Mariners power past White Sox to grab another road series win

CHICAGO – A “happy fly” for Leody Taveras in the eighth inning Wednesday meant a happy postgame flight to Houston for the Seattle Mariners to begin a crucial four-game set with the Astros.

Taveras’ two-run smash lifted Seattle to a tense 6-5 win over the White Sox at Rate Field, and a nice rebound from a frustrating 1-0 loss Tuesday night.

The comeback victory gave the Mariners another series win, the seventh time in eight tries this year Seattle has won the rubber game of a three-game set.

It also allowed them to jump 3½ games ahead of the Astros, who lost for the second straight day to Tampa Bay, before the four-game showdown Thursday to Sunday, capping the current 10-day road trip.

Seattle is 5-1 on the trip, which followed a 1-5 homestand.

The trip began with a dominant sweep of the Padres.

This series win didn’t come easily as the Mariners had to fight off a White Sox team playing scrappier than its 15-35 record might suggest, as well as cold and rain for most of the three days.

The drizzle let up Wednesday following a 1-hour, 35-minute delay Tuesday night, and the wind also died down some.

That conspired to mean the ball was traveling a bit farther and faster than it had the first two games.

After the teams had combined for just one home run in the first two games of the series, they each had three Wednesday, accounting for all but one of the game’s 11 runs.

“Leaning on the long ball a little bit,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said of his team’s scoring. “Ball was carrying today for both clubs.”

That was evident three batters in when Julio Rodríguez jumped on a pitch from White Sox rookie Shane Smith, who had walked J.P. Crawford and Jorge Polanco to begin the game, and hammered the ball over the right-center wall to give Seattle a quick 3-0 lead.

It was Rodríguez’s ninth home run of the season and second of the series – he also had a grand slam in the eighth inning Monday night to clinch a 5-1 win.

That allowed him to become the first Mariner with a grand slam and a three-run homer in the same series since Jake Fraley against the Angels on June 3 and June 5, 2021.

That it went to the opposite field most pleased Wilson, who said it’s an indication of continuing progress for Rodríguez, who didn’t hit his ninth homer last season until July 9, a year in which he hit just 20 after clubbing 28 as a rookie in 2022 and 32 in 2023.

“He’s in a really good spot,” Wilson said. “He’s been swinging the bat very well pretty consistently in these RBI situations. To see him go that way and to see him hit the ball hard, that’s a really good sign.”

Given the White Sox’s record, it was tempting to think the game might be over right there,

But Chicago rallied to take the lead 4-3 on homers by Tim Elko in the third and then back-to-back shots by Lenyn Sosa and Joshua Palacios in the fourth, all off Seattle rookie Logan Evans.

“A little rocky the middle half of that start,” Evans said. “But that’s going to happen. They are big-league hitters – they are going to put the bat on the ball.”

Wilson was happy to see Evans settle down and last through six innings, setting up the bullpen in its usual roles.

By the time Evans departed, the game was tied, thanks to Cal Raleigh’s solo shot in the sixth, his 16th of the season.

That came off White Sox reliever Brandon Eisert, who took over after Smith allowed only one other hit in his five innings following Rodriguez’s homer, striking out six.

The White Sox scratched out a run on an error, walk and single off Casey Legumina in the seventh. But Eisert then struck out Miguel Vargas and Matt Thaiss to strand runners at second and third.

That left the door open for the Mariners when Rowdy Tellez singled to lead off the eighth, then advanced to second on left fielder Michael A. Taylor’s error.

That brought up Taveras, who was just 2 for 15 on the trip with five strikeouts before Wednesday.

Wilson, though, liked how Taveras had been hitting earlier in the game, with two flyouts and a single in the sixth, and let him swing away against White Sox reliever Mike Vasil rather than potentially trying to bunt Leo Rivas – who entered as a pinch-runner – to third with one out.

“He hit the ball hard just about every time up today, found the barrel a lot, especially that last time up,” Wilson said. “That was a big hit for us.”

It was the biggest hit for Taveras since he joined the Mariners on May 6 after being waived by Texas.

“Great feeling,” he said. “Great feeling. Nothing better than that.”

Taveras said all he was trying to do was hit the ball to the right side and advance Rivas.

Instead, he jumped on the first pitch he saw from Vasil – an 88-mph changeup – and watched it sail over the fence in right-center.

The first two games here, the ball might likely have died on the warning track.

But Taveras noted happily that the conditions were a lot different on Wednesday.

“Today is a happy fly,” he said.

Carlos Vargas pitched a perfect eighth and Andres Munoz worked the ninth for his 16th save of the season as Seattle improved to 3-16 in games when trailing after seven.

“It’s just what we do,” Evans said. “We are never going to be out of it. They are going to throw some punches sometimes, we are going to punch right back.

“It’s a long season, but I think if we can do that consistently, we are going to go places, for sure.”

The Mariners next travel to Houston, where they have a chance to create some real distance between themselves and the defending AL West champion and perennial power Astros.

The lead over Houston was down to one game following a loss to the Yankees a week ago that ended a disastrous homestand. It’s grown by 2 ½ since.

“Each game is a different scenario,” Wilson said. “We’ve played well up until this point (of the trip) and tomorrow presents a new challenge and we’ll be ready for it.

“It’s a new club (they’ll be playing) and don’t look too far ahead – just take it one at a time and just continue to play the type of baseball that we want to play.”

Kirby set to debut against Astros

Just in time for a pivotal series against AL West rival Houston, the Seattle Mariners are getting back one of their top starting pitchers, right-hander George Kirby.

Wilson announced Wednesday that Kirby will start on Thursday night in Houston.

Kirby has been on the injured list since March 27 due to right shoulder inflammation, but he has made three rehab starts over the past few weeks, the last coming Friday in Albuquerque.

Wilson said Kirby will likely be on a 75- to 80-pitch limit to begin.

“We’re going to watch it closely and probably around the 80-pitch mark, 75, maybe 80 pitches, we’ll see,” he said. “But obviously, just be careful how we do it and make sure we are monitoring as we go.”