San Francisco Giants Bats Light Up For 16 Hits In 13-6 Win Over Mariners
By Phil Watson
A split squad of San Francisco Giants ignited for 16 hits Saturday at Peoria Sports Complex to beat the Seattle Mariners in Cactus League play 13-6.
Edwin Escobar had a rough outing in his third spring start for the Giants, surrendering four hits in 2.2 innings, but the Giants’ relief corps allowed just one earned run over the final 6.1 innings to give the offense time to fire up.
San Francisco (11-5) took the lead with a three-spot in the top of the fifth and added five insurance runs in the seventh.
The Giants got their first two runs in the first. Joaquin Arias and Tony Abreu reached on back-to-back singles and moved up on a wild pitch by Mariners starter James Paxton. Arias scored on when second baseman Willie Bloomquist threw wildly on Hector Sanchez’s grounder and Brandon Hicks drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
Juan Perez led off the second with his first home run of the spring to put San Francisco up 3-0.
But the Mariners (13-5) got to Escobar in the third. Abraham Almonte led off with a homer to left, Logan Morrison stroked a one-out RBI single and Michael Saunders grounded a base hit up the middle to score two and give Seattle a 4-3 lead.
The Mariners made it 5-3 in the fourth when Almonte scored after Roger Kieschnick dropped Corey Hart’s fly ball to right field.
The Giants rallied in the fifth against Seattle closer Fernando Rodney. Rodney hit Abreu with his second pitch and Brandon Belt legged out a double on a ball hit into short right field that deflected off the glove of first baseman Justin Smoak. Abreu scored on Sanchez’s groundout and Hicks played Belt with a single up the middle. Rodney was tossed after throwing a fastball that was called a ball on the second pitch to Tyler Colvin. Hicks swiped second while reliever Ramon Ramirez struck out Colvin and scored on Perez’s bloop single to center.
A wild pitch by Charlie Furbush of the Mariners allowed a run to score in the sixth after Darren Ford walked, stole second and advanced to third on a ground ball.
In the seventh, the Giants scored on a fielding error by Seattle right fielder Jabari Blash, an RBI single by Kieschnick, an RBI double for Elliott Blair and a two-run double by Joe Panik.
Chris Dominguez added an RBI single in the ninth.
Daryl Maday gave up a hit and got an out in his one-third of an inning of work. Kameron Loe (2-0) allowed an unearned run while working one inning. Adam Reifer, Jake Dunning and Juan Gutierrez each worked a scoreless frame, pitching the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Tom Vessella surrendered a run on two hits in the eighth and George Kontos finished it out, working around a hit and a walk in the ninth.
Perez was 3-for-5 for the Giants, with two RBI, while Sanchez and Hicks each had a pair of hits. Hicks continues to make a strong push for a utility infield job, as he is now hitting .370 this spring with six RBI in 27 at-bats.