SEATTLE — Lance Lynn pitched a seven-inning masterpiece, AJ Pollock and Andrus homered, and the White Sox cooled off the red-hot Mariners with a 3-2 victory Monday to stay on the heels of the first-place Guardians in the American League Central.
Opening a seven-game road trip and winning for the fifth time in six games, the Sox (68-67) improved to 23-5 with they hit multiple homers and let Lynn do the rest. Kendall Graveman pitched a scoreless eighth and Liam Hendriks survived a perilous ninth, allowing a run and leaving the tying and winning runs in scoring position when he struck out pinch hitter Adam Frazier to end the game and halt Seattle’s seven-game winning streak.
Lynn retired the last 17 batters he faced and finished with seven innings of three-hit ball, allowing one unearned run while walking one and striking out 11. He lowered his ERA to 4.34, throwing 89 pitches and getting 25 swinging strikes.
Lynn owns a 2.28 ERA over his last nine starts, and boasts a 73-5 strikeouts to walks ratio in his last 10. His ERA over his last five starts is 1.42.
“The goal is to be playing meaningful baseball in September, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Aaron Bummer, who came off the injured list Monday for the stretch run. “Regardless of how the season’s gone so far, whether it be the first five months or anything, I feel like we’re in a spot to make a charge. We’ve just got to keep playing good baseball. We’re finally getting the pieces back and everybody healthy.”
Playing good baseball has been a talking point since the Sox started a 5-1 run that has them back in the AL Central picture, but it wasn’t good behind Lynn in the first three innings, although the right-hander was so good with his 22nd career game with double-digit strikeouts it didn’t threaten to derail them.
The Mariners got their run when right fielder Andrew Vaughn got a poor jump on Abraham Toro’s bloop single scoring Cal Raleigh from third after Raleigh got there on Yasmani Grandal’s passed ball. There was also a wild pitch on Lynn that was in Grandal’s blocking reach, but Lynn struck out Jake Lamb and Julio Rodriguez to strand two runners and limit the damage to a run.
Pollock homered against lefty Marco Gonzales in the second and Andrus homred to right in the third with Romy Gonzalez (single) on base, the ball tipping off right fielder Mitch Haniger’s glove near the top of the wall. Andrus, who has solidified the shortstop position after Tim Anderson’s injury, also made a pair of good plays in the field.
Bummer had been away on a rehab stint at Charlotte and joined the team in Chicago Sunday to catch the flight to Seattle.
“I think I got here in the fourth or fifth inning [Sunday],” Bummer said. “There is a different vibe, it felt like. It honestly kind of felt like September baseball, to where it was just doing the things that we needed to do. The goal is to go out there and win. That’s a pretty common goal. There’s a lot more energy. It felt good, honestly. It just felt good to be back. I think that everyone is excited that we’re getting healthy and we’ve got a chance to make a run at this thing.”
