PHOENIX (AP)—Jeff Cirillo celebrated his game-winning homer against his former team with a slow trot around the bases.
“It’s spring training, but it’s the Mariners,” Cirillo said after his three-run shot off Nate Bland with one out in the bottom of the ninth capped a four-run rally that gave the Milwaukee Brewers an 8-6 win over Seattle on Thursday.
Cirillo went to San Diego last season after a miserable 2003 in Seattle, where he didn’t live up to his big contract. In his first trip back to Seattle last year, he hit a long homer with 50,000 people booing him.
This one was just an exhibition in front of 6,215, but he savored it just the same.
When he sauntered into the clubhouse several minutes after the rest of his teammates, catcher Chad Moeller teased him about finally finishing his trot.
Cirillo even surprised himself with his shot, which made a winner of Derrick Turnbow, who pitched a perfect ninth.
“It was a cutter in, off the plate actually,” Cirillo said. “I didn’t stride hardly at all. I just pulled my hands in. I don’t know how I did it. My front foot probably moved two inches, tops.”
Adrian Beltre hit his first homer of the spring for Seattle, an inside-the-park shot. Mariners starter Aaron Sele made a strong bid to join the rotation, allowing one run and five hits in five innings during his fourth outing of the spring.
“I was rushing the ball a little bit,” Sele said. “I had to work on getting the ball down, so I threw more pitches than I’d like, but I threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and I got some groundballs when I needed them.”
Brewers starter Ben Hendrickson gave up six runs, five earned, and 10 hits in five innings but pitched better than his statistics showed.
Beltre, who signed a $64 million, five-year contract with Seattle after leading the majors with 48 homers last year for the Dodgers, finally “connected” in his 44th at-bat of the spring.
With two on in the fifth, he hit a fly to center off Hendrickson following Jeremy Reed’s two-run single, and Brewers center fielder Brady Clark, trying out new cleats, rolled his left ankle on his first step and fell down.
“I could have stayed in, it’s nothing,” said Clark, who was replaced by Dave Krynzel.
Beltre, playing with a tight hamstring, circled the bases. He was relieved to finally hit a homer, even if it didn’t leave the ballpark.
“That was my first one ever, at any level,” Beltre said of the inside-the-park shot. “It was good. You want to hit the ball hard going into the season. Hopefully, I can do that some more in the next 10 days.”
Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-3 with an intentional walk for Seattle. He’s hit safely in all 14 games he’s played.
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