PEORIA, Ariz. – The Mariners scored twice in the bottom of the 8th and hung on to their lead with strong defense in the top of the 9th for a 5-4 win over the Giants before a crowd of 9,174 on Wednesday night at Peoria Stadium. James Paxton was sharp in 4.2 innings of work, striking out 7. Taylor Motter led the way at the plate, going 3-for-4 with 1 run, 1 RBI and 2 stolen bases.
The Giants took the first lead of the ballgame as Evan Longoria led off the top of the 2nd with a double and later scored on an RBI-groundout.
Seattle evened the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the 3rd on Mike Marjama’s solo home run to center field. Marjama went 2-for-3 with 1 run, 1 home run and 1 RBI. The Mariners added a run in the 4th with back-to-back-to-back singles from Motter, Marjama and Zach Vincej. San Francisco retook the lead, 3-2, in the top of the 5th, scoring two runs with two outs.
In the bottom of the 5th, Mitch Haniger belted his first home run of the spring – a towering blast off the batter’s eye in straightaway center field – to even the score at 3-3. After the Giants took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 8th, Seattle answered back with two runs in the bottom of the frame. Mike Zunino led off with a single before being lifted for pinch-runner Bryson Brigman. One batter later, Guillermo Heredia doubled home Brigman to tie the score. Motter followed with an RBI-single, his 3rd hit of the contest, to give the Mariners a 5-4 advantage.
In his 4th Cactus League start of the spring, Paxton worked 4.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk. He fanned 7 of the 18 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the 1st and 3rd innings. Christian Bergman pitched 2.1 innings in relief, giving up 1 run on 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 3. David Phelps allowed 1 run on 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 2 in 1.0 inning of work. Shawn Armstrong picked up the save, working around a leadoff single in the top to preserve the Mariners one-run lead.
After a single by San Francisco to start the top of the 9th, Daniel Vogelbach snared a hard-hit groundball up the 1st base line and flipped to Armstrong for the first out. With a Giants runner on 3rd base and one out, Mariners 2nd baseman Danny Muno snagged a line drive up the middle. On the next play, Vincej fielded a slow groundball and made a strong throw across the diamond for the final out.
The Mariners (7-12-1) return to Cactus League action tomorrow (Thursday, March 15) against the Oakland Athletics at 7:05 p.m. at Hohokam Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on 710 ESPN Seattle, the Mariners Radio Network and Mariners.com. The game will be televised live in HD on MLB Network. Left-hander Aríel Miranda is slated to start for the Mariners against Athletics left-hander A.J. Puk.