Chris Taylor started his rehabilitation assignment with the Rainiers on Saturday night, playing the first five innings of the game at shortstop. Everything went well.

Taylor was 1-for-3 at the plate, lining a double to the left field corner in his third at-bat.

Defensively, Taylor was involved in a lot of action at shortstop. With groundballer Sam Gaviglio on the hill, Taylor saw a lot of action and even turned two double plays (one in which he was the pivot).

Taylor will DH today and get some more at-bats.

RAINIERS ROUND-UP

Yesterday: Sam Gaviglio delivered five scoreless innings and earned the win in his Triple-A debut as Tacoma beat El Paso, 10-2.

That Happened: Puyallup High School product Adam Cimber came in to pitch the ninth inning in his Triple-A debut for El Paso, and Tacoma’s Franklin Gutierrez greeted him with a homer to right-center.

Today: Tacoma (2-1) at El Paso (1-2), 12:05 (Pacific).

Affiliations: Tacoma is the Mariners affiliate; El Paso is the San Diego Padres farm club.

Starting Pitchers: LHP Mike Kickham vs. RHP James Needy

Kickham was a Mariners winter waiver claim, and the Rainiers know a lot about him having faced him with Fresno six times in the past two seasons (he went 0-2, 7.67 vs Tacoma in those six starts – he had two really good ones, and four not-so-good outings). Kickham works with a fastball, slider and change. This will be his Mariners organization debut.

James Needy is a 24-year-old righty who is coming off a great season at Double-A San Antonio last year (10-5, 2.90 in 24 starts), and this will be his Triple-A debut. He faces an uphill battle, though: nobody likes a needy chihuahua.

Hot Rainiers: Carlos Rivero is officially on fire. He launched a 3-run homer in the second inning and is 8-for-13 on the year, with two dingers. Rivero, Franklin Gutierrez, Ketel Marte, Jesus Montero, and Stefen Romero have each hit safely in all three games.

Look Out For: Chihuahuas OF Tommy Medica had two more hits last night, and he has been the team’s most consistent hitter through three games.

Broadcast: The pregame show starts at 11:50 AM (Pacific) on South Sound Sports 850 AM. The broadcast also streams online via the TuneIn app – just click here.

PCL Scoreboard: follow all Pacific Coast League games in real-time with links to Gameday screens right here.

Links:

Our first day game of the year – fun times! We bus to Albuquerque right afterwards; a four-hour drive. I’ll have a blog update for you early on Monday afternoon.

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