Next up after Williamson was Merkin Valdez. Merkin went 1 inning and gave up 1 single and a hard hit line drive out to 2B. Merkin looks pretty good as he is on the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery. His fastball looked just about as good as ever, although he struggled a little with control. He took only 13 pitches in the inning, but only 7 of them were strikes. The Mariners helped him out a little by swinging at 1-0 and 2-0 counts three times (one single and 2 outs).