8/7/25

(Seattle, WA) Afternoon baseball came to Seattle on Thursday as the Seattle Mariners wrapped up their three-game series with the Chicago White Sox on a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. With a light day in baseball, the M’s had a chance to gain ground on the rest of their American League playoff chasers as they were the only ones in action on Thursday.

Seattle was looking to complete the sweep of the White Sox and would have the perfect guy on the mound as Logan Gilbert would get the start in the finale. It wouldn’t be easy as Chicago would counter with their lone All-Star in Shane Smith who was a Rule-5 pick just last December and became the second Rule-5 pick to make the All-Star team the very next season.

Mariners 4, White Sox 3 (11 Innings) (Game Three)

Things were quiet early with both teams stranding runners in scoring position in the first few innings. Both Logan Gilbert and Shane Smith were able to escape any jams with no damage but in the bottom of the 3rd, the Mariners would breakthrough. A leadoff single by J.P. Crawford put a man on with the top of the order coming up. Randy Arozarena would stand in and battle Smith in a long at-bat. On the seventh pitch of the AB, Arozarena went down and got a curveball at the bottom of the zone and launched it out to left field for a two-run shot. It was his 23rd of the season and continued his power surge summer while giving the Mariners a 2-0 lead.

Logan Gilbert stranded another runner in scoring position in the 4th and in the 5th he would finally get burned. With a high pitch count, Gilbert would face Michael A. Taylor with nobody on and one out. A splitter didn’t have too much movement and Taylor sent it out to left for his second home run of the series and seventh of the season. Just like that, Chicago was on the board trailing 2-1.

Seattle couldn’t cash in on a White Sox error in the 6th and in the 7th the Sox would handle the Mariners bullpen. Carlos Vargas was on to pitch after getting the last out in the 6th but couldn’t do the same to Brooks Baldwin. The Chicago third baseman dropped the barrel to a fastball down and in and just got enough of it to get over the right field wall for his sixth home run of the season. This game had turned into a battle of the bullpens as Chicago tied it up at 2-2.

Matt Brash got a couple of big outs with runners on second and third in the top of the 8th to keep the game tied. In the home half, Seattle put together a great threat against Grant Taylor. A walk to Cal Raleigh and a single by Julio Rodríguez put men on first and second with nobody out. Cole Young hit for Donovan Solano who entered the game when Josh Naylor left early, and the rookie dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third with one out. Eugenio Suárez couldn’t get the ball in play however and struck out for the second out. Chicago intentionally walked Jorge Polanco to face Mitch Garver who also went down on strikes, squandering the opportunity and sending the game to the 9th tied.

Andrés Muñoz and Tyler Gilbert both pitched 1-2-3 innings in the 9th to send the game to extra innings. Eduard Bazardo would have to deal with Lenyn Sosa as the automatic runners to start the 10th but kept him there after Andrew Benintendi flew out to center and Luis Robert Jr. struck out swinging. Seattle intentionally walked Colson Montgomery to face Curtis Mead, but Bazardo hit him to load the bases. One wild pitch later and the White Sox had manufactured a run to take a 3-2 lead.

Randy Arozarena was the M’s automatic runner in the bottom of the 10th with Gilbert still on the mound. Miles Mastrobuoni laid down a bunt that was gloved by former Mariners Josh Rojas at third. His throw to first would sail off line, allowing Arozarena to score and Mastrobuoni to move up to second as the winning run with nobody out. Steven Wilson would get J-Rod to fly out before Mastrobuoni stole third to put the winning run 90-feet away. Unfortunately, Dylan Moore took a called third strike and Eugenio Suárez flew out to left as another opportunity slipped through the Mariners fingers and the game headed for the 11th still tied at 3-3.

Jackson Kowar was the next man up for Seattle out of the bullpen and started the 11th with Jacob Amaya at second. Kyle Teel pinch hit for Josh Rojas but flew out to left for the first out. Kowar then got weak contact from Michael A. Taylor with a pop up to Dylan Moore in foul territory at first base for the second out. Mike Tauchman didn’t fare any better with a flyout to J-Rod in center and Kowar had hung up a zero to send the game to the bottom of the 11th tied.

Eugenio Suárez would be Seattle’s automatic runner at second for the start of the inning, representing the winning run. Brandon Eisert was the new pitcher for Chicago and got a big strikeout of Jorge Polanco to start the inning. The White Sox elected to intentionally walk Mitch Garver to set up the double play opportunity with runners at first and second. The gamble didn’t pay off. Dominic Canzone came to the plate and snuck a grounder into right center. Geno was waved in and the throw from Taylor was just late. It wasn’t a pretty win for the Mariners, but Canzone’s first walk-off gave the Mariners the 4-3 win over the White Sox along with the sweep.

Notable Performances

White Sox

Mariners

• Randy Arozarena- 1-5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
• Dominic Canzone- 1-5, RBI
• Logan Gilbert (ND)- 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO

What’s Next

For the seventh time this season, the Seattle Mariners (63-53) completed a sweep as they wrap up the season series with the Chicago White Sox, going 5-1 against the South Siders. Nobody else in the American League playoff chase played on Thursday with just four games on the schedule, meaning Seattle gains half of a game everywhere in the playoff chase. The Mariners now trail Houston by just 1 1/2 games in the AL West and one game behind Boston for the top Wild Card spot. Seattle is 1 1/2 games up on New York for the second Wild Card spot while Texas and Cleveland are 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

Seattle will wrap up their long ten-game homestand with a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend as they celebrate Ichiro and retire his #51. Tampa Bay is the only American League team that the Mariners have not played yet this season and that might actually benefit the Mariners coming into the series. Tampa Bay (57-59) were 11 games over .500 on June 28th and were just half of a game behind the Yankees in the AL East while holding the top Wild Card. Since then they have one of the worst records in baseball at 10-23 and are falling rapidly out of the Wild Card race and could be buried with a bad series this weekend.

Tampa Bay grinded out a series win in Anaheim over the Angels during the week, but their offense has to be better if they want to steal a series in Seattle. Junior Caminero is a name familiar to Mariner fans as he went head-to-head with Cal Raleigh in the Home Run Derby finals last month. Caminero is putting together a monster season and leads the Rays with 30 home runs and 76 runs batted in this season. The guys around him have not been hot this month, but Caminero is off to a nice start with an OPS of .973 so far in August. He would like to get some revenge on the M’s and Raleigh but needs guys like the speedy Chandler Simpson and Yandy Díaz to set the table for him, especially with Jonathan Aranda on the IL, set to miss this series.

• Game 1, Friday 6:40pm- Drew Rasmussen (9-5, 2.81 ERA) vs. Luis Castillo (8-6, 3.22 ERA)
• Game 2, Saturday 6:40pm- Joe Boyle (1-1, 2.30 ERA) vs. Logan Evans (5-4, 4.30 ERA)
• Game 3, Sunday 1:10pm- Adrian Houser (6-3, 2.54 ERA) vs. Bryan Woo (9-6, 3.02 ERA)

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