All eyes on Yusei Kikuchi during his spring debut for Mariners

PEORIA, Ariz. – Yusei Kikuchi felt the nerves that would normally accompany taking the mound in front of tens of thousands of fans in a major ballpark, not the few thousand who showed up for a late-February spring training game in the desert.

“I’ve been pitching in Japan for the last nine years, and I wanted to test what I was doing in Japan against major league hitters and I wanted to see how they reacted,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “So I was really kind of excited and also nervous about that.”

Kikuchi made his debut Monday for the Seattle Mariners, throwing two innings in an 11-3 rout of the Cincinnati Reds in a start that featured a little bit of everything, from moments of dominance to working out of a jam.

The Mariners were pleased with what they saw.

“He had a little nerves, no doubt about it, but the fastball was really good, he was up to 95 (mph), the breaking pitches we know are outstanding. Thought he handled it really, really well,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.

“He’s going to take a little time to get his routine. You saw him throwing outside the dugout before, there’s a few adjustments there, but really happy for him getting that first outing under his belt.”

Kikuchi’s most notable at-bat was his lone strikeout, when he tied up Joey Votto on a deceptive 2-2 curveball that left the veteran slugger, a six-time All-Star, waving unsuccessfully. While Kikuchi has a fastball in the mid-90s, his breaking pitches and the ability to hide the ball in his windup add to the challenges of facing the lefty.

Highlighs of Seatttle’s 10-hit attack were Ian Miller’s three-run homer and two-run shots by Domingo Santana and 2016 first-round draft pick Kyle Lewis. Edwin Encarnacion added an RBI double for the Mariners.