As the Seattle Mariners start the long road back to what they hope is a successful rebuilding season in 2012, they're starting to gear up at their Spring Training facilities in Peoria, Arizona. On Friday, the team opted to play an intrasquad game.
Geoff Baker at The Seattle Times was kind enough to provide a live-blog of the intrasquad game. The competing Mariners lineups looked like this:
Squad 1:
Chone Figgins -3B
Dustin Ackley -2B
Casper Wells - LF
Justin Smoak - 1B
Miguel Olivo - C
Munenori Kawasaki - SS
Carlos Peguero - RF
Guillermo Quiroz - DH
Michael Saunders - CF
Squad 2:
Darren Ford - CF
Brendan Ryan - DH
Ichiro Suzuki - RF
Mike Carp - LF
Jesus Montero - C
Kyle Seager - 3B
Alex Liddi - 1B
Luis Rodriguez - 2B
Carlos Triunfel - SS
A few notable things about the game, which ended in a 3-3 tie. The dynamic of Figgins and Ford as opposing leadoff hitters is certainly intriguing (Figgins worked a long at-bat to lead off the game and ended up drawing two walks). Ichiro unofficially debuted as the numer-three hitter that we're to expect this season. This also marked the first time that top prospect Tijuan Walker faced off against major-league hitters. DH Brendan Ryan hit a home run off of Oliver Perez. Peguero had a triple.
This is just the slow burn leading up to real baseball, of course. Let's savor every sweet moment of it.
For all news and information regarding the Seattle Mariners, please visit the incomparable Lookout Landing.