PEORIA, Ariz. -- Rockies righty and non-roster hopeful Ubaldo Jiménez was warming up for his appearance against the Mariners on Monday when he heard a familiar voice: current Seattle right fielder and long-ago teammate Carlos González.

“When I was in the bullpen warming up in the first inning, he was yelling at me, ‘Hey! Hey!’ This and that,” Jimenez said with a smile.

“From the beginning of the game, when I saw him in the bullpen, I was calling him ‘The Legend,’” González said. “We go back years ago, when we played together. I love that guy. It looks good to see him out there pitching and wearing the Rockies' uniform, where he did a lot of great things. Hopefully he makes that team.”

We’re talking strange meeting between two of the most productive players in Rockies history. González ranks fifth in club history with a 23.5 bWAR in 10 seasons. Jiménez ranks just behind him with an 18.9 WAR in five-plus seasons. Yet with all their years, and with Jiménez having played for the Indians and the Orioles, they had never faced each other in the regular season. To Jiménez’s recollection, they’d never squared off even in Spring Training.

For two All-Stars in camp on Minor League deals, the fourth-inning meeting during a 9-6 win for Colorado was a classic bout: González fouled off several tough pitches before a fly ball to center caught by David Dahl, only after he fought off the sun and wind.

“When he hit the fly ball, he passed by my side,” said Jiménez, who gave up a run in two innings. “I said, ‘Were you trying to hit a homer?’

“He said, ‘I missed that one.’”

Left the park
Rockies second baseman Ryan McMahon and outfield hopeful Sam Hilliard helped power the Rockies to their victory over the Mariners by giving a taste of what they showed last season -- power, even left-on-left.

McMahon sent a drive over the batter’s eye in center field off starter Justus Sheffield in the first inning. Of McMahon’s 24 homers last season, 10 came off lefties -- in just 152 at-bats.

Hilliard sent a Wei-Yin Chen pitch the opposite way for a two-run shot in the fourth. Two of Hilliard’s seven homers in 27 games in 2019 came off reputable lefties -- Hyun-Jin Ryu and Josh Hader.

Strange, but beneficial
Right-hander Jon Gray, coming off a solid 2019 -- 11-8 record, 3.84 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 150 innings -- gave up one run and two hits in two innings of his first Spring Training appearance.

“It was a little strange,” Gray said. “Six or seven guys that I hang out with had already pitched and were talking about the game, and I was like, ‘Uh, I’ve got to wait a little bit longer.’ But it was good. I got what I needed to out of it.”

Gray pitches mainly off his fastball and slider, but he threw just two sliders while leaning more on changeups and curveballs Monday. The changeup, which he said he threw seven or eight times, could help him on the arm side -- outside to left-handed batters -- since everything else breaks glove side.

“It felt kind of strange, but there were things I wanted to work on,” he said. “We were staying curveball-changeup, and I only threw two sliders. That was different. But it was good for me to get those other pitches better.

“The first one always feels weird. You feel off balance a lot, but today was a little bit more. But we competed and threw some strikes and some good pitches, too. I can’t be completely upset. I just need to figure out where I’m at and build off it.”

Crushing it
Non-roster catcher Drew Butera, who has an opportunity to break with the big league club, has built his career on his defensive abilities, but the bat has shown up early this spring. Butera’s sixth-inning three-run homer off righty Zac Grotz now leaves him 3-for-7 with five RBIs in four spring games.

Dahl entered the game 2-for-11 but found his power stroke with a left-on-left solo shot off Chen.

The real Diehl
Lefty relief hopeful Phillip Diehl fanned three on Monday, and he now has seven strikeouts in 10 batters faced across 3 1/3 innings this spring.

"He's got one of those sneaky fastballs and a good slider that they haven't picked up this spring, so we're going to keep an eye on him," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "You look at some of his Minor League numbers and there's a strikeout in there and a swing and a miss."

Up next
Righty Ashton Goudeau will open Tuesday’s contest against the Cubs at Salt River Fields, with right-handed prospect José Mujica and veteran righty Bryan Shaw expected to follow. The game can be viewed live on MLB.TV, with radio streams available on Gameday Audio. First pitch is set for at 1:10 p.m. MT.

MLB.com's Greg Johns contributed reporting to this article.