GOODYEAR, Ariz. – In a back-and-forth game that featured five home runs, the Mariners took advantage of defensive miscues to come away with a 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of 6,120 fans at Goodyear Ballpark.

Seattle took the lead for good in the eighth inning as Danny Valencia led off with a single, moved to third on a Taylor Motter double before Carlos Ruiz hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Valencia. Ian Miller then singled to center past the drawn in infield to score pinch-runner Zach Shank and put the Mariners up 7-5.

Motter has homered in back-to-back games and has driven in 5 runs in his last four games. On the spring, he’s now hitting .296 (16×54) with 12 runs, 3 doubles, 3 home runs, 11 RBI and a .391 on-base percentage in 21 Cactus League games.

Seattle scored twice in the second inning on a two-run home run by Motter after Valencia walked to lead off the frame. They tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning as Ruiz doubled, Ben Gamel singled him home, and he eventually scored on an error by the third baseman. The other run scored in the fifth after Kyle Seager stroked a one-out double to left-center and eventually scored on a two-out error by the Reds third baseman.

Starter Drew Smyly tossed 4.0 innings, his longest outing of the spring, while allowing five earned runs. Reliever Tony Zych, making his first appearance in a game since August due to surgery, tossed 1.0 shutout inning in the fifth. He was followed by scoreless outings by Nick Vincent (1.0), Marc Rzepczynski (0.1), Evan Scribner (0.2), Edwin Díaz (1.0) before James Pazos recorded the save after allowing a solo home run in the ninth.

The Mariners (19-12) return to Cactus League play to face the San Diego Padres tomorrow (March 27) at 1:10 p.m. at Peoria Stadium. Right-hander Yovani Gallardo will make his 4th Cactus League start of the spring for the Mariners against Padres right-hander Matt Magill.

MarinersMedia.com