Gonzales, the Mariners' Opening Day starter, was impressive over his four-inning start in Saturday's intrasquad game, Shannon Drayer of 710 ESPN Seattle reports. "I feel ready to go, my body feels strong," said Gonzales following his outing.
The southpaw allowed two runs on five hits and a wild pitch while recording three strikeouts, but he arguably performed even better than the line indicates. Drayer reports the first run was partly manufactured by a Mallex Smith popup bunt, with the speedy outfielder subsequently advancing on Gonzales' errant offering. Gonzales also didn't allow much hard contact outside of a double he surrendered to Evan White, and he was efficient enough to reach his 50-pitch limit across four frames instead of three. It remains to be seen how long Gonzales will be allowed to go Opening Day against the Astros, but with manager Scott Servais planning a six-man rotation, it's likely his workload will be relatively abbreviated.