Dominic Canzone's 11th inning rollover single through the right side off Brandon Eisert, scoring extra runner Eugenio Suárez from second to seal a three-game sweep with a walk-off, was the Mariners' only hit with runners in scoring position in 11 tries.
As the White Sox spent all of Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Park looking for a similar breakthrough, the game kept finding Edgar Quero.
In the sixth, eighth, and 10th, the White Sox rookie catcher strode to the plate with two outs, runners on, and an opportunity to break the game open. In all three instances, Quero batted for himself against right-handed pitchers despite a sub-.600 OPS against them on the season, and the left-handed Kyle Teel on the bench.
After striking out to end the sixth and eighth, Quero got a reprieve in the 10th, as a wild pitch plated extra runner Lenyn Sosa from third to give the White Sox a brief 3-2 lead before Quero grounded out to first. And before long, the focus would quickly shift to a substitution Will Venable did make, as opposed to the one he passed on.
Josh Rojas entered the game in the 10th as a defensive substitution for Brooks Baldwin at third base in a scenario where he was almost guaranteed to field a bunt from Miles Mastrobuoni. But when he did, Rojas fired a throw over Curtis Mead's head at first, pushing the tying run across and requiring a Houdini act from Steven Wilson to send the game to the 11th. The late-game chaos covered up an even more impressive escape from Grant Taylor in the eighth, who struck out Suárez and Mitch Garver to strand the bases loaded and keep the game tied.
Not using Teel earlier did allow Venable to sub out Quero in the 11th rather than have the slow-footed catcher serve as the Manfred Man, but since no one was able to advance Jacob Amaya either in the three tries, he didn't reap the proceeds.
The natural evolution of a home run-hitting offense is to stoke fears that they have become overly dependent upon the long ball, and the Sox have speed-run through this entire process to deliver production shaped like Thursday's result. One inning after the Sox finally broke through for their first hit off Mariners Logan Gilbert, Michael A. Taylor lofted a belt-high splitter out to left for a fifth inning solo shot.
It provided their only touch of damage against Gilbert, who needed 94 pitches for five innings despite only allowing two hits. It would take until the seventh before Baldwin completed the two-run comeback, using a decidedly lofted Truist Field-style swing to place a low-and-in heater from Carlos Vargas just above the yellow barrier in right field, knotting the game at 2.
In between those two clouts, the Sox went 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position, so there's no need to single out Quero other than for narrative clarity. The one hit was a Mead single through the left side that Luis Robert Jr. had to freeze on before stopping at third, which only served to set up the inning for Quero.
It had been a minute since Shane Smith generated exciting results or served the logistical purpose of eating the majority of the game's innings, but ended droughts of various kinds on Thursday. Sitting 96 mph and working vertically through the zone with his four-seam and curveball, Smith struck out a career-high eight and completed five innings for the first time in nearly two months (June 10).
Smith struck out four in the first two innings and had made Randy Arozarena look foolish on a curve early in their second encounter. But a second curve that stayed above the knees was slashed over the left field fence by Arozarena for a two-run blast that put the Mariners ahead until the seventh.
It's there that the damage against Smith would stay, as he held enough velocity to pivot to bullying hitters upstairs with fastballs. Arozarena struck out on a letter-high heater followed by a Cal Raleigh deep fly out to close out the fifth. But all of Smith's good works felt like they happened a day ago.
Bullet points:
*The Sox are 9-25 in one-run games.
*Smith has now allowed six home runs this season off breaking pitches, compared to three off his fastball, despite throwing far more heaters.
*Josh Naylor went 0-for-2 with a strikeout, looking physically uncomfortable in both at-bats before being subbed out for Donovan Solano.
*It didn't amount to a ton, but Luis Robert Jr. had a double, two singles and a walk to extend his on-base streak to 23 games, and stole the 100th base of his career. The only out he made came with Sosa waiting to be driven in from second in the 10th inning.
*Sox hitters had eight home runs in this series and 13 over the course of the six-game road trip.
