5/19/26

(Seattle, WA) A series win was in the grasp of the Seattle Mariners after taking the opener over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night. Seattle got plenty of offense along with a fantastic start from Bryan Woo in what was for the most part a comfortable win. On Tuesday night, Seattle would hope for more of the same to really move on from the struggles against San Diego but it would be a new strategy that Seattle would go with.

Getting the start on the mound for the Mariners would be Bryce Miller in his second outing of 2026. Bryce looked terrific in his season debut in Houston and would hope to build on that with his increased velocity. The interesting part would be that Luis Castillo would come in for Miller out of the bullpen as the Mariners implemented their new piggyback strategy with the six quality starters. For Chicago, Anthony Kay would look to replicate his success against the M’s after a terrific first outing against them in the Windy City.

White Sox 2, Mariners 1 (Game Two, May 19th)

Bryce Miller cruised through the 1st inning while Anthony Kay was put up against the ropes in the bottom half. A one-out single by Julio Rodríguez was the first hit of the game and he moved up after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch. The bases were then loaded after Josh Naylor walked with Patrick Wisdom coming to the plate. The returning Wisdom rolled over on a grounder to shortstop Colson Montgomery, but was able to beat out the relay throw to first to avoid the double play which allowed Julio to score to make it 1-0. Seattle reloaded the bases after Connor Joe walked but left them loaded as Mitch Garver struck out swinging to end the inning.

There was not another hit in the game until the 6th inning as Bryce Miller was dominant while Anthony Kay started to control the strike zone much better than he did in the 1st. Miller had a perfect game into the 4th before walking Munetaka Murakami but he lost his no-hitter on a leadoff double by Tristan Peters in the 6th. He would strikeout Edgar Quero and got Sam Antonacci to fly out to left before Dan Wilson went to his bullpen despite Miller’s plea to stay in. Jose A. Ferrer would do his job and struck out Murakami to end the inning and give Bryce Miller a scoreless outing in 5 2/3 with one hit and one walk allowed while striking out seven in a brilliant outing.

Luis Castillo made his first career appearance out of the bullpen and rolled through the 7th 1-2-3 before stranding a couple of runners in the 8th. Wilson decided to keep Castillo in for the 9th in a one-run game which was extremely controversial and turned out to be a game costing error. He walked Murakami before hitting Miguel Vargas to put two on with nobody out. After striking out Colson Montgomery, Castillo was lifted for closer Andrés Muñoz who would allow Derek Hill and Miguel Vargas to pull a double steal, putting the tying run on third and go-ahead run at second. Chase Meidroth chopped a grounder just past Naylor at first to tie the game at 1-1 before Andrew Benintendi brought home the go-ahead run with a grounder off the glove of a diving Josh Naylor. A 1-0 lead turned quickly into a 2-1 loss as Grant Taylor struck out the side in the 9th as Seattle was one-hit for the second time in the last three games.

Notable Performances

White Sox

Mariners

• Bryce Miller (ND)- 5.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO
• Julio Rodríguez- 1-4, R
• Patrick Wisdom- 0-3, RBI

Roster Moves

• RHP Matt Brash activated from 15-day IL
• LHP Robinson Ortiz optioned to Triple-A Tacoma

What’s Next

Tuesday night was up there towards the top of the list for the most brutal losses for Seattle (23-27) this season. Only the blown lead in San Diego really compares but what made it worse was that the Athletics blew out Los Angeles and Texas blew out Colorado. Houston also got a win over Minnesota which meant only the Mariners and Angels lost in the AL West on Tuesday night.

Seattle will need to flush that meltdown quickly as the Mariners and White Sox will meet in the rubber game of the three-game series on Wednesday at 1:10pm. It will be the final game of the homestand for the Mariners, in which they will be 1-4 going into the finale. Emerson Hancock (3-2, 3.02 ERA) will get the ball for Seattle and face the White Sox for the second time this season. The first go around with Chicago was Hancock’s worst start of the season where he allowed five runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts in six innings. While the lineup bailed him out and got him the win in that outing, Hancock will look to get some revenge on Wednesday. Sean Burke (2-3, 4.10 ERA) will be the starter for the Sox as he was Hancock’s opposition in that meeting in Chicago and got tagged for six runs in just 4 1/3 innings.

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