The White Sox (42-71), who were out-hit by the Mariners (61-53) by six (11-5) but scored all three of their runs on solo homers, dropped the opener in Seattle, 8-3. The South Siders were in decent positioning to stay in the game even with the lack of offense, but Davis Martin wasn’t able to hold it down — and Seattle was able to take advantage.
Bryan Woo started strong and remained strong, even with his home run blip in the first. He was able to strike out Mike Tauchman to start the game, but Lenyn Sosa kept his hot streak going and drove a solo shot 392 feet to left center. That would be Sosa’s 12th homer, and he’s brought his batting average to .281 on the season, just barely behind Tauchman for the highest on the team (.282).
The South Side bats cooled off quite a bit before turning ice cold, as they were only able to get one other hit over the next five innings: a Kyle Teel double in the second. Woo even shattered his previous career high (10) with 16 consecutive retired batters in Tuesday’s outing, and needed just 83 pitches to get through all seven innings of work. Outside of Lenyn’s bomb, Woo struck out nine batters, including three from Tauchman and two from Edgar Quero. Really, it’s probably easier to tell you who didn’t strike out against Woo: Sosa, Kyle Teel, and (surprisingly) Josh Rojas.
Martin has been fairly solid for most of the season, and while he started off all right, things ended up not going as planned. The Mariners didn’t waste time getting runners on and making Davis work pretty hard through his first three innings. He was able to get one of the best hitters in the league (Cal Raleigh) to strike out in the first, but still ended up with runners on first and second before getting Eugenio Suárez to pop out and end the inning.
Martin’s first slip-up happened in the bottom of the second as Dominic Canzone took him deep on a missed fastball right down the middle, allowing the Mariners to tie the game at one. They continued to put the pressure on Martin and put another two runners on again in the third with a base hit from Cole Young, followed by Randy Arozarenza getting hit by a rogue fastball up and in. Davis was still able to get out of the inning, primarily thanks to the Colson Montgomery Show: Montgomery made all three outs in the inning, including a clutch, unassisted double play that he turned himself.
While the White Sox offense was snoozing, Seattle’s was cooking, and they continued to make Martin’s life difficult into the fourth inning and beyond. It was already bad news that Josh Naylor came back to the American League, and naturally, he had to menace the White Sox upon his return. Not only did he ignite this rally in the fourth, but he poured a ton of salt into the wound later in the seventh.
Even after Rojas botched a play that led to Naylor reaching base, Suárez made it hurt for the South Siders as he mashed his 37th home run, and his first since returning to the M’s: A two-run no-doubter to left field that was launched nearly 106 mph off the bat. We knew it was coming at some point, but it was unfortunate that the Sox bats were completely limp. The Good Guys have likely surpassed the need for Rojas, but does anything really matter?
Even with all of the chaos, Martin was able to get through five innings with 79 pitches, 70% of which were thrown for strikes. But maybe Martin returning in the sixth inning wasn’t the best idea from manager Will Venable, because things dove straight off a cliff in the bottom of the frame. Martin walked his first (and only) two batters of the evening to Eugenio and Naylor, and they then decided to run wild, completing a rogue double steal to get into scoring position without any real contention from the Sox. (Before the double steal, Naylor swiped second with a jump that was Buster Keaton comical — he couldn’t have stolen the base any easier if Martin had granted him permission to take second.) Once again, the Good Guys were put in their place, as Venable decided to make the call to not put a lefty in to face Jorge Polanco, who ended up driving in both runs to put the Mariners up, 5-1. That was the end of the day for Davis, who was then replaced by lefthander Tyler Gilbert with no outs and a runner on first.
Gilbert ended up not surrendering any of his own runs, but poor Davis was charged with six runs (five earned) in his five innings of work. Replacing Gilbert in the seventh was lefthander Bryan Hudson, making his debut with the White Sox after they picked him up on waivers from the Brewers over the weekend. Sadly, Hudson also had a rough go at it, giving up another two runs to the Mariners on four hits with two strikeouts before finally getting out of the inning.
And remember when I mentioned that Naylor was being a menace? He returned to his full-on villain mode by blasting a two-run shot that was capped off by a bat flip to put the M’s up, 8-1. It still gets worse, though, as he now has better than a 1.000 OPS against Chicago thanks to that home run. It is probably in our best interest to stop pitching to this guy already.
In the smallest of good news, the White Sox FINALLY got their third hit of the game as Edgar Quero led off the eighth with a double, though it was followed up with two quick outs on three pitches. I know I have been talking smack, but Rojas battled through an impressive 13-pitch at-bat that featured six foul balls in a row (eight total) before finally defeating righthander Casey Legumina to reach with a base on balls. Tauchman then took Legumina to yet another full count before drawing a walk to load the bases for Sosa. Spoiler alert and whomp whomp: Sosa ended up just missing on his last pitch, ultimately stranding all three runners after popping out to short right field. If only the South Siders were able to capitalize like their opponents.
Things were entirely off the rails by this point, with a seven-run deficit. So much so that it even started to rain in the eighth inning — yes, on a field with a roof. Maybe the rain was what the Sox needed, as Mike Vasil was able to retire the Mariners without giving up a hit in an inning for the first time all game. Better late than never, as they say.
Shockingly, the White Sox were not able to close the seven-run gap in their last at-bats in the ninth, but at least we had a little fun on the way out. Curtis Mead pinch-hit to lead off the inning for his first at-bat with the South Siders, but he flew out. We weren’t getting out of here without a couple more final hits for the South Siders, however, thanks to back-to-back bombs from Luis Robert Jr. and Colson Montgomery.
Congratulations, Luis, on 100 career homers!
And Colson’s nuke was the hardest-hit and longest hit of the game, leaving the bat at 110.9 mph and traveling 411 feet for his eighth home run in 12 games.
Too bad that all three runs were scored on solo homers because base runners were hard to come by for the White Sox tonight. As a team, they posted just five hits all night, botched four opportunities with runners in scoring position (0-for-4 with four left on base), and 10 strikeouts definitely didn’t help their cause.
Jonathan Cannon is set to make the start on Wednesday evening, taking on Seattle righthander George Kirby in an effort to rebound after tonight’s ride on the struggle bus. Same time, same place tomorrow, so get a good night’s rest!