We have a running joke around these parts about how the Mariners and White Sox are incapable of playing a normal game with one another, but tonight’s game really stretched the bit thin. At the end of it, though, the Mariners emerged with a 6-1 victory, shaking off the doldrums of their series sweep at the hands of the Padres this weekend with an electrifying finish.
The game didn’t start out seeming like it would be the vibes-changer it would grow into. Bryan Woo had a shaky first inning, fighting with his command and issuing two walks. Although he threw first pitch strikes to all five batters he faced, he then fell behind, needing 25 pitches to clear the inning and only throwing fourteen of them for strikes. He got helped out by The First Weirdness of the evening: a truly bizarre TOOTBLAN where Sam Antonacci, who had led off the game with a hard-hit line drive single, attempted to steal third after Woo had issued a walk, apparently trying to catch the Mariners defense napping? But Woo and Colt Emerson were having none of that, no sir, cutting down Antonacci as he attempted to sneak into third. (Colt also made a nice play at third deep to the third-base line right after that, snapping off a quick throw to Cole Young to get the lead runner that I don’t think Leo Rivas makes. Competent third-base defense! Perhaps I can finally take that photo of Ben Williamson off my mirror.)
After fighting through the first, Woo’s pitch count was saved by a lightning-fast second inning, needing just eight pitches to mow down the bottom of Chicago’s lineup. But he scuffled again against the top of the lineup, again needing 21 pitches to clear the inning, although this time the damage wasn’t of his own making – just a pair of singles, one where Antonacci threw his bat at a changeup and a rare single from Munetaka Murakami that snuck just past a diving Josh Naylor. Woo bounced back with a sharp fourth, though, striking out the side, and then was in cruise control the rest of the night. Postgame, manager Dan Wilson pointed to the fifth inning, in particular, as lengthening Woo’s outing: he needed just eight pitches to get through the 8-9-1 hitters, allowing him a sixth inning of work.
Woo said postgame that it wasn’t necessarily that he was overcompensating trying to set the tone after the disappointing weekend sweep, but thought he was maybe trying to “do too much” in the first inning. He was pleased with his ability to clean it up after, though, simplifying the game and going right at hitters.
The Mariners got their first run of the evening in normal fashion. Julio Rodríguez was able to leverage some right-handed power off the lefty Noah Schultz, working a long, eight-pitch at-bat that ended in his eighth homer of the season, getting his arms extended on a sinker on the outer edge of the plate.
But the next run came via our old friend Chaos Ball. Jhonny Pereda was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. It looked a little like the Mariners wouldn’t get anything out of the inning, when with one out Julio lined out hard to Antonacci at second; he dropped the ball and attempted to play it off like a double play, which is smart, but the umpire ruled he had caught the ball on a lineout. Arozarena then doubled deep into the left field corner, and Pereda found himself trying to get to third only to find Antonacci standing in the middle of the basepath as a spectator. Pereda trucked Antonacci out of his way, but the delay was enough to get him thrown out at home – but the umpires ruled that Antonacci did interfere with Pereda and awarded the run. This obviously upset White Sox manager Will Venable, who found himself escorted to an early shower. Postgame, Wilson said the interference was obvious from the dugout, and praised Pereda for his heads-up baserunning and third base coach Carlos Cardoza for the aggressive send of Pereda, scoring what would have been enough to win the game.
But the Mariners would add on. Randy Arozarena led off the sixth with a double, advanced to third on a passed ball, and then Josh Naylor said “Canadians don’t do silliness” and stroked an efficient RBI single through the right side of the infield to make it 3-0 Mariners. He then easily swiped second base because Canadians might not do silliness but Josh Naylor does do Basepaths Chaos. Naylor ended his night with three hits and two stolen bases, because another thing Josh Naylor doesn’t do is Bobblehead Night Curses.
More chaos ensued when Connor Joe hit a ball at Chicago shortstop Colson Montgomery that he just kinda…lost the handle on, and then Joe and Naylor executed a double steal, because at this point, why not? Unfortunately, the two young lefties at the bottom of the lineup, Young and Emerson, couldn’t capitalize on it against White Sox reliever and fellow lefty Brandon Eisert, although each put up a good battle. Poor Emerson, who had also suffered his own Weirdness earlier in the game, on a bizarre foul tip strike three that seemed to pop up over the catcher’s head like a wayward popcorn kernel before finding its way back into the glove. In retrospect, the popcorn metaphor is apt because tonight would end like a movie for Colt Emerson.
The White Sox were able to get back a run against Eduard Bazardo, who gave up a two-out solo shot to Tristan Peters, who sat on a first-pitch fastball and exploded it over the right field fence. But Bazardo made things rough on himself after that, giving up a fly ball single to catcher Drew Romo and walking pinch-hitter Chase Meidroth. José A. Ferrer came in to face pinch-hitter Randall Grichuk and needed exactly two pitches to mail the nascent rally back to the Windy City.
After the Mariners failed to score in the bottom of the seventh despite a very enthusiastic Pereda single, Ferrer continued on in the eighth. His curséd BABIP luck continued, though, as “Three True Outcomes” Murakami snuck an infield single past a diving J.P. Crawford for his second base hit of the night. But the narrative! Ferrer was able to close things up, though – despite making things a little interesting with a wild pitch – getting a flyout, striking out Montgomery, and then finally getting groundout off pinch-hitter Edgar Quero, because when you have a chance to put a guy hitting .174 into the lineup you gotta take it.
The White Sox put a righty on the mound for the first time in the eighth inning much to the delight of the Mariners lefties; Naylor recorded his third hit of the night, a single, and pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone worked a walk to put two on with none out. But Luke Raley didn’t fare as well as a pinch-hitter, striking out, and Young flew out harmlessly, putting the job of Insurance Man on Colt Emerson, who just to remind you would be just finishing up his sophomore year in college if he was actually studying to be an Insurance Man.
Facing Trevor Richards, who was finishing up his sophomore year in college when people were asking “What Does the Fox Say,” Emerson fell down 1-2 in the count before laying off a tough changeup. He fouled off another changeup and a fastball on the plate before finally dropping the barrel and golfing a changeup just over the right-field fence.
Somehow, in the middle of all that – 31,400 fans in the ballpark going crazy, his family in the stands for the first time, his first major league hit a storybook moment – Emerson remembers to acknowledge the bullpen as he’s rounding the bases. The crowd roared for a curtain call and he gave it.
“The discipline to be 20 years old and not just come out swinging right away says a lot about who he is,” said Woo, who said he re-watched the homer “ten times” before coming in for his media availability.
“He’s a two-pitch guy, but he’s got a really good fastball and a really good changeup” said Emerson postgame. “So I was just looking for something down the middle over the plate that I can hit for a base hit up the middle. Got to two strikes early, fought back, and then put a good swing on a good pitch and by the grace of God, it went out.”
The homer didn’t just put the game out of reach for the White Sox – who were mowed down in the top of the ninth by Andrés Muñoz – but also provided a lift to a Mariners clubhouse that badly needed one. Woo wasn’t the only one re-watching Emerson’s home run: postgame Andrés Muñoz’s wife Wendy walked by in the tunnel watching the home run on her phone.
“I think this is one of those games where you just felt something a little bit extra and the guys gave a little bit extra,” said Dan Wilson. “I think we’re going to be carrying this for a while.”
“We talked about wanting to bring more energy to start the game,” said Woo. “Regardless of how we’re playing, just having a much more controllable attitude of going out there and bringing the energy from first pitch. You’ve got to control the stuff that you can control.”
As far as a vibes-readjustment, you couldn’t ask for much more than this game.
“The energy was outstanding today,” said Wilson. “It was a tough series over the weekend, no question, but we turned the page, and we’re moving on, and this is a great effort to get started on that.”
D.J. Short
