Kelenic comes up clutch as Mariners take series over White Sox with 5-1 win
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In the rubber match against the Chicago White Sox to close out their fifth homestand of the 2023 season, the Seattle Mariners secured a straight series win. With another quality performance from first-year starting pitcher Bryce Miller, the Mariners got a huge bases-loaded clearing triple late for three insurance ones after White Sox starter Lance Lynn recorded 16 strikeouts against Seattle. The win gave the Mariners a 4-2 record over the course of this homestand, while also making them 28-17 on Father’s Day all-time. While there are still obvious issues at hand for Seattle, collecting series wins is the sort of trajectory they’ll need if they want to put themselves in a better position when the All-Star break that they’re hosting comes around.
Pregame sights and scenes ahead of the Seattle Mariners win over the Chicago White Sox on Father’s Day, 2023 (Photos by Liz Wolter)
The tall Texan turns it up
Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller continues to have an impressive beginning to his young career, outside of two rough outings against the Yankees and Rangers. Considering that those are two of the better offenses in all of baseball, seeing Miller (who is still developing his off-speed pitches and was called up from AA this year) struggle against them isn’t a big deal. How he responded was notable to watch, and Miller has answered the bell well in his past two starts including today. Across six innings against the Marlins on the 12th, Miller only allowed one run on one hit on 89 pitches. Today, Miller had that same sort of success as he did his part towards helping the Mariners win this game.
“Wow, what an outing, on a day that our bullpen was very thin. That was the best shot to win the game he had to go out, dominate the game and he did it.”
“Our bullpen was light today, was hoping to stay away from a few guys down there, so credit to him. Just a fantastic outing.”
“He enjoys playing baseball, enjoys the atmosphere, the environment here, and he should. He’s performing at the highest level and he’s doing it against the best players in the world and having a lot of success.”
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller went seven strong innings in a quality start for his team (Photos by Liz Wolter)
With a heavy dosage of his quality fastball and a good mixture of his slider, Miller time was a great time as his velocity was up on every kind of pitch he threw (in addition to the fast ball and slider, he threw a sweeper, curveball, and changeup) and his primary two pitches saw increase in vertical break. Outside of a double by Elvis Andrus that was scored on an Andrew Benintendi single in the sixth inning, Miller never dealt with any danger outside of one hit in each of the second and fourth innings. On a day where the Mariners needed to give their relievers a break, Miller was able to deliver while also allowing just the one run to put his team in an excellent position to win the ballgame.
“Bryce is a hell of a pitcher. It’s fun to play behind him. He works quick. He pounds the strike zone. He’s trying to come right at you, and that’s fun to watch.”
“We just had a stretch. I mean, they happen throughout the season. We had a stretch where us as starters put a couple bad stars together and we weren’t really hitting. It’s all about timing really, the hitters are going to come around eventually. We’re gonna throw well, it doesn’t really matter if we put together a good start.”
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh’s single and a walk by shortstop JP Crawford were driven in by center Julio Rodriguez in the third inning with a double (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Spurt of Seattle offense early
Facing off against White Sox starter Lance Lynn, who has largely struggled this season after coming off an impressive 2022, the Mariners offense was quiet in the first two innings before really busting out in the third. Cal Raleigh got Seattle’s first hit of the day with a single, but strikeouts from Mike Ford and Kolten Wong made it seem as though the Mariners were going to strand him at first. Shortstop JP Crawford drew a walk to keep things alive, before Julio Rodriguez came up big with a double to push Raleigh and Crawford across homeplate to get the scoring going and capitalize on runners in scoring position with two outs. It was great to see Julio push those runs across early to try and chip away at what Lynn had been doing to begin the game, but the Mariners offense failed to keep the ball rolling in the innings that followed.
“He’s a fantastic player. And he’s just scratching the surface. He’s got chance to be just the dynamic superstar in our game. When you’re in games like today, when we’re coming off a tough loss last night, you kind of need your best players to step up and get a big hit. He got one, Jarred got one, good for those young guys, hopefully build off that going on this road trip.”
The 8th inning proved huge for Seattle, as Mariners left fielder Jarred Kelenic hit a bases-loaded clearing triple to add insurance runs (Photos by Liz Wolter)
They went to Jarred
After the two runs pushed across home plate by Julio Rodriguez in the third inning, the Mariners offense went bone-chillingly cold, and it wasn’t because of the June Gloom weather at T-Mobile Park with the roof closed. A combination of White Sox starter Lance Lynn having his best outing of the year and the Seattle bats continuing to be horrid resulted in Lynn recording 16 strikeouts, tying a franchise record for Chicago. Outside of a Julio Rodriguez walk in the sixth inning and a Cal Raleigh single in the seventh, the Mariners weren’t able to put any runners on base from the third to eighth inning. A Kolten Wong bunt ended Lynn’s day at a whopping 114 pitches, and got a big inning going for Seattle.
“He’s been in the league for, I don’t even know how many years, so the guy knows how to pitch. He’s a stud. He had a game today and we battled. Like I mentioned out there, you know, we came up with the W. And that’s what’s most important.”
Knocking Lynn out of the game is something that may not be talked about a bunch because it was Wong who did it (considering that many have horrible feelings towards him) and that the Chicago starter was way up in terms of pitches, but it may have been the turning point the team needed. While Wong was thrown out at second on a JP Crawford grounder, Crawford was able to reach first. Julio Rodriguez struck out next, putting doubt in the minds of the 44,772 fans at T-Mobile Park that the Mariners could add insurance runs on. A Ty France walk, after being down in an 0-2 count, followed by a walk from Teoscar Hernandez loaded the bases with two outs.
Coming into this game today having gone 0-6 on the series with the bases loaded, there was doubt that Seattle could capitalize in the big moment. Jarred Kelenic stood strong in the face of that doubt, blasting a bases-loaded clearing triple into the left-center gap to extend the Mariners lead and give them enough insurance to win. With the game no longer being a save situation, instead of Paul Sewald pitching for a third consecutive game (he was warming up prior to Kelenic’s triple), Ty Adcock came in. Even though he did allow two hits, Adcock was able to get the three outs needed to slam the door shut and give his team the series win to close out the homestand with a 4-2 record.
“I believe so. I have the utmost confidence in every single guy in our in our clubhouse. And like I said, unfortunately, we haven’t consistently put it together. But that’s why the season is 162 games, we don’t have to put it together right away. At the end of the year, we’re going to be right where we want to be. And that’s the bottom line.”
Ty Adcock got the three outs in the ninth inning to close out the victory, and the Seattle Mariners celebrate (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Quick notes
In the final game of the series today, the Mariners beat the White Sox 5-1 and secured a series win… they move back to .500 on the season.
Over the last 16 games at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners hold a 11-5 record.
In rubber games, Seattle improves to 3-6.
Jarred Kelenic picked up a 3-RBI triple in the 8th inning… it was his 2nd triple this season and 2nd 3 RBI game of the season so far (last: 5/23 @ CHI).
Kelenic’s triple was the hardest hit ball of the game at 107.8 MPH.
In the 200th game of his career, Julio Rodríguez went 1-for-3 with 1 double, 1 walk, 2 RBI and 1 stolen base.
Today marked Rodríguez’ first multi-RBI game with an extra-base hit of the season.
He picked up his team-leading 15th stolen base following a walk in the 6th inning… it was also Rodríguez’ 40th career steal.
He is the 2nd player in MLB history to reach 40+ home runs & 40+ stolen bases in his first 200 career games, joining Fernando Tatis Jr.
Cal Raleigh went 2-for-3 and scored 1 run in today’s game…Raleigh’s single in the 3rd was the Mariners first hit of the game.
Today marked his 12th mutli-hit game this season (last: 6/14 vs. MIA).
Following a walk in the 8th inning, Teoscar Hernández has now reached base safely in all 14 of his June games (4/2-c)….this month, Hernández is batting .353 (18x51) with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 11 RBI and 7 walks.
J.P. Crawford went 1-for-3 with 1 run and 1 walk… it is his 4th consecutive game with at least 1 walk drawn.
Crawford holds a team-leading 39 walks on the season…he is tied for 4th most walks in the American League, trailing Ryan Noda-OAK with 48.
Kolten Wong picked up a bunt hit to reach base in the 8th inning… it was the 1st Mariners bunt hit of the season.
In his 9th start of the season today, Bryce Miller threw 7.0 innings pitched and allowed 4 hits, 1 run (1 ER), 0 walks and struck out 6 over 85 pitches.
In 7 of his 9 career starts, Miller has not allowed more than 1 walk… he ties for the 2nd most games with 1-or-fewer walks through a starting pitcher’s first 10 career starts in Mariners history (highest: George Kirby-10, 2022).
Following his outing today, Miller has not allowed more than 1 earned run in 6 of his 9 starts.
Miller also ties a season and career-high in innings pitched following today’s game (also: 5/13 @ DET).
The Mariners bullpen today (Justin Topa and Ty Adcock) combined for 2.0 innings and allowed 2 hits and struck out 1.
The Mariners 16 strikeouts today against Lance Lynn mark a new season high in strikeouts against an opposing team’s starting pitcher (previously: 13 SO by Kevin Gausman-TOR on 4/29).
It ties the 2nd most strikeouts Seattle has recorded against an opposing team’s starter in franchise history (highest: 20 by Roger Clemens-BOS on 4/29/1986).
What’s next?
Following this six-game homestand that featured two series wins, the Mariners will head out on the road for a six-game road trip against two American League east teams. To begin their road trip, the Mariners will get a rematch of their series in May against the New York Yankees, looking to fare better this time around after getting blasted by the Bronx Bombers in the first two games before walking off the third. Following that series, that lasts from June 20th-22nd, Seattle heads to Baltimore to battle with the Orioles for the first time this season. That series lasts from June 23rd-25th, as the Mariners look to take a series against their former second baseman Adam Frazier and an Orioles team that’s started the year out well.