Silence of the bats

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, March 9, 2011

PEORIA, Ariz. — For all Seattle’s impressive pitching Tuesday, the Mariners managed only three hits against the San Francisco Giants — Ryan Langerhans’ RBI triple and singles by Adam Moore and Josh Wilson.

Seattle manager Eric Wedge isn’t making much of the puny hitting, even though the Mar

iners’ .235 exhibition average is among the worst in baseball.

“It’s early. It’s tough to judge,” Wedge said. “We take it more on a case-by-case basis early in camp when it comes to the pitching and hitting. It’s more situational with different areas of your club and different parts of your game. There’s a lot of guys working with certain things, some guys are struggling with certain things, some guys are looking to find it. That’s why we have spring training.”

The victory over the Giants gave the Mariners a 5-4-1 exhibition record (B games don’t count) and a two-game winning streak. While winning doesn’t matter at this time of the year, Wedge said it’s important to play well, especially when there are game-winning situations.

“It’s spring training. It’s important to play well. It’s important to get better. It’s important to be prepared,” Wedge said. “Ultimately, you want to put yourself in position to win ballgames and then the competitive juices flow and you’re going to work to win those games. That’s the important part of it.”

Killer Bs

Dustin Ackley hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning, and Milton Bradley and Alex Liddi each hit solo home runs in the Mariners’ B-game victory over the Dodgers.

“I felt like for a B game we had good energy, which is always good because you can get more out of it,” Wedge said. “It can be tough to generate that at 10 o’clock in the morning. We had some guys with some good at-bats.”

Of note

Milton Bradley, who had two hits in the B game and remains the Mariners’ most productive hitter, played center field for the first time. “It’s important to get him out there a couple of times just in case we need him out there,” Wedge said. … After saying they would have more information on the medical tests last week on center fielder Franklin Gutierrez, there’s still been no word on the results of those tests. Gutierrez has experienced stomach problems since last season. … Left-hander Mauricio Robles, one of the Mariners’ top pitching prospects, got two quick outs in the seventh inning before digging himself a deep hole against the Giants. He gave up a double before issuing back-to-back walks on eight straight balls to load the bases. That count reached 10 straight before he threw a strike to Ryan Rohlinger — drawing a big cheer from the crowd — followed by a strikeout of Rohlinger.

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/marinersblog.