Rain off, game on: Mariners open with a win
The sun came out. Baseball was back.
Spring training has long been seen as the unofficial end to winter, but that was postponed when the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics were rained out of their opener on Thursday. The teams, which got the early start in order to prepare for the regular season opener in Japan – were back at it on Friday.
The Mariners, behind 14 hits, beat the A’s, 8-1. Mitch Haninger got things started for Seattle with a two-run home run in the first inning and the Mariners got a boost from Ichiro Suzuki. The 45-year-old started what may be his final spring training with a two-run, two-out single in the third inning to make it 4-0.
Ichiro prepared with Mariners for his 19th major league season (to go with nine in the Japan). Batting seventh and playing left field, Suzuki fouled out in the second inning against Liam Hendriks and singled in the third off left-hander Ryan Buchter. Suzuki then was replaced by a pinch runner. He did not have any chances in the field.
“Of course you have nerves, but this was one I hadn’t experienced before, the nerves that I had today,” Suzuki said through an interpreter. “I’m just glad the first day’s out of the way.”
Mike Leake started for the Mariners, striking out one in two scoreless innings to earn the win. Mariners pitchers surrendered just four hits and held the A’s scorles until the ninth when Oakland’s Sean Murphy homered off Nick Rumbelow.
Mariners win in court
A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that Lorena Martin’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the Mariners must be resolved in private arbitration rather than in court.
Judge Regina Cahan ruled Friday that Martin had signed a contract with the team that called for any contract dispute to be resolved via arbitration, and that the contract was signed prior to a new state law that calls for cases of discrimination to be heard in open court.
Martin’s lawyer had argued that the Mariners wanted arbitration as a way to keep the case out of the public spotlight, The Seattle Times reported. But Cahan said the new law, which went into effect last June, did not pre-empt the clauses in Martin’s contract calling for arbitration.
Martin was fired as the Mariners’ high-performance director last fall after one season on the job. She has claimed she was discriminated against by member of the organization and claimed that general manager Jerry Dipoto, director of player development Andy McKay and manager Scott Servais made disparaging comments against Latino players.
The Mariners have denied Martin’s claims. An independent investigation by Major League Baseball found no credible evidence to support Martin’s claims of disparaging comments and discriminatory treatment by members of the Mariners front office.