Sanchez, Kelenic help Arkansas to Game 1 win

Left-hander Ricardo Sanchez and a trio of relievers held Tulsa in check on Wednesday, as an Arkansas Travelers club made up of many of the Mariners’ top prospects pulled out a 2-1 victory in the opening game of the Double-A Texas League North Division playoffs in Little Rock, Ark.

Center fielder Jarred Kelenic, Seattle’s No. 1 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a stolen base. Left fielder Kyle Lewis (No. 10 prospect) went 2-for-4, and catcher Cal Raleigh (No. 7) walked and scored the go-ahead run on a Tulsa error in the eighth inning.

The best-of-five series continues Thursday in Little Rock, with right-hander Justin Dunn (Seattle’s No. 5 prospect) facing lefty Leo Crawford. Dunn went 9-6 with a 3.55 ERA in the regular season and is expected to join the Mariners as a September callup when Arkansas concludes its playoff run.

Lewis is also expected to be in line for a promotion to the big league club as the Mariners begin taking a look at some of their future building blocks. Both Lewis and Dunn will need to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason anyway to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft, thus are logical players to add for the final weeks of the regular season.

Arkansas finished its regular season at 81-57 and won the North Division first half championship, while Tulsa -- the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate -- went 77-61 and captured the North’s second-half crown.

The series winner will advance to the Texas League championship -- another best-of-five series -- next week.

Sanchez, a 22-year-old lefty acquired from the Braves last November, got the Game 1 start for Arkansas and threw five innings of one-run ball. Sanchez, the Mariners’ No. 24 prospect, went 8-12 with a 4.44 ERA in 27 starts this season for the Travelers.

Logan Gilbert, Arkansas’ top starter and Seattle’s No. 2 prospect, won’t pitch in the postseason as he’s been shut down after reaching his innings limit. The Mariners want to be careful with the 22-year-old right-hander in his first full season of professional baseball.

Sanchez gave up six hits, three walks and hit a batter in the first four innings, but he worked out of bases-loaded jams in the third and fourth innings to keep the game scoreless until a solo home run by Tulsa catcher Connor Wong in the fifth.

The Travelers were shut out for five innings on four hits by Tulsa’s Josiah Gray -- the Dodgers’ No. 4 prospect -- before finally pushing across a run in the seventh on singles by Mike Ahmed and Luis Liberato, a sacrifice bunt by Donnie Walton and an RBI groundout by Kelenic.

Raleigh scored the go-ahead run in the eighth by drawing a leadoff walk, moving to second on a groundout by Lewis and racing home on a throwing error by Drillers’ second baseman Omar Estevez on a ground ball by Dom Thompson-Williams.

Relievers Jack Anderson, Aaron Fletcher and Sam Delaplane combined to allow just one hit with one walk and three strikeouts over the last four scoreless innings to secure the win.