White Sox 2, Mariners 1: The good kind of déjà vu

It was just nine days ago that the White Sox spent the most of the game stupefied by a Seattle righty, only to stun the Seattle bullpen by scratching and clawing for two runs in the final inning they came to the plate for a 2-1 victory.

So it shouldn't necessarily surprise that the same damn thing happened again.

Sure, there were some minor differences. Being on the road, they took their last at-bats in the ninth, not the eighth, and unlike that Mother's Day victory, this one required even more grunting, as they didn't even have the help of a solid hit. The box score shows two singles, but only after the infield was drawn in due to a series of Seattle free bases.

However it happened, the White Sox managed to score the necessary two runs, and in another difference, Grant Taylor handled the ninth and struck out the side in 13 pitches, avoiding the drama Seranthony Dominguez courted earlier this month.

It all started with Luis Castillo not starting. He entered this game in the seventh inning as a reliever for the first time in his career after 252 games in a rotation, and he pitched well enough over the first two innings for Dan Wilson to try letting him carry it across the finish line.

But he walked Munetaka Murakami to start the inning, and then drilled Miguel Vargas on his hand. Vargas hit the dirt and stayed there for a while, displaying visible pain, but he stayed in the game.

Castillo also stayed in the game, one batter longer than Wilson intended. He first had the pitching coach visit, and when Wilson tried to come out to replace him, he was intercepted by home plate umpire Ryan Blakney, who informed him that coaches couldn't make consecutive visits. It would've been something if Colson Montgomery ended up taking him deep, but instead Montgomery chased wildly for the strikeout, and Wilson came out for closer Andres Muñoz, who's been largely struggling to open the year.

Muñoz ended up with his third blown save in 11 chances, but his biggest mistake didn't involve a pitch.

Will Venable had replaced Murakami with Derek Hill after the walk, and with Vargas staying in the game, the Sox had the horses for a double steal, which they tried on an 0-1 count to Chase Meidroth. Both runners got huge jumps and advanced without a throw, and from there, the White Sox had the angles they needed.

With Josh Naylor drawn in and playing well off the bag on the right side, Meidroth contorted himself to inside-out a Muñoz sinker bearing down and in, and the resulting bouncer slipped beyond Naylor's range for a game-tying single. Vargas could only advance to third, but Meidroth was able to move up to second as a harried throw came home, and now Andrew Benintendi had the same geometry to work with. He pulled a first-pitch slider to the right side, where it deflected off the mitt of a diving Naylor for another cheap RBI single.

The Sox had an opportunity to tack on additional runs, but Luisangel Acuña couldn't get a safety squeeze down before striking out, and Tristan Peters couldn't pick up Muñoz at all. Fortunately, insurance wasn't necessary, because Taylor threw nine strikes, and none of them were put in play.

You could say they had no business winning the game, except then you look at the line score and notice that Anthony Kay and three White Sox relievers combined to allow just one hit.

It's more accurate to say that Kay had no business pitching into the sixth after laboring through a 35-pitch first. He loaded the bases on a single, walk and league-leading eighth HBP, but despite walking a second batter later in the inning, he limited the damage to a Patrick Wisdom RBI fielder's choice.

Kay then opened the second inning with a walk, and while the control eventually tightened up, he still ended up throwing another 23 pitches, putting him well behind pace to complete half the game.

But the pace didn't hold, and to the White Sox's benefit. After throwing 58 pitches over the first two innings, he only threw 31 over the final 3⅓. The Mariners put balls in play early, and they found gloves. Kay finished the game retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced, with the exception being yet another HBP.

When the White Sox bullpen entered, the relievers maintained his pace. Tyler Davis finished the sixth Kay started, then struck out the side in a perfect seventh. Bryan Hudson made simple work of the eighth, retiring the side in order, even Naylor.

Sox pitchers needed to be that sharp, because for the second consecutive night, the White Sox scuffled against a righty with an elite ability to spot fastballs at the top of the zone. Either that, or they struggle against pitchers whose first names start with "Bry."

On the heels of Bryan Woo's six scoreless innings in the Mariners' 6-1 victory on Monday, Bryce Miller looked even stronger, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Peters led off the that inning with a double. He used a simple formula, relying on his riding four-seamer 60-percent of the time, and locating his slider and splitter well enough to catch the Sox who were cheating on the heat.

Miller struck out seven and allowed only three hard-hit balls, and Peters' double was the only one that looked like a hit at any point. Just like Logan Gilbert on Mother's Day, only a conservative pitch count could knock him out of the game. As it was just Miller's second start of the season, Wilson pulled him after just 72 pitches, a whopping 50 of which were strikes, and the White Sox were thrilled to see him leave, even if they never quite timed Castillo, either. Fortunately, they didn't have to.

Bullet points:

*Vargas was healthy enough to stay in the game and play first base to close out the game -- especially since Taylor didn't allow a ball in play -- but he's not out of the woods yet.

*Because I'd looked it up anticipating a 1-0 loss, the last time the White Sox allowed just one hit in a defeat was April 15, 2007.

*Montgomery was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, making him 0-for-7 with a walk and six strikeouts thus far this series.

Record: 25-23 | Box score | Statcast