Arozarena, Mariners Gut Out Series Win vs. White Sox
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Seattle Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after scoring a run during the fourth inning against the Chicago White Sox at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images [/caption]
It would be quite an understatement to say a Wednesday win was badly needed after the gut-punch the Mariners had suffered on Tuesday.
Luckily for Seattle (with luck indeed on the team’s side more often than not), the M’s gutted out the afternoon rubber match, defying even a no-outs, bases loaded miss to put up five runs and win the game 5-4. It was their first one-run win since May 4 and 24th win on the whole year, though they still sit three games under despite heroics from Randy Arozarena and Jhonny Pereda.
Emerson Hancock pitched an uneasy five innings but avoided extra damage.
Wednesday’s game gave Mariners starter Emerson Hancock the chance for revenge on the only team to yet put up a crooked number on him in 2026. Results were mixed innings-wise, but the hurler kept the White Sox to far less runs than the five he had given up in Chicago.
The strangeness of the sport was on display in the second and third innings for the Mariners starter. Despite a whistle-clean first inning, Hancock lost his control in the second, unable to figure out the release point on his fastball. One heater after another flew high and away to the lefty Colson Montgomery for a leadoff five-pitch walk, followed by four straight up and in to Chase Meidroth. He tried to get his feel back with a sweeper to Jarred Kelenic, only for it to bounce out of Jhonny Pereda’s reach and advance the runners - but the wild pitch scarcely mattered since Kelenic walked anyway.
Hancock found a mix of changeups and cutters that played well against Tristan Peters for a punchout, finding his location and getting the man out at the same time. But despite falling behind 3-1, he managed to get a ground ball to second and the inning ended on a double play.
The Mariners hurler had much better control over his stuff to begin the third, yet the visitors scratched across a run all the same. Sam Antonacci scratched across a single through the left side hole with one away and darted to second with two gone, which was enough for an Andrew Benintendi bloop single to bring home the White Sox’ first run.
As Hancock’s pitch count ticked upwards over the fourth and fifth, it slowly became clear that the M’s might have to have their bullpen go four innings. While the former of those frames was a clean inning, two one-out singles in the fifth tightened the vise. Hancock fell behind Murakami and the slugger put the ball in play, but it was luckily on the ground for only one run. The frame finished without further damage, but Hancock wouldn’t go out for the sixth.
Backup catcher Jhonny Pereda shined with both bat and glove.
With Cal Raleigh on the IL for some time, the Mariners called up backstop Jhonny Pereda to work with Mitch Garver as the catching end of the battery. They both bring different things to the table as backups. Pereda has a better arm at catcher, while Garver is a better blocker and a slightly better hitter.
That arm was on display in the sixth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Chase Meidroth danced off third base, Pereda caught him a fair ways off the bag and sent a laser to Wisdom at his back. Meidroth was caught in the rundown, and when the final out of the inning was an easy groundout to first, the chance dissipated for Chicago - and the game remained tied 2-2.
It was tied until Pereda came up to the dish in the bottom of the seventh. He swung at a slurve down the pipe and launched it into the bullpens for his first career MLB home run.
This wasn’t as surprising as it might first appear, with Pereda knocking a pair of homers in 25 games with the Triple-A Rainiers. He definitely isn’t set to be a massive power threat, but he did have an .831 OPS in Tacoma.
Pereda’s homer may have given Seattle a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, but it was the team’s early batting champion that provided the deeper firepower for the victory.
Randy Arozarena continued to produce for Seattle, scoring three of the team’s five runs.
Almost a third of the way through the season, two of the 15 qualified hitters still above .300 are Riley Greene and Randy Arozarena, just as everyone thought. Once defined by streakiness, it is possible that Arozarena is one tremendous heater - and probable that he is overplaying his eventual season line. But with a .300/.386/.450 slash line, 2.0 bWAR, and 1.8 fWAR going into Wednesday, he has been Seattle’s most productive hitter in the early third of the season.
Arozarena got going early and never stopped when it came to the bat, but a big part of his production has been due to the stolen base. Going into the game, his 12 swipes was tied for eighth in the league, and when he wore a pitch in the bottom of the second, he quickly nabbed his 13th.
It might not have mattered, since Dominic Canzone whacked a 104.1 mile an hour grounder down the first base line for a run-scoring double into the corner. But having a runner on second provides a tougher mental picture for a pitcher in any case, and the run scoring was a given with Arozarena on second base.
The Seattle left fielder once again reached base in the fourth, taking a seven-pitch leadoff walk. Just like in the second, Arozarena bolted for a bag to get himself in scoring position. Although Luke Raley didn’t move him any further, Patrick Wisdom cracked a first-pitch slider into the left field corner for another Arozarena-scoring double.
And yet Arozarena - despite what he would do in the seventh - wound up helping return the no-out bases-loaded no-run favor to Chicago, popping out with one away and the bases loaded. He wasn’t the first in that frame to leave the runners stranded (as Josh Naylor had flown out far too shallowly to matter) and nor would he be the last. With Luke Raley due up, Sox manager Will Venable went to southpaw Sean Newcomb, and Dan Wilson responded with struggling right-hander Rob Refsnyder.
It’s not a positive statement about Refsnyder that his 103.3 mile an hour inning-ending lineout was an improvement from some of the at-bats he had taken on Tuesday. The game, which had been tied 2-2 when the inning began, remained so.
Arozarena made up for it. Although Pereda’s leadoff jack in the seventh had put Seattle ahead, run support beyond that point turned out to be very necessary. With Julio Rodríguez rocking a one-out double, there was a man on as Jordan Hicks’ sweeper hooked right over the plate. Arozarena smacked his fifth homer of the year to put Seattle up 5-2.
The bullpen displayed its own bit of shakiness, but the M’s held on to win.
Matt Brash returned from injury on Wednesday, getting his first work in since April 28. Although he was back, the M’s clearly wanted to ease him into things, bringing him out for the seventh inning instead of the eighth. Cooper Criswell had already spun a scoreless sixth despite two runners reaching scoring position - a potential run being saved thanks to a double getting lodged in the wall and Refsnyder calling lost ball, after which came Pereda’s heads-up pickoff - and Brash looked like he hadn’t left as he got two strikeouts and logged another scoreless frame, though Murakami reached base with a single off Brash’s glove.
Things got dicier in the eighth with Eduard Bazardo. Despite posting a 1.15 ERA and 2.54 FIP through May 4, Bazardo has looked quite a bit more mortal in recent outings, giving up four earned runs in his previous 5 ⅓ innings going into Wednesday’s game and logging a loss against the very same White Sox he went in to face in the eighth.
Two straight singles set a dangerous table, even with Seattle holding a three-run advantage. Seattle caught another break as Peters chopped a ball right to Cole Young, but with Peters trucking down the line, Colt Emerson slightly rushed his throw to Naylor, still catchable although late. But Naylor let the ball slip out of his glove into foul territory and a run scored with more threatening. Once again, however, the Sox left runners stranded and the M’s worked out of danger.
Andrés Muñoz had thrown in both previous games, so it was Jose A. Ferrer that went out for the ninth. He has served as the Mariners’ spot closer whenever Muñoz is unavailable, and despite a somewhat fluky leadoff home run from Randal Grichuk (the first Ferrer had given up all year), the lefty finished out the game and the Mariners win.
On Deck
The M’s are set for a rest day on Thursday before going on a six-game road trip against the Royals and A’s. Kansas City sits at the basement of the AL Central with a 20-30 record, but their contact hitting has frustrated Seattle pitching at times during the decade and the ghosts of blown leads past still haunt the fountains of Kauffman Stadium. The A’s, meanwhile, have gone out to a slight early edge in the division, meaning that containing that team’s hitters and winning that series will be of heightened importance.
