Jhonny Pereda hits 1st MLB home run as Mariners beat White Sox 5-3 to win 3-game series

SEATTLE — Jhonny Pereda hit his first MLB homer, Randy Arozarena also went deep and scored three runs, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 Wednesday.

Pereda, who was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma last week when AL MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain, turned on a hanging breaking ball from White Sox lefty Sean Newcomb (0-1) in the seventh inning for a 392-foot homer into Seattle’s bullpen. The backup catcher went 136 at-bats before hitting his first big-league homer.

Pereda made a stand out play in the field, too, tagging Chase Meidroth in a rundown in the sixth after the Chicago second baseman took too big of a lead off third base. Pereda made a strong throw to third base trying to pick off the runner while Cooper Criswell (2-1) was pitching.

Randy Arozarena, who scored two runs earlier in the game, put Seattle up for good with a two-run homer in the seventh off Jordan Hicks. The homer was Arozarena’s fifth of the season, and gave the Mariners a three-run lead.

Chicago never led, but twice evened the score on RBI singles off Mariners starter Emerson Hancock, who increased his run of starts with at least five innings pitched to 10 games. Andrew Benintendi delivered a two-out RBI single in the third, and Munetaka Murakami added another in the fifth.

The White Sox closed within a run in the ninth as Randal Grichuk led off the inning with his fourth homer of the season. But that was as close as Chicago got before Jose A. Ferrer earned his third save.

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White Sox right-handed pitcher Davis Martin (6-1, 1.61 ERA) will start opposite Giants right-handed pitcher Trevor McDonald (2-0, 2.37) in San Francisco on Friday night.