thought our pitching today was outstanding,” manager Scott Servais said. “We were around 75-80% first-pitch strikes, which is what we’ve been talking about all spring. It’s really key to what we do with our pitching.”
The Mariners got a baseball rarity — back-to-back RBI triples from Cal Raleigh and Jarred Kelenic for two runs in the third inning. The last time the Mariners had back-to-back triples in the regular season was June 28, 2006, at Chase Field vs. the Diamondbacks. Adrian Beltre and Jose Lopez hit back-to-back triples in a 10-3 win.
Sam Haggerty broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning on a groundball to first base to score Zach DeLoach from third. Evan White manufactured an insurance run in the eighth. He worked a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a pitch in the dirt and then scored on DeLoach’s sac fly to left field.
Player of the game
After playing sparingly in the first weeks of Cactus League play, Cal Raleigh is hitting at a torrid pace. Raleigh doubled in his first at-bat off a 3-2 changeup from Rockies starter Jose Urena. The fly ball traveled 397 feet to deep right-center — a homer in most parks. In his second plate appearance, Raleigh smashed a 3-2 sinker off the wall in center. The ball ricocheted off the wall and past centerfielder Yonathan Daza. Raleigh never stopped running, chugging his way around the bases and stopping at third base with a standup triple. The ball had a 104 mph exit velocity and traveled 415 feet per MLB Statcast.
Quotable
“‘Big Dumper’ has got three in him all day long.” — Servais on Raleigh’s triple
On tap
The Mariners are back at the Peoria Sports Complex on Sunday to face the Texas Rangers for the first time this spring. Luis Castillo will make his third start of the spring for Seattle. Also scheduled to pitch are lefties Brennan Bernardino and Justus Sheffield and right-handers Chris Clarke, J.B. Bukauskas and Taylor Williams. Texas will start lefty Andrew Heaney. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. PT. The game will be televised by Root Sports and have a live radio broadcast on Seattle Sports 710-AM and mariners.com.
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