PEORIA, Ariz. — Avisail Garcia homered among his three hits and drove in four runs, Jose Abreu added to his sizzling spring training with two more hits and a Chicago White Sox split squad beat the Seattle Mariners 12-4 on Wednesday.
Abreu raised his spring training-leading batting average to .518 (29 for 56).
Garcia and the White Sox are looking forward to getting the regular season started. “I’m ready, and thanks to God I’m healthy,” Garcia said in Spanish.
“It was a fastball high and away,” Garcia said of his home run off Mariners starter James Paxton. “I turned on it and it got out.”
Melky Cabrera added a two-run double, Jeremy Farrell had four hits including a two-run home run and White Sox second baseman Carlos Sanchez, who will be on the opening-day roster after a very good spring at the plate, had four hits and two RBIs.
Gordon Beckham went 3 for 4 with two RBIs for the White Sox.
“It’s good to see what we did with a split squad,” Beckham said, “against a guy who’s pretty good. It was good to get some knocks and do our thing. We’ll definitely take a day like this, building momentum going into the season.”
Chicago teed off on Paxton, who’ll be in Seattle’s rotation. Paxton allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 3 1-3 innings.
“Just one of those days,” Paxton said. “It’s going to feel good to get back to Seattle and get that real game-time adrenalin pumping.”
Seth Smith drove in Seattle’s first run with a two-out single in the third.
Tyler Olson, a rookie left-handed reliever from Spokane, Washington, made the Mariners’ opening-day roster. Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon has Olson’s name on a board in his office that lists the 25-man roster.
“Take a look at the board,” McClendon said when asked about Olson. “Shows a lot of poise and the ability to get right-handers and left-handers out. Holds runners, works fast, throws strikes, fields his position. I said every year I’m looking for surprises, and he’s a surprise.”
Olson, who’d never pitched above Double-A, has not allowed an earned run and has 15 strikeouts in 10 games (12 2-3 innings) this spring.
Starting pitcher Taijuan Walker is also on that list after posting a 0.36 ERA (25 innings) in six starts, though it’s not official where Walker will fall in the rotation order.
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