9/5/22

White Sox 3, Mariners 2

(Seattle, WA) After a long and exhausting day on Sunday with the rain delay and then a late flight back to Seattle to prepare for a day game, it was expected that we would not see the best version of the Seattle Mariners on Labor Day. The lineup was missing multiple key players and the entire bullpen had been used the previous day. It felt like this was going to be a long day where they needed Marco Gonzales to go six or seven innings minimum to get everything back on track. The Mariner lefty not only did that but gave them a chance to win as the M’s rallied in the 9th but fell just short in game one of their series with the Chicago White Sox 3-2.

In the top of the 2nd, Chicago would strike first with one swing of the bat. AJ Pollock would jump on a first pitch changeup and send it into the White Sox bullpen in left for his 11th home run of the season. The solo blast put the White Sox on the board 1-0.

The Mariners would counter quickly in the bottom of the 2nd. Cal Raleigh stayed red hot with a double down the right field line off of White Sox starter Lance Lynn for his 18th double of the season. Taylor Trammell would not be able to move him over after an infield pop fly to shortstop Elvis Andrus, but a passed ball allowed by catcher Yasmani Grandal moved Raleigh to third with just one out. J.P. Crawford wouldn’t get much to hit and drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Things looked bleak when Abraham Toro hit a weak fly ball to shallow right field, but right fielder Andrew Vaughn got a bad read on it and it would actually drop in for a base hit. Raleigh trotted home and the game was tied 1-1. A wild pitch by Lynn moved Crawford to third but the veteran starter would strike out Jake Lamb and Julio Rodriguez to get out of the inning.

It wouldn’t be long before the White Sox were back out in front. Romy Gonzalez led off the top of the 3rd with a single on the first pitch to put the go ahead run on. Elvis Andrus would follow and the new White Sox shortstop would continue to hurt the Mariners this season as he hit a deep fly ball to right field. Mitch Haniger jumped for it and at first had the ball in his glove, but it would pop out for a two-run home run. The home run was Andrus’ 11th of the season and his fifth in seven games at T-Mobile Park in 2022. Chicago was back on top 3-1.

You couldn’t ask for much more than what Marco Gonzales gave on Monday. With the pressure on him to go deep in the ball game to help out the bullpen, he did just that and only allowed three runs on two home runs while doing so. While Marco has changed what he does as a pitcher, he seems to come up big in these high-pressure situations. Gonzales went seven innings, allowed just four hits and three runs with one walk and three strikeouts. His outing makes the bullpen close to 100% heading into game two.

The Mariners offense however couldn’t do much against Lance Lynn. He ran right through the Mariners lineup and really settled in after the Toro RBI in the 2nd. After that hit, Lynn retired the final 17 batters he face in order. The Mariners would not have a baserunner again until the 8th inning. Lynn went a very strong seven innings while allowing just three hits and one unearned run with one walk and eleven strikeouts.

Lynn would give way to former Mariner closer Kendall Graveman in the bottom of the 8th. After retiring Abraham Toro quickly and winning a 13-pitch battle with Jake Lamb, Graveman faced the new face of the franchise in Julio Rodriguez. J-Rod would single up the middle to bring up the tying run in Ty France. France would electrify the crowd as he hit a deep fly ball to left field. Many Mariner fans had their hearts break as AJ Pollock made the catch just short of the wall in left to end the inning instead of what fans thought would be a game tying home run.

Since they couldn’t do it in the 8th, the Mariners would have to rally against All-Star closer Liam Hendriks in the bottom of the 9th. Hendriks would not be joking around with Julio like he was in the All-Star game, but the M’s bats weren’t playing around either. Mitch Haniger welcomed him to Seattle with a leadoff single to left. Carlos Santana would go down swinging for the first out to bring up Cal Raleigh. A wild pitch moved Haniger to second, but Raleigh would fly out to right to put the Mariners down to their last out. Eugenio Suarez would not be the final out as he drew a walk to bring up the winning run in J.P. Crawford. Sam Haggerty would pinch run for Suarez at first representing the tying run. While Crawford wouldn’t hit a walk off home run, he would single to right to give the Mariners life. Haniger scored and Haggerty would get to third while Crawford snuck in to second on the throw with the score now 3-2. A base hit would win it and it would be up to Adam Frazier who would pinch hit for Abraham Toro. It was not meant to be as Hendriks sat Frazier down on three pitches to end the game and the rally with the White Sox taking the opener 3-2.

The day only got worse for the Mariners (76-59) as Tampa Bay defeated Boston and Toronto took both games of a double header with Baltimore. Once again, Seattle and Tampa Bay are deadlocked for the top spot in the American League Wild Card race with Toronto now just a half game behind in the final playoff spot. They are all separating themselves from the rest of the pack as Baltimore now sits 4.5 games behind Toronto and 5 behind Seattle and Tampa Bay. Chicago (68-67) keeps their playoff hopes alive as they are just two games back of Cleveland in the AL Central. The two teams will meet in game two on Tuesday at 6:40p as Logan Gilbert (11-5, 3.35 ERA) tries to build off of a great start in Detroit against another veteran in Johnny Cueto (7-6, 2.93 ERA) who has been a revelation for the White Sox since joining the team in April.

Matt’s Takeaway

I think we were all prepared for the team to be a little flat after the Sunday fiasco. It was an emotional and draining win on Sunday, but the team had a ton of fight still in them. While the offense was quiet most of the day, the late inning surge shows that we can’t ever count this team out. Marco was awesome in a spot where we needed him to set up the rest of this series. While he did take the loss, he did everything needed of him and then some. This might be the least worrying loss the M’s have endured all season. I actually came away from this game feeling better about the team than I was going in. And that is something that hasn’t happened since the early 2010s and back then it wasn’t a good thing at all.

Notable Performences

White Sox

• Lance Lynn (W, 5-5)- 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO
• Elvis Andrus- 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, R
• AJ Pollock- 1-4, HR, RBI, R

Mariners

• Marco Gonzales (L, 10-13)- 7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
• J.P. Crawford- 1-3, RBI, BB
• Abraham Toro- 1-3, RBI

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