Diamondbacks 3, Mariners 6: Melancholy Melancon

Record: 2-5-1. Change on 2022: -¹⁄₂

Merrill Kelly and Mark Melancon both made their first appearances of spring this afternoon. However, the results were rather different. Kelly allowed a run over 2.1 innings on two hits and two walk with a pair of strikeouts, though the broadcast made it seem like he was squeezed a bit by the home-plate umpire. In another “You’ll only see that in spring training” moment, he was lifted with one out in the second, being relieved by Ryan Hendrix - but came back to pitch a 1-2-3 third. However, Melancon allowed six hits to the eight batters he faced, and was charged with three runs - it might have been worse, but for a TOOTBLAN. Some of the hits were a bit BABIPy, but not all of them.

After him, Tommy Henry had an extended relief outing, allowing two runs over three innings, on three hits and a walk, with four strikeouts. Joe Mantiply pitched a scoreless eighth, while Carlos Vargas hit triple digits on a couple of pitches in the ninth. Lourdes Gurriel and Christian Walker each had two hits and drove in a run for the Diamondbacks, Josh Rojas drew a pair of walks. Gabriel Moreno and Wilderd Patino each got a hit and a walk, the latter being robbed of what could well have been another knock by a web gem. On the other hand, Evan Longoria was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, and is now 0-for-8 with six K’s for spring.

2:31 was the time of game, and a nice crowd of over a hundred thousand people crammed into Salt River Fields. Well, according to the box-score, anyway! Think there’s probably a surplus zero crammed in there... Tomorrow, it’s a split squad double-bill of NL West contests: Slade Cecconi leads half the team in Scottsdale against the Giants, while Brandon Pfaadt stays at Salt River Fields to take on the Padres. The latter game is on both the radio and the TV, so we’ll have a GDT.