Mariners 2, Brewers 1 at American Family Fields of Phoenix
Notable
A day after allowing 16 runs on 15 hits while committing two errors in a sloppy loss, the Mariners picked up their first win of the Cactus League season with a clean outing Tuesday. Seattle got two scoreless innings each from Kendall Graveman and Justus Sheffield to set the tone for a pitching performance that yielded just three hits.
Seattle generated just enough offense to prevail. Evan White broke a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh, leading off with a double to left-center and scoring when right fielder Cooper Hummel misplayed Jarred Kelenic’s hard single to right. Seattle grabbed a 2-0 lead moments later, when catcher Brian O’Keefe singled to right to score Kelenic. The Brewers answered with a run off Wyatt Mills in the bottom of the seventh.
The Mariners got scoreless innings of relief from Cody Anderson, Joey Gerber, Zach Grotz and Dietrich Enns, who earned the save.
Player of the game
Sheffield looked dominant in his first 2020 Cactus League outing. Piggybacking off Graveman’s start, Sheffield tossed two 1-2-3 innings, striking out three of the six batters he faced. Sheffield’s fastball sat 92-93 mph on the stadium radar gun. He displayed a nasty biting slider, using it to get strikeouts of his former catcher Omar Narvaez and Jedd Gyroko to end his outing.
Quotable
“That’s nice to be able to just to go out there and work on what I really need to work on and attack guys and pound the zone. That was the plan.” — Sheffield, on his mindset this spring
On tap
The Mariners will travel to Goodyear Ballpark to face the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon. Right-hander Justin Dunn will get the start for Seattle. Also scheduled to pitch: left-handers Wei-Yin Chen and Taylor Guilbeau, along with right-handers Yoshihisa Hirano, Art Warren, Brandon Brennan and Dan Altavilla. Cincinnati will start right-hander Sonny Gray. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. PST. The game will be broadcast live on mariners.com and delayed on ESPN 710-AM.
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