8/6/25

(Seattle, WA) Following a nice and comfortable win on Tuesday night in the series opener with the Chicago White Sox, the Seattle Mariners looked to continue rolling after the trade deadline and wrap up a series win over the White Sox with a win in game two on Wednesday. With a 4-1 record since going big at the deadline, Seattle watched their deficit in the division continue to shrink while flying by the New York Yankees in the Wild Card race. All that set up Seattle to take care of business against one of the worst teams in baseball once again.

Game two featured an interesting pitching matchup. For Seattle, George Kirby looks to have flushed away his tough start to the season after coming off the IL in May and struggling mightily. He would be going for his third consecutive quality start (6+ innings with 3 runs or fewer allowed) in game two. For Chicago, Jonathan Cannon would get the ball facing the Mariners for the second time in his young career. His first came last season when he had one of his best starts ever, allowing just one run and four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Mariners 8, White Sox 6 (Game Two)

George Kirby came out rolling and had a very quick top of the 1st. He was then rewarded with some run support early on against Jonathan Cannon. A one-out walk to Cal Raleigh looked harmless enough but with two outs, the damage was dealt. Josh Naylor had not had an extremely powerful year but things have changed a bit since coming to Seattle. After homering in the opener, Naylor continued to torture White Sox pitching in his career and he crushed a 450-foot bomb for his 14th home run of the season. Just like that, Seattle had grabbed the early 2-0 lead.

A defensive issue would end up hurting Kirby and the M’s in the 2nd. After hitting a single to begin the inning, Luis Robert Jr. attempted to steal second and did so successfully. However, Cal Raleigh’s throw drifted into center field, allowing Robert to pop up and advance to third on the error. A Curtis Mead single would bring home the face of the franchise and get the White Sox on the board, trailing 2-1 thanks to an outstanding defensive play by J.P. Crawford up the middle to end the inning.

Dominic Canzone walked and J.P. Crawford singled in the bottom of the 2nd, but after Cole Young was retired for out number two, it looked like it wouldn’t be too big of an inning for the Mariners. The top of the order had other plans. Randy Arozarena walked to load the bases for Cal Raleigh. The Big Dumper yanked a line drive down the right field line for a two-run single to extend the lead to 4-1. Then came the big blast. Julio Rodríguez fell behind quickly at 0-2 while Raleigh stole second. It didn’t matter where the Mariner catcher was because Cannon left a sweeper over the plate and J-Rod crushed it. With an exit velocity of 109.6-mph, Julio sent his 21st home run of the season out to left field. The three-run blast continued J-Rod’s second half surge and forced the White Sox to go to the bullpen in just the 2nd inning with Seattle leading 7-1.

An Andrew Benintendi RBI single made it 7-2 but the Mariners continued to shut down the White Sox thanks to George Kirby. While he got in a bit of trouble in the 3rd, Kirby escaped that situation with minimal damaged and cruised to put up his third consecutive quality start. Like Bryan Woo in the opener, Kirby was able to rack up the strikeouts and matched Woo in that aspect with nine. To go along with those nine punchouts, Kirby allowed just five hits and two walks in his six innings of two-run ball as he starts to look like the George Kirby from the past couple of seasons.

Seattle’s bullpen did not have a good day and things got very interesting late. Eduard Bazardo was the first out of the bullpen for the 7th but his hot stretch hit a speed bump this time around. Michael A. Taylor welcomed Bazardo to the game with his 18th double of the season to get a runner in scoring position. While he would strikeout Brooks Baldwin, the next couple of batters had Bazardo’s number. Mike Tauchman would send a liner over Julio’s head in center that just cleared the fence for his eighth home run of the year. The very next pitch to Lenyn Sosa was also sent over the wall in center for Sosa’s 13th of the year and second of the series. All of a sudden, the game was back up for grabs as the Mariners lead was cut down to 7-5.

Seattle would play smart baseball in the 7th and it would result in getting one of those runs back. Julio would single with one out and moved up to third with a Josh Naylor single that followed. Eugenio Suárez would do his job with a fly ball to center. There would be no play at the plate after Luis Robert Jr. made the catch as Julio scored to make it 8-5. While Naylor would steal second and third, he was left stranded as the three-run lead would have to be enough for the M’s.

Gabe Speier cruised through the 8th and turned the ball over to Andrés Muñoz in the 9th to try to close it out. It was not clean. Michael A. Taylor immediately sent his sixth home run of the season out to right center to make it 8-6. Brooks Baldwin then worked a walk to bring the tying run to the plate but Muñoz also walked Mike Tauchman. With the tying run on and the go-ahead run at the plate, pitching coach Pete Woodworth had a quick chat with Muñoz and that seemed to lock him back in. The All-Star would strikeout Lenyn Sosa and get Andrew Benintendi to line out to Randy Arozarena in left. Luis Robert Jr. was Chicago’s last chance, but he couldn’t come through. A grounder to third would be handled by Geno who touched third for the force out to end the game. Seattle had to sweat it out in the end, but the bats had enough to propel the Mariners to the 8-6 win.

Notable Performances

White Sox

Mariners

• Julio Rodríguez- 1-3, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, BB
• Josh Naylor- 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, 2 SB
• George Kirby (W, 7-5)- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO

What’s Next

Seattle (62-53) now sit at 5-1 since the Trade Deadline and have won their second consecutive series. They also took advantage of Houston losing to Miami earlier on Wednesday, 6-4 while the Yankees beat the Rangers 3-2 and the Red Sox fell to the Royals 7-3. With all the results in the books, Seattle now trails Houston by just two games in the AL West while Texas remains 4 1/2 back. In the Wild Card race, Boston owns the top spot in the American League, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Mariners who occupy the second spot. New York still holds on to the final playoff spot, with just a 1 1/2 game lead over Texas and a surging Cleveland Guardians squad.

Out of all the teams in the American League playoff hunt, the Mariners are the only team to play on Thursday with just four games across baseball. Seattle will look to gain a half of a game everywhere and complete the sweep at 1:10pm. Seattle will have their Opening Day starter on the mound as Logan Gilbert (3-4, 3.45 ERA) will get the nod. Gilbert has been on a nice run as of late but has had one inning in each start where he has really struggled. Chicago will turn to their lone All-Star as Shane Smith (3-7, 4.25 ERA) will face the M’s for the second time. The Rule 5 draft pick has been a feel good story for the Sox and pitched five innings of two-hit, three-run ball against the Mariners back in May.

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