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Seattle Mariners

Mariners’ magic finally runs out against White Sox

By Ryan Divish Seattle Times

SEATTLE – For the first time in the four-game series with the Chicago White Sox, the Seattle Mariners couldn’t find a way to rally for a victory.

In the past three games, they’d found a way to pull out wins in games seemingly lost.

But that magic ran out Thursday night at T-Mobile Park … sort of.

With his team trailing by a run, Julio Rodriguez smashed a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game and force extra innings.

But when the White Sox scratched across a run off Andres Munoz in the top of the 10th, the Mariners couldn’t answer it in a 3-2 loss.

Lefty Tanner Banks stranded the automatic runner at second base, striking out Tyler Locklear and Josh Rojas and getting Luke Raley to fly out to center to end the game.

Called up to make a spot start and allow the Mariners push back their starters for an extra day going into a big weekend series vs. the division-rival Rangers, right-hander Emerson Hancock delivered a solid outing.

He pitched a career-high seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits with two walks and one strikeout.

Unfortunately, the two runs allowed came on back-to-back solo homers from Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert in the third inning .

Garrett Crochet might not be a name that Mariners fans are familiar with unless they are avid fantasy baseball players, hot stove hounds or have some weird masochistic fetish of watching teams with the worst record in baseball play games.

But they got familiar with him quickly and they’ll hear his name plenty as MLB move closer to the trade deadline.

The hard-throwing lefty, a first-round draft pick in 2020 out of the University of Tennessee, has been one of the most dominant starters in the AL this season. He pitched seven innings, allowing one run two hits with two walks and 13 strikeouts.

The Mariners lone run came off Crochet in the fifth inning. Having thrown 65 pitches considered a fastball – either four seam or cutter – and nothing else to that point in his scoreless outing, Crochet, for some reason, decided to throw a changeup to rookie Tyler Locklear on an 0-1 count.

The pitch was actually down in the bottom of the strike zone on the inside corner. But Locklear was able to golf it just over the left field fence for his first MLB homer.

That was all the Mariners would muster against Crochet.