5/19/25

(Chicago, IL) If you were to look at one of the series on the Seattle Mariners current ten-game road trip that you would circle as an easier series, the three-game set in Chicago with the White Sox would be that series. After sweeping San Diego, the Mariners would look to continue to pile up wins against the worst team record wise in the American League. However, Chicago had actually been playing pretty well before being swept by the Cubs over rivalry weekend.

To open up the series, Seattle would roll out their veteran in Luis Castillo who was coming off a strong start against the New York Yankees. One of the young stars for Chicago would take the ball as Davis Martin looked to cool down the Mariners power surge at the plate.

Mariners 5, White Sox 1 (Game One)

Both Castillo and Martin were fantastic to start the game, and that really continued throughout the entirety of the game. Martin retired the first six batters he faced while Castillo gave up a couple of hits, the most notable being a leadoff double by Joshua Palacios to begin the bottom of the 2nd. La Piedra would then retire the next three batters, including a pivotal strikeout of Austin Slater to leave Palacios stranded at third, keeping the game scoreless into the 3rd.

Davis Martin continued to roll in the 3rd after getting both Leody Taveras and Dylan Moore to fly out for the first two outs of the inning. Ben Williamson became the first Mariner to reach as he chopped one back up the middled and Josh Rojas couldn’t make the barehanded play, extending the inning. J.P. Crawford then flared one out to left for another two-out hit to put runners on first and second with two outs. In stepped a Chicago White Sox killer in Jorge Polanco who squared up a changeup for a base hit to right field. Williamson came around to score and Seattle grabbed the first run of the game on three consecutive two-out hits.

That was it for offense for the most part against both starting pitchers. Seattle had a really tough time getting anyone on base against Davis Martin. He dominated the first seven innings of his outing and had only allowed three hits and one walk against Seattle with the single run allowed. It was the longest outing of his young career as he continued to pitch into the 8th.

For the Mariners, Luis Castillo continued to step up in a big way with so many injuries to the Mariners rotation. After being talked about as a trade chip for the Mariners all offseason, the decision to keep the veteran of the staff continues to pay off in a big way. After giving up just one run against the Yankees, Castillo built off of what the rotation did in San Diego as he went seven scoreless innings with no walks and just three hits allowed while striking out five.

With Davis Martin still in the game in the 8th, Seattle finally chased him thanks to a one-out single by Ben Williamson. That brought Cam Booser into the game and the lefty immediately walked J.P. Crawford to put another runner on. Mitch Garver hit for Jorge Polanco who once again is not hitting right-hander, but Garver did his part with a base hit to left to load the bases. Then came the big swing from Julio Rodríguez. The first pitch was a cutter right into the barrel of J-Rod. He sent his second career grand slam and eighth home run of the season out to left to open the game up. Chicago’s bullpen had faltered and Seattle expanded the lead to 5-0.

With another non-save situation, Dan Wilson did not call on Andrés Muñoz and went with Troy Taylor for the 9th but his rough 2025 continued. He would walk the first two batters he faced in Chase Meidroth and Matt Thaiss before getting the first out via a Miguel Vargas fly out. Luis Robert Jr. loaded the bases with a single but Joshua Palacios couldn’t get a run in as he flew out to left for the second out. The shutout would not be preserved as Andrew Vaughn singled to left to make it 5-1 with the tying run coming to the plate. Andrés Muñoz was then called into duty and put out the fire quickly. He needed just four pitches to strikeout Michael A. Taylor to finish the game. It got a little hairy in the 9th, but Seattle still came away with the game one win over the White Sox, 5-1.

Notable Performances

Mariners

White Sox

• Davis Martin (L, 2-5)- 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
• Chase Meidroth- 1-3, R, BB
• Andrew Vaughn- 1-4, RBI

What’s Next

Seattle (27-19) taking the opening game of the three-game series runs their winning streak to four games and with Texas having a day off on Monday, pulled ahead of the Rangers to three games but still sit just 2 1/2 games ahead of Houston after the Astros beat the Rays on Monday. Houston and Tampa Bay continue their series on Tuesday while the Rangers begin a three-game series in the Bronx with the New York Yankees.

In game two of the series in Chicago, the Mariners pitching injuries will have officially caught up with them as they will have to go with the dreaded bullpen day. Casey Legumina (3-1, 1.84 ERA) will start for the Mariners before Casey Lawrence (1-1, 4.97 ERA) follows as the bulk pitcher of the day for Seattle. Chicago will go with Bryse Wilson (0-2, 6.00 ERA) in game two after getting a strong outing from Davis Martin in the opener. Since being moved to the rotation at the end of April, Wilson has struggled a bit and is coming off the worst outing of his season where he allowed seven runs on ten hits in 5 1/3 innings against Cincinnati.

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