Cruz, Heredia Highlight Mariners Spring Ball Opening Win

After one of the more frantic offseasons around the league, the Mariners finally got to show off their new-look roster this afternoon as they faced the San Diego Padres in the spring training opener in Peoria, Arizona.

Mariners GM, Jerry Dipoto was one of the busiest front office guys in the league for the second straight year. This offseason, however, Dipoto transformed the M’s into a serious contender for the World Series if all the pieces play up to their skill level.

With that said, there were thousands of Mariners fans eagerly awaiting to see how this team would look when the first stepped back onto the field. Today they finally had that opportunity.

In their first game, the entire team put forth a resilient effort from start to finish, ultimately demolishing the Padres 13-3.

Nelson Cruz started off the rout with the team’s first home run of the spring. It was a three-run shot that scored the M’s biggest offseason acquisition, Jean Segura, who had reached base on a double down the left field line and Robinson Cano who had drawn a walk in his first at-bat.

It would be the only long bomb for the Mariners on this day but if Cruz’s homer is any indication, there will be plenty of power off his bat throughout the spring and the 2017 season.

Following the 1st inning blast, many of the other Mariners got in on the action. 11 players collected hits (4 men had multiple hits) which helped lead to 8 players scoring (3 players scored more than once) to account for the team’s 13 runs on the day.

And while many players contributed to the M’s win like Tuffy Gosewisch who doubled, drove in a run, and scored or top prospect, D.J. Peterson, who went 2-2 with two runs scored, there was one player that stood out above the rest, and he didn’t enter the ball game until the 5th inning.

Halfway through the game, Guillermo Heredia came in to replace Leonys Martin in center field. An inning after he got his sea legs on defense, he got his first licks at the plate and scorched a double to left that scored the aforementioned Gosewisch.

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A couple of batters later, Heredia was looking to show off his baserunning skills. He participated in a double steal with Shawn O’Malley. O’Malley took 2nd base on the play while Heredia came running home to put the Mariners up 6-3.

Heredia was just getting started. In the 7th, he would come up with another impactful hit driving in a run via a single. Then, in the 9th, he had one more double in him and ended up on second base for the second time also driving in one more run. He would finish the day with two runs scored, three RBIs, and bat a perfect 1.000.

In other Mariners news, Jarrod Dyson stole his first bag of the spring while going 1-2 with a run scored and the M’s best player of 2016, Tyler O’Neill, started his spring off on the wrong foot going 0-3 with two strikeouts.

Next: Spring Baseball Is Back

Tomorrow the Mariners face the Padres again at 12:10 PST. They will surely hope to continue their tremendous success from the spring opener.