PEORIA, Ariz. -- Thursday in Peoria felt more like home for Bryan Woo, and -- by design -- like the regular season.

Light rain kept the tarp on the field until an hour before first pitch and with it came cold, gray, and dreary conditions more characteristic of the Pacific Northwest than the desert valley. Woo had extra dirt to bang off his cleats while working a wet mound, but more importantly, his fastballs were sharp and his outing was efficient in the Mariners’ 5-0 win over the Angels.

The second-year Mariner, who will return to his spot in the starting rotation when the regular season opens in 21 days, opted to not spend his second spring start tweaking developing pitches.

He’s already getting his mind where he’ll soon need it.

“I tried to treat today a little bit more game-like, regular season-like -- go compete, go get outs,” said Woo, who faced six left-handed batters among Angels starters. “We’ll continue to work on the stuff that we need to work on. That’ll come with repetition and innings and games. A little bit more of a competitive mindset today to go get outs.”

That extra gear was evident early when Woo retired the Angels in order on just nine pitches in the first inning, inducing two groundouts. He stayed ahead of batters in his 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball where he walked one and fanned three on 38 pitches, 22 of which went for strikes.

“He came out with a plan today and executed,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “He wanted to get both of his fastballs going and he did just that. He threw the ball really well. Great to see, super aggressive, had tons of strikes, and had really good stuff on top of it.”

Most of the regular position players, including Julio Rodriguez, left the game early as a precaution with the wet surfaces. Leonardo Rivas had the big blow in the eighth when his two-run single keyed a four-run inning from reserve players.

France bouncing back
Ty France is “anxious” this Spring Training. Not from camp competition or extra reps.

He and his wife Maggie are expecting their first baby any week now.

“Thankfully everything’s been good, she’s been healthy, the baby’s been healthy,” he said. “It’s been smooth in that aspect. We’re preparing for him to get here.”

France had the day off Thursday but this spring has three hits, three runs and two doubles in his six games at first base. He broke loose in 2021 when he enjoyed career highs in runs scored (85), hits (166) and OBP (.368), along with a .291 average in 152 games with 32 doubles and 18 homers.

But something changed. The next two seasons saw his average, hits, and total bases dip.

The one-time 34th round Draft pick hasn’t “felt like myself” the past two seasons and took action.

France followed J.P. Crawford’s lead to check out Driveline Baseball, the skills academy with locations in both Seattle and Scottsdale, just across the Valley of the Sun from the Mariners’ offseason base in Peoria.

“I feel a lot smoother, a lot cleaner,” he said. “Obviously timing’s not totally back yet. That will come as I get more reps. I’ve noticed it a good bit so far.”