PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) -- Aaron Sele did his part to raise the level

of competition for a spot in Seattle's rotation.

Sele threw one-hit ball for five innings, facing two batters

over the minimum Saturday. Arizona's Sergio Santos hit a three-run

home run after Sele left, leading the Diamondbacks to a 7-5 over

the Mariners.

Sele went 9-4 with a 5.05 ERA last season for the Angels, then

rejoined the Mariners as a free agent on a minor league contract.

He's challenging for a rotation spot, having allowed only two

earned runs in 12 spring innings.

"Arizona threw a lot of lefties at us. It was a good

opportunity to work on my changeup," said Sele, who was with

Seattle in 2000-01. "I threw it a lot and had some good success. I

worked down in the zone and got some groundball outs. We'll take

those."

Sele allowed a two-out single to Luis Terrero in the third and a

two-out walk to Shawn Green in the fourth, but neither reached

second base.

His performance came one day after Ryan Franklin pitched five

shutout innings, holding San Francisco to two hits with three

strikeouts.

"Him and Franklin both looked impressive and certainly didn't

make our decision any easier," Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said.

"That's the way you want it. Both pitched down in the strike zone

and threw strikes."

Sele logged four shutout innings with seven strikeouts and two

hits in his previous outing, against Texas last Monday. He wasn't

feeling cheated, though, by having his strikeouts reduced against

Arizona.

"I'll trade quick outs for strikeouts any day," he said.

Left-hander Brad Halsey, competing for the No. 5 spot in

Arizona's rotation, worked five strong innings, allowing one run on

six hits with four strikeouts against hitters likely to be in

Seattle's opening day lineup.

Adrian Beltre singled twice and drove in Seattle's first run.

The Mariners led 1-0 in the third after Ichiro Suzuki hit a one-out

double to left, stole third, and scored on Beltre's two-out hit.

"I was glad to see they had their No. 1 lineup in there,"

Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "Ichiro hit over .400 last year

against left-handed pitching, so it was a very good test for

Halsey, and he came through nicely."

Santos hit his three-run shot as Arizona scored six runs in the

seventh off Cha-Seung Baek, erasing a 4-0 deficit. Matt Kata and

Tony Clark added RBI doubles, and Alex Cintron made it 7-4 in the

eighth with an RBI single.Game notes
Arizona RHP Brandon Lyon allowed an eighth-inning single by

Seattle C Wiki Gonzalez, his first baserunner this spring. Lyon had

retired 15 previous batters, notching 7 strikeouts. ... Suzuki was

1-for-3 and has hit in all 11 of his Cactus League games. ... RHP

Greg Aquino gave up three runs on one hit while recording only two

outs in the sixth. He walked three, advanced runners with a balk

and gave up a sacrifice fly to Seattle SS Pokey Reese. ... Richie

Sexson, injured last year for most of his only season with Arizona,

received a mix of cheers and boos during his first at-bat. He

singled. ... Seattle's 18-year-old RHP, Felix Hernandez, threw two

scoreless, hitless innings in a minor league game. He had a walk

and a strikeout.