The White Sox played as though they refused to die. Miguel Cairo managed as though he wasn't afraid of death.
A game that opened as a flat getaway showing turned into a stirring comeback before dipping into "gutting loss" territory until it reversed course and settled into a game of the year candidate.
A victory of any sort looked impossible when poor defense conspired behind a rusty Michael Kopech to dig a 4-0 hole in the third. Nine runs looked impossible when Luis Castillo struck out the first White Sox he faced en route to three perfect innings.
Slowly and then suddenly, the game turned. The White Sox found some power while the Mariners defense fell into the slop, and while a White Sox bullpen without its best setup arms flirted with disaster and lost the lead, it didn't lose its grip. Instead, two more Seattle errors tilted the game -- and thus the series -- in favor of the White Sox.
Eloy Jiménez was at the center of it, launching the two-run homer in the fourth homer that showed Castillo was mortal. He also tied the game with a "double" over third base in the sixth inning that Eugenio Suarez should have at least knocked down, but instead whiffed on for his second misplay of the inning. For good measure, he singled in the eighth inning to put the eventual go-ahead run on base.
But really, the White Sox got contributions from the majority of the lineup. Let's travel down the order:
Elvis Andrus: He capitalized on Suarez's inning-opening error in the sixth with a perfect bunt single to third while Suarez played back, which really put the Sox's four-run surge in motion. He also gave the Sox their first baserunner with a leadoff walk in the fourth, and the lack of an out doubled the value of Jiménez's homer. In the field, he gave Michael Kopech a breather with an unofficial mound visit after six straight balls in the second inning (he used the rosin bag), then made a terrific play behind Yoán Moncada from the hole to seal a perfect eighth for Vince Velasquez.
José Abreu: He nearly grounded into an inning-ending double play in the fourth, but his foot beat the ball to first base, keeping the inning alive before Jiménez's two-run homer. He contributed to the sixth inning with a single through the right side that scored the first of the four runs, then posted the last run with a sac fly to center in the ninth, capping off a day in which the Sox scored that runner on third with fewer than two outs.
Gavin Sheets: After failing to come up with a sac fly in a key situation on Tuesday, Sheets twice delivered productive outs for go-ahead RBIs. His bid for a three-run homer with runners on second and third in the sixth inning died on the warning track, but it put the Sox ahead 5-4. After the Mariners tied the game at 6, Sheets untied it with a bouncer off the plate that scored Leury García from third. It was the infield version of a sac fly, if you will.
Leury García: A day after Adam Engel was cut down during his attempt to steal his way into scoring position, Miguel Cairo gave García the green light after he replaced Jiménez in the eighth. García stole second, and when the ball rolled into center field, he picked it up and hustled into third to give Sheets that RBI oportunity.
Andrew Vaughn: The Sox could've settled for three runs and a 5-4 lead when Sheets hit the sac fly for the second out, but Vaughn added another run before the Mariners could close the inning with a ringing to left field.
AJ Pollock: Kept quiet for most of the day, Pollock got on the board himself with a leadoff single off Chris Flexen in the ninth. He moved to second on Josh Harrison's single and scored when Flexen fielded Seby Zavala's sacrifice bunt and flung it into foul territory behind first base.
Josh Harrison: Harrison had a rough day in the field, failing to handle a pair of ground balls that contributed three of four runs to Kopech's tab in the third inning. He should've flagged down Ty France's grounder to the right side, but short-armed it for an infield single that put runners on the corners with just one out. Mitch Haniger's fly ball didn't end the inning, but turned into a sac fly and a 2-0 Seattle lead. Then Suarez homered before Kopech could record a fourth out for the third and fourth runs.
Still, Harrison still contributed at the end. He hit the aforementioned single, advanced to third on the aforementioned error, then scored on the aforementioned Abreu sac fly. I'd noticed he was booking it for home, just in the event that one of the trailing runners might be courting a third out trying to advance themselves.
Seby Zavala: He was kept hitless, but he reached on a pair of errors, including the useful bunt that Flexen's error multiplied.
The relentless offense made up for a pitching staff that Kopech's short start exposed as shorthanded. Instead of using Jimmy Lambert, Reynaldo López and Kendall Graveman, Cairo instead covered the bulk of the five innings with José Ruiz, Jake Diekman, Joe Kelly, Aaron Bummer and Velasquez, with only Liam Hendriks representing the usual high-leverage guys at the very end.
Ruiz handled the part where the White Sox trailed by two, but the others were tasked with holding a lead, and it didn't go so well. Diekman stranded Ruiz's runner to end the fifth, but his attempt to handle the sixth died after three batters (walk, strikeout, single by a lefty).
Cairo then called for Kelly to face the top of the order. He promptly loaded the bases by walking Julio Rodriguez on four pitches, and control was an issue the rest of the way, as he threw just five of 12 pitches for strikes. He did get a dribbler up the third-base line that Yoán Moncada turned into an out before it went foul, and the decision to trade a run for an out held up when Kelly froze Mitch Haniger with a perfect front-door curveball on a 3-2 count.
The decision to give the ball to Aaron Bummer in the seventh in his first game off the IL turned on Cairo after two pitches, as Suarez turned an outer-half sinker into his second homer of the day that tied the game at 6. He then walked Carlos Santana on five pitches before losing a lefty-lefty battle to Adam Frazier for a single.
Bummer eventually settled on the slider as his only good pitch, and it got him out of the inning. He struck out Sam Haggerty with a backdoor breaker, struck out Curt Casali with a four-slider blitz, and when he went back to his sinker for J.P. Crawford, a sharp grounder found Moncada a third for the inning-ending force.
Velasquez, tasked with pitching the eighth to spare Graveman from three appearances in four days, finally brought order to the late innings with help from Andrus.
It would've been perfectly understandable if the White Sox dropped a road series to a playoff team because the rubber match's pitching matchup was lopsided. Instead, the Sox took two of three from Mariners team that had won seven in a row, and now they'll head to Oakland for four games. You might consider the A's a classic letup threat, but given the stakes of the month and the way they rallied today, they know their punting opportunities are extremely limited.
Bullet points:
*Evidence of the Sox maximizing their opportunities: They scored nine runs on just eight hits. Going 3-for-8 with two sac flies with runners in scoring position helps.
*Bummer picked up the win despite losing the lead because baseball is funny that way.
*Harrison's second misplay -- and only error -- led to Kopech getting the hook in the fourth inning, because what should've been an inning-ending grounder to the left side opened the door for a two-out double that put runners on second and third with two outs. Ruiz walked Rodriguez on four pitches, but got Ty France to fly out.
