Davis Martin, who could be emerging as the White Sox’ ace, was sharp again Sunday.
Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert was even sharper, allowing just one hit and walking none in six innings.
But the Sox finally broke through for two runs in the eighth against reliever Eduard Bazardo to pull out a 2-1 win Sunday at Rate Field.
Newcomer Randal Grichuk cracked his second homer in three home games with the Sox to start the eighth and tie it at 1. His no-doubt drive to left came on a down-the middle sweeper with a 1-2 count.
The Sox scored the go-ahead run on Miguel Vargas’ sacrifice fly to Randy Arozarena in short left.
Catcher Drew Romo, who doubled after Grichuk’s shot, had advanced to third on Sam Antonacci’s bunt and was parked there after Bazardo intentionally walked slugger Munetaka Murakami.
Arozarena raced in to catch Vargas’ fly, measured at 243 feet by Statcast. Sox third-base coach Justin Jirschele sent Romo, and the gamble paid off.
“That was a shallow fly ball, and I’m a catcher. I’m not the fastest guy,‘‘ Romo said. “So it’s yes, I’m going until he stops me. And he just told me to keep on going.‘‘
Romo said he ran in with his head down and didn’t even notice Arozarena’s throw sailed over catcher Cal Raleigh.
“Thought it was a decent read with Randy coming in full speed,” Jirschele said. “And then a little bit of the hesitation getting it out of his glove and taking a chance there with two outs to take the lead. Maybe it did catch him off guard a little bit, but we’ll take it either way.”
“Somebody said I ran three-quarters of the way down the line with [Romo],” Jirschele added. “I don’t remember that. I think I blacked out.”
Then closer Seranthony Dominguez survived his own one-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth, but earned his ninth save. He allowed two singles and walk, but closed it out by getting Cole Young to pop out and Brendan Donovan on a grounder.
The White Sox improved to 19-21, but only after restarting an offense that was shut down for most of the afternoon.
Vargas’ line double to the base of the left-field wall with two outs in the first was the Sox only hit off Gilbert. The Seattle righty struck out nine.
The Sox didn’t hit another ball with authority until Vargas lined out to Arozarena for their second out in the fourth.
“Gilbert’s really tough,” Sox manager Will Venable said “He’s as good as they get. I honestly don’t know how anyone scores against him. He’s got such good stuff.”
Martin allowed one run on three hits, while striking out nine and walking two in six innings. He reached a season-high 105 pitches –72 strikes — before Sean Newcomb relieved to start the seventh.
Martin scuffled only in a 27-pitch first inning when Seattle grabbed a 1-0 lead.
Julio Rodriguez doubled with one out, then Josh Naylor walked. After Martin struck out struggling Raleigh looking, Arozarena singled up the middle to score Rodriguez.
Martin retired 14 of 17 hitters the rest of the way, but needed some fine-tuning.
“Just the pregame bullpen wasn’t very crisp, but I think it kind of carried into the first inning,” said Martin, who remained at 5-1 and trimmed his ERA to 1.62.
“So you know, had some hard conversations with (pitching coach Zach) Bove in the dugout and made some mechanical adjustments and went out and attacked the zone.”
Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless eighth, working around Josh Naylor’s single to earn his first win this season. The 6-foot-8 left-hander has not allowed a run over a career-high 18 appearances and 16 2/3 innings, the longest scoreless appearance streak in the majors this season.