Were the White Sox playing a divisional opponent or simply another team within a time zone's reach, tonight's game might've been pushed back into a doubleheader. Instead, the two teams absorbed a 47-minute delay to start the game, then soldiered through persistent precipitation ranging from "mist" to "downpour."
And despite the fact that Dallas Keuchel's first start of the season involved the reigning Cy Young winner, he came away with his 100th career victory as the White Sox won their fourth straight.
The White Sox pummeled Robbie Ray early and late, taking him deep three times out of their 10 hits, including back-to-back homers by Tim Anderson and Luis Robert that ended his night after 6⅓ innings. Keuchel absorbed a no-doubt homer in the first inning while three softer hits turned into two runs in the fourth, but he avoided creating his own trouble, and that was good enough for three runs over five innings.
The milestone victory required a team effort. After the White Sox notched four runs in the second to build a 4-1 lead, the Mariners whittled it to one run, and almost tied it on Jesse Winker's skyscraping drive to right in the sixth. The wind -- and maybe a few extra raindrops -- kept it from sailing over the Kraft Kave, and Adam Engel had ample time to park on the warning track and time his leap to preserve Kyle Crick's inning.
José Ruiz followed with a dominant seventh, Kendall Graveman did his thing in the eighth, and while Liam Hendriks gave up a wall ball that eventually came around to score, the cushion supplied by the back-to-back blasts in the seventh allowed him to record his second save in as many days.
Based on the quality of contact, it wouldn't have been surprising if the White Sox won by more. They had nine of the 10 hardest-hit balls of the game, with 11 batted balls topping 100 mph off Ray alone (and one by Engel rounding up to that number).
In the second, Eloy Jiménez tied the game with a screamer into the rain-vacated bleachers that had enough steam to bounce all the way back onto the field. Andrew Vaughn followed up with a single, followed by an Engel walk. After a fielder's choice, Jake Burger's sizzling shot deflected off J.P. Crawford and into shallow left to give the Sox the lead. Then Anderson split the left-center gap with a double that scored two for a 4-1 game.
Ray settled down to stay in the game into the seventh, but when Anderson got a fourth time to face him, he capitalized with an opposite-field shot, followed by Luis Robert's second of the season that chased Ray from the game.
The White Sox did suffer a couple of losses on the field. Jiménez had to leave the game not long after fouling a ball off his left ankle, while Josh Harrison tweaked his back hitting a double-play ball to the left side. Danny Mendick and Leury García finished the game in their spots.
Bullet points:
*Harrison made an impressive ranging play to his right, covering the second base area from the shortstop position.
*The White Sox again won the strike zone, drawing four walks against six strikeouts while the Mariners had one BB and 12 K's.
