The Seattle Mariners bid good riddance to Kansas City.
Despite prevailing 6-5 in 10 innings Sunday afternoon to avoid a three-game sweep against the Royals, the Mariners gladly boarded a flight home.
They’ll open a four-game series against the lowly Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
“It was wild like they always are here in Kansas City,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Ton of credit to our guys. This is a tough place for us to figure out how to win a ballgame. We’ve had leads here, a lot of leads the last few years and the Royals they’re just pesky as hell. They’re really tough to finish off.”
On Friday, the Mariners blew an eight-run lead and lost 10-9.
They took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth Sunday before Kansas City tied it on MJ Melendez’s two-run homer with two outs.
In the 10th, Julio Rodriguez drove in the go-ahead run and Cal Raleigh added a two-run single to give the Mariners a three-run cushion. They needed each of those runs as the Royals’ Hunter Renfroe hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
“Credit to our guys, when you give up the lead like that, the first thing is to feel sorry for yourself,” Servais said. “You can’t do that. You got to go out, grind and figure out a way to create another rally and we did. It’s time to get out of here. Let’s go home and play there.”
Seattle’s J.P. Crawford led off the first inning with a home run for a second consecutive day and Tyler Locklear, making his MLB debut, hit a run-scoring double in the seventh.
“This series was like playoff baseball at its best,” Crawford said. “They’re a really good team. They never stopped giving up. We never quit. These games are really fun to play in.”
Locklear was selected from Triple-A Tacoma after first baseman Ty France was placed on the 10-day injured list with a fractured right heel suffered when hit by a pitch Friday. Locklear left 13 tickets at the gate for family members from Baltimore to witness his debut.
“You just try to relax, have fun and play baseball,” Locklear said. “I thought (the go-ahead double) was going to hang up a little bit, just the way the yard was playing. I was just glad it got down.”
The White Sox also went extra innings Sunday, losing 6-4 to Boston.
Paul DeJong doubled and added a three-run homer for the White Sox, who had won two in a row after a franchise-record 14-game skid.
“We took advantage of some of their mistakes there and we couldn’t quite put those finishing touches on them,” DeJong said. “Tough way to lose, but I liked the way we played the last three days.”
The White Sox are scheduled to start right-hander Erick Fedde (4-1, 3.27 ERA) on Monday against Mariners righty Logan Gilbert (3-4, 3.12).
Fedde, who will be seeking his first victory since May 14, is 0-2 with a 3.48 ERA in two career starts against Seattle.
Gilbert, winless in six outings since May 4, is 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA in four previous starts against the White Sox.
–Field Level Media