PEORIA, Ariz. -- Justin Dunn and Nick Margevicius took their competition for the sixth and final spot in the Mariners’ rotation into conditions that felt like they were pitching back in the Pacific Northwest. On a soggy, blustery, high-50s evening Friday, the candidates overcame their surroundings with positive showings in a 4-3 win over the Reds.

The two piggybacked one another for the second straight outing, with Margevicius pitching first this time. The lefty breezed through a 1-2-3 first inning, then maneuvered through traffic in his final two frames, giving up two singles to lead off the second and three more hits in the third to finish with two runs, five hits, three strikeouts and zero walks on his ledger.

Dunn followed with three crisp innings of one-run (none earned) ball, allowing three hits while striking out three and one walk. Command has long been his issue -- he walked 15.7% of batters faced in 2020 -- but overall, his improved fastball velocity -- up to 96 mph -- was again on display, and his secondary pitches had conviction. His improved stuff is a product of his studious offseason body conditioning.

“I put in a lot of hard work this offseason,” Dunn said. “I did a lot of stuff [with] my body, made a couple of life changes. So the results are there.”

“His body is moving differently down the mound, and he's got something behind it,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “There's life on the ball.”

Pitching out of the bullpen for the first time since at the Class A Advanced level in 2017, which he said was an adjustment, Dunn’s best strikeout came on a slider to former teammate Dee Strange-Gordon.

“It was a fun at-bat,” Dunn said, noting that he planned to text Strange-Gordon after. “A lot of trash talking that happened last year, and just knowing what his caliber of player and how good he is, as a player.”

Margevicius remains in the mix for the role after a mostly positive showing in 2020, when he compiled a 4.57 ERA and showed good command with all of his pitches over 10 outings. At this time of year, where box scores can be nebulous because approaches can be specified, Margevicius said that his focus Friday was on throwing his secondary pitches for strikes.

“During the regular season, we gameplan a little bit more for the opposing hitters,” Margevicius said. “In Spring Training, it's kind of fine tuning the pitches that we want to work on, things that are going to make us better for the season when it does get here. … If I can win counts with a curveball or slider, that's going to make me a little bit better. And that was something that was my focus [tonight].”

White trying to get going

Evan White’s hitless streak extended to 16 at-bats dating back to the Cactus League opener on Feb. 28 after an 0-for-3 showing Friday. One positive, though, is that the Gold Glove Award-winning first baseman hasn’t struck out in his past three games, and he has just four punchouts in 20 spring plate appearances -- way down from his 41.6% strikeout rate during the 2020 regular season, which was the second highest in MLB. One of White’s outs Friday was a sacrifice fly.

“I’d like to see Evan pick it up a little bit, no question about that,” Servais said. “I know he would, too. As these guys start picking up more at-bats and playing back-to-back days -- that’s something that helps with their timing -- but again, you have this many players in camp, there's always going to be some guys that are getting off to a slow start or even they're struggling mechanically, or just their timing issues aren't there.”

White is still headed to his second straight Opening Day start, but with a Minor League season in place this year -- set to begin on May 6 -- the Mariners will have that safety net to lean on should White need more offensive development. He hit .176/.252/.346 with eight homers last season. The club also has Ty France and José Marmolejos as first-base reinforcements, if needed.

Two catchers, one lineup

Friday’s lineup featured both catchers slated for the Opening Day roster -- and Servais said that it wasn’t necessarily the oddity of the way lineups lined up for a Spring Training game. Tom Murphy started behind the dish and Luis Torrens was the DH against righty Luis Castillo.

Servais said that he would be open to using such a construction during the regular season if favorable matchups were present.

“It would depend on, certainly, with both of the guys being right-handed hitters, if there was an opportunity -- maybe we're facing a lefty and you don't want to put them out there,” Servais said. “It's something in the past I've been a little reluctant to do. We did do it last year a little bit, but I guess I'm willing to roll the dice."

If either guy were to get hurt in a game both were playing, the Mariners would be forced to abandon their DH (if the healthy player moved to catcher) and have their pitcher bat -- and it would leave Seattle with just one healthy catcher on the roster.

“I think it's kind of a manager's worst nightmare if one of your catchers gets hurt," Servais said. "Hopefully that doesn't happen. But I'm not afraid to put both catchers in the lineup.”