Christian Walker hit the ball hard again on Monday, launching a solo home run high off the batter’s eye in center field at the Peoria Sports Complex in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 6-2 win over the Seattle Mariners. 

Walker hit three of the Diamondbacks’ five longest home runs by projected distance last season, going deep for a projected 444 feet on Sept. 8 off Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, 446 feet at Chase Field against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 25 and hitting a 451-foot bomb into the left field seats at empty Coors Field on Aug. 11. 

Walker said the hard hitting comes from the way he plays the game. According to Baseball Reference, 52.4% of the balls he put in play had an exit velocity of 95 miles per hour or more in 2019. Last season, it was 48.8%.

“Part of just the nature of who I am as a player and a hitter is I work at a max effort level. It’s just something I’ve always done. Not intentionally. I find that I’m almost trying to tone done my effort level,” the Arizona first baseman said.

“I swing hard. I trust my strength. I know I want to get the ball in the air. I’m not necessarily trying to hit fly balls or home runs, but in the big leagues, if you hit a ball on the ground you’re probably out.”

Walker broke out in 2019 with 29 home runs and 73 runs batted in, then totaled seven homers and 34 RBI in the shortened 2020 season. There’s no questions about his ability to produce at the big-league level going into the 2021 campaign.

Walker, who was tabbed to take over at first base for longtime Diamondbacks star Paul Goldschmidt after he was traded in the 2018-19 offseason, is a “great story of perseverance,” manager Torey Lovullo said. 

“The one thing that stands out about Christian for me, 100 percent, is that he confronts his limitations legitimately, he understands them, and then he develops a plan on how to attack them,” Lovullo said. “He has been an unbelievable performer for us, but it hasn’t come at the expense of a lot of hard work.

“He’s been on a steady rise since he got here. Just looked for an opportunity … when he got that opportunity he jumped through it and he hasn’t looked back since.”

Walker takes pride in what he’s accomplished and what it took to get him to this point.

“It just adds to the confidence. It doesn’t make me complacent or anything like that,” Walker said. “It’s just nice to see the hard work showing and it’s a good feeling to know that you’ve earned some trust in your teammates’ eyes. At the end of the day, what I want to get across to my teammates is I’ve got their back in a big situation, game on the line, I’m doing my best to come through.”

Walker appreciates what his teammates are about, too. He enjoys music, and hears so much Latin music in the clubhouse that he adopted such sounds for his at-bat music in seasons past. 

It’s been common to hear Walker stroll up to home plate to the sounds of Bad Bunny or Lil Rob or Hechizeros Band. 

“I just catch myself in clubhouse bobbing my head to one of the songs. My Spanish isn’t great so a lot of the words are tricky for me to kind of figure out what exactly they’re singing about,” Walker said. “It’s cool. Because I don’t know the words through and through, I feel like I appreciate the beats and the melodies and energy, which is what Bad Bunny brings to the table.”

Short hops

— Diamondbacks CF Ketel Marte left Monday’s game after being hit in the left foot by a pitch, but it wasn’t serious, manager Torey Lovullo said. Marte, Monday’s leadoff hitter in Peoria, was hit by a pitch by the Mariners’ Yohan Ramirez and fell to the ground at home plate in the top of the fifth inning. He was able to hobble to first base and was attended to by a trainer, then Lovullo opted to remove the 2019 All-Star. Marte got some ice after the game and Lovullo said he was fine.

— Right-hander Jon Duplantier, who was scheduled to pitch Monday, was held out after cutting a finger while trying to put together a razor, Lovullo said he was told. Duplantier is scheduled to make his next outing. 

— Lovullo watched RHP Luke Weaver in a simulated game at Salt River Fields. Weaver had mixed results in his first two spring training outings. “I know he had some good and bad moments. I think the secondary stuff was a little inconsistent,” Lovullo said of Weaver. “Breaking ball was erratic. It’s one of those things where I think with each pitch and each outing, he’s going to continue to build on his endurance. We want to see that stuff get a little bit more consistent.”

— SS Nick Ahmed got some at-bats in the simulated game, his first action since March 6 due to a sore right knee. Lovullo said he feels very strongly that Ahmed will play at some point on Tuesday when the Diamondbacks host the Oakland Athletics.

— Single-game tickets for the first three homestands of the regular season go on sale at 9 a.m. on March 25. The Diamondbacks intend to make 25% of Chase Field’s seating available. Information about tickets for games scheduled after May 16 will be announced later.

Diamondbacks 6, Mariners 2

At Peoria Sports Complex

At the plate: Walker homered and drove in another run with a sacrifice fly. 2B Josh VanMeter had two hits and scored a run, and Tim Locastro tripled when Mariners right fielder Taylor Trammell appeared to misplay the ball in the top of the fourth. SS-2B Josh Rojas had a single and now has at least one hit in 10 of 12 spring training games he’s played. 2B Juniel Querecuto, a late-inning replacement, laced a two-run single with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth.

On the mound: RHP Taylor Widener was sharp, allowing only two hits with five strikeouts and a walk in 3 ? innings. He said he doesn’t have a preference between either starting or working our of the bullpen and likes elements of both. “I just want to pitch,” he said. “I’m just going to keep trying to make a statement to make the team. Wherever I go, I go.”  Relievers Keury Mella and Joe Mantiply combined for 1 ? innings of scoreless relief. 

Tuesday’s game: Diamondbacks LHP Madison Bumgarner (1-0, 0.80) vs. A’s LHP Jesús Luzardo (1-0, 0.00), 1:10 p.m., Salt River Fields.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at [email protected]. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.