Rookie Brandon Maurer was boxed around again, allowing five earned runs in 5 ⅔ innings in the Mariners’ 6-1 loss to San Diego. It could have been worse. Endy Chavez made a leaping grab at the wall in right in the sixth inning with two runners on and two in.
The marathon of agony finished 3:36 after it started and questions about Brandon Maurer’s future in the rotation surfaced after he lasted just 2/3 of an inning Tuesday night in the Mariners’ 16-9 loss to hapless Houston.
The facts
Brandon Maurer made another strong case for the starting rotation, pitching five shutout innings, giving up six hits and striking out seven batters, while walking one. For the spring, Maurer has allowed just two runs in 20 innings pitched. He also got plenty of run support with 16 runs on 16 hits, including two more home runs to push their major league leading total to 52 this spring. The 52 homers is a franchise record, snapping the previous record of 51 set in 1999.
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Mariners prized pitching prospect Danny Hultzen suffered a mild hip flexor strain during conditioning drills a few days ago. He has been scratched from today’s appearance.
“It wasn’t like a sudden thing, which I guess is good, because nothing serious happened,” he said “We were running and after it got kind of sore. The next day it was really sore.”
It’s not considered to be serious.
“I’m not worried about it,” Hultzen said.
There isn’t much to worry about if he does what the Mariners medical staff tells him to do.
“It’s just mild,” Griffin said. “We are just being …