Mariners blow past White Sox in 5-1 win
The Mariners were not happy with the rainy conditions throughout Wednesday night's game against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Seattle was particularly steaming during the second inning, when the Sox scored 4 runs off Robbie Ray during a heavy downpour and went on to win 6-4.
"I was yelling at the umps: 'What are we doing here?'" Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "They were instructed to try to play through it and do everything they could to get the game in. They said it was only going to rain hard for like 5-10 minutes. We should've just stopped it there for a little bit."
The weather was weird again Thursday afternoon, only this time Seattle had the wind at its back.
With strong gusts making every ball hit in the air an adventure, the Mariners launched 3 home runs and beat the White Sox 5-1.
"We get a lot of weather challenges in the major leagues and you have to play in them," manager Tony La Russa said after Seattle snapped the Sox's four-game winning streak. "The wind was, it was kind of interesting, kind of fun for fans. There were a lot of funny things going on out there. It's one of those deals, if you expect to play when conditions are perfect or you're not sore or tired, you better find something else to do."
The Sox's only run came in the fifth inning and was definitely wind-aided.
With 2 outs, Adam Engel hit a pop fly that Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh should have easily caught but dropped for a two-base error.
Jake Burger followed with an RBI single that would have been caught by shortstop J.P. Crawford under normal conditions. It dropped in the infield and Burger still had a grin after the game.
"A beautiful Midwest day," the third baseman said. "I grew up in St. Louis so I know what it's like. It was really tough. You can't blame anybody out there for any of those dropped balls."
Starting in place of the injured Lucas Giolito, Jimmy Lambert pitched 3 innings for the White Sox and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and 1 walk.
"I'm just kind of building up still," said Lambert, who joined the Sox from Class AAA Charlotte. "The spring went slow. I think I had 50 pitches today, I threw (49), it was about right. I'd like to be able to do more, obviously. Hopefully we can build off of it."
The Sox did win 2 of 3 against the Mariners and also won their season opening series at Detroit.
"That's a huge positive that you can enjoy for the next 2-3 hours and all of the sudden there's another one that comes up, so you better make sure you're concentrating," La Russa said. "There's nothing wrong with, (as) Roland Hemond (said), enjoy the moment. But I felt better last night than I do now."