White Sox 16, Mariners 1: A complete game

Try and find something to dislike about this game. I don’t think it’s possible.

The White Sox offense scored 16 runs for the first time in more than three years. They tallied 19 hits for the first time in more than three years. Everybody in the White Sox lineup had at least two hits except Willy Garcia, who compensated with a towering upper-tank shot for his first major league homer, and the silent treatment afterward.

The beating was so severe that they faced their second pitching position player of the year, and they tagged him for a run, too.

What about the pitching side? Well, Mike Pelfrey picked up his first win with six innings of one-run ball. He gave up just four hits and no walks. Sure, the White Sox made his job easy with a 4-0 lead before he took the mound, but the big cushion presented its own kind of test for the struggling veteran. If he turned this one into a nail-biter, he might’ve been out of a job. Instead, he breezed through his six in just 77 pitches, 54 for strikes.

And the defense? Well, Yolmer Sanchez turned four double plays, which is remarkable considering the Mariners only had eight baserunners.

Todd Frazier might’ve made the only real mistake when he tried to stretch a single into a double in the first inning, but even he made it a sight to behold.

Avisail Garcia deserves the most credit for turning this game into a laugher. He had a monster game, going 4-for-5 with two homers, two doubles, three runs scored and six RBIs.

He’s the one who sent Yovani Gallardo and the Mariners into a tailspin from the beginning. Sanchez started the game with a walk and made it to second when second baseman Mike Freeman tried to start a double play on Melky Cabrera’s slow chopper, but couldn’t come up with it cleanly enough to even get one out. Jose Abreu and Garcia then capitalized on back-to-back pitches. Abreu shot a double to left field for the game’s first run before Garcia lofted a first-pitch curveball over the left-field wall for a three-run shot.

He wasn’t done. When he came up the next time in the third, he hit a solo shot to right center for a 5-0 lead.

He put the nail in the coffin his third time at bat. After the Sox chased Gallardo with three runs on a Willy Garcia sac fly and a Cabrera single, Garcia greeted Dillon Overton with a laser double through the left-center gap to score two more and make it a double-digit affair.

From that point on, the White Sox could focus solely on stat-padding, which mainly took place in the seventh. Frazier contributed a two-run single, Matt Davidson hit a two-run homer to left, and Willy Garcia outdid him in the same direction with a no-doubt clout down the line.

All this was off Overton, who was tasked with saving the bullpen. He got the game through eight despite the damage, and Scott Servais sent Freeman to pitch the ninth with his array of knuckleballs and junk.

The Sox didn’t take it easy on him, either, at least at the plate. They saved their energy on the basepaths while loading the bases with three singles, after which came three well-struck flyouts. Willy Garcia hit the first, so he got the sac fly for his third RBI of the game.

Bullet points:

*The White Sox were 9-for-14 with runners in scoring poistion, while the Mariners were 0-for-3.

*Avisail Garcia hiked his OPS over 1.000 after his masterpiece (1.010). He’s the first White Sox hitter to collect 12 total bases in a game since Dan Johnson homered three times during the final day of the 2012 season.

Record: 19-22 | Box score | Highlights