Mike Zunino And Drew Smyly Fuel Mariners Big 9-0 Win Against Rangers

On a day where former Mariners first baseman, Dae-Ho Lee, struggled for Team Korea in the World Baseball Classic opener and Leonys Martin was followed all day long by a mariachi band as a birthday surprise from the club, it was capped off by a good ole spring shellacking at the expense of the Texas Rangers.

There was a lot going on outside of actual spring ball today, but the Mariners big 9-0 win capped off of busy M’s and former M’s day of action.

With 11 Mariners off to the WBC, many young guns of the M’s organization will be getting some extra playing time in spring training.

Today, those young guns, specifically Taylor Motter (27), Daniel Vogelbach (24), and Mike Zunino (25), combined for six of the seven runs batted in by M’s bats.

Zunino provided the two of the biggest highlights on the day with his second home run in three games. He also smacked his second double in four games which brought in two runs.

Motter’s contribution was a two-run blast into the stands for his first home run of the season. He finished the day going 2-3 with two runs scored, two RBIs, and one walk drawn.

The entire M’s lineup, with the help of some Rangers errors, scored nine runs on 10 hits.

Yet, while the hitting was great, the Mariners pitching stole the show led by one of the two new M’s starters this season, Drew Smyly.

Smyly was in complete control from the first pitch. Through three innings of work, he would need just 45 pitches. He allowed only hit and one walk over those three innings and added three strikeouts (one in the 1st and two in the 2nd).

Smyly’s effort sparked the rest of the Mariners pitchers to also have incredible outings.

Max Povse, Cody Martin, Jean Machi, and Nick Hagadone combined for six innings pitch, allowing just two hits (both surrendered by Martin), two walks (one allowed by Martin, the other by Hagadone), and combined for six strikeouts (three by Martin, one by Povse and two by Hagadone).

All of the pitchers in today’s ballgame have been on point since spring started. Most have pitched two or three innings so far, but combined they have not allowed a single run in over 10 innings of work.

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The Mariners have their first day off from Spring training ball tomorrow since it began back on February 25th.

It’s nice that the boys get to celebrate Martin’s birthday knowing they don’t have a game the next day, but the way their offense and pitching was clicking today, they may not want to rest.

Today was the first time the team scored more than seven runs since February 28th -the team has now scored more than seven runs in four games this spring- and the pitching allowed its fewest hits (3) and fewest runs (0)  in the early goings.

It was also a bit of redemption for the M’s who were trounced by the Rangers last week 8-2.

Next: Mariners Fall In Both Split-Squad Games

The Mariners next game will be a late night affair against the Cleveland Indians. If you forgot, The M’s were able to squeeze out a 7-4 win last week versus the Indians.