Strong arms

PEORIA, Ariz. — The Seattle Mariners played 15 innings Tuesday and found something they’ll need a lot of this season — quality pitching.

The Mariners ran a dozen pitchers to the mound in two games — a 7-1 morning B game victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and their 1-0 afternoon victory o

ver the San Francisco Giants.

All the Mariners allowed was a first-inning run, given up by left-hander Luke French in the B game. After that, they strung together 14 scoreless innings and came away with a good vibe, at least for a day considering nothing really counts at spring training except preparing for the season.

Yes, it’s early in March and the Dodgers and Giants didn’t exactly fill their lineups with major league regulars. But the Mariners’ pitching still was a pleasant sight considering the alternative that’s often seen at spring training.

“Everybody threw well today,” said manager Eric Wedge, who was more impressed with his pitchers’ command. “For the most part they did a good job with their fastball in the zone. Their secondary stuff was good. You like to see that, especially early in camp when you’re running so many people out there.”

French, who’s competing for a spot deep in the starting rotation, allowed five hits in two innings in the B game, but he cruised after struggling in the first inning against the Dodgers.

“I want him to be a little more aggressive at times with all his pitches, and I felt he made some good adjustment with that,” Wedge said.

Yoervis Medina, Chris Seddon, Chris Smith and Yusmeiro Petit each pitched a scoreless inning against the Dodgers.

In the regular game against the Giants, left-hander Jason Vargas was sharp in his first exhibition start. Vargas has been eased into camp after pitching a career-high 1922/3 innings last year.

Vargas, who threw 45 pitches, allowed two hits and a walk in three innings. He erased two of those runners when he got Thomas Neal to ground into a double play in the second inning and picked Darren Ford off first base in the third.

“Three innings under control,” Wedge said of Vargas. “That’s what we’ve been seeing all spring and he just took it out to the game.”

Vargas, who’d thrown more curveballs in his simulated game last weekend, didn’t throw any Tuesday. He stuck with his fastball, changeup and cutter because, well, catcher Adam Moore didn’t call for anything else.

“It was productive,” Vargas said. “I was looking forward to being around the strike zone, getting ahead early and not being all over the place. I was happy with it.”

It was the first time this year that Vargas had faced hitters from another team.

“There was different adrenaline,” he said. “It was nice to get out there and be in a real game.”

Jamey Wright, Cesar Jimenez, Tom Wilhelmsen, Mauricio Robles, Manny Delcarmen and Fabio Castro each pitched a scoreless inning for the Mariners.

Ryan Langerhans’ one-out triple in the fourth inning scored Justin Smoak from first base.

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog and follow his Twitter updates on the team at @kirbyarnold.