White Sox 8, Mariners 1: Killing them softly

The White Sox opened with an early onslaught in the second in as many games in Seattle.

This one was a lot a lot softer, though. Chris Heston issued three walks to load the bases and set up a whole bunch of two-out silliness. The White Sox hit four straight singles, alternating legit hits with lucky ones.

Yolmer Sanchez shot a 2-1 sinker through the right side for a 2-0 lead ... followed by a checked Tim Anderson swing rolling the ball toward the right side, where no second baseman was playing for another RBI. Matt Davidson inside-outed a full-count sinker to right for another run ... followed by a checked Kevan Smith swing effectively dropping a perfect bunt down the third-base line to make it a 5-0 game.

Like Mike Pelfrey the night before, Derek Holland had a huge lead before he even threw a pitch. He was just as good for it, throwing eight innings and surrendering only a Nelson Cruz solo shot. He scattered six hits and two walks, and the White Sox again turned four double plays to short-circuit the attempts at rallies.

The Sox offense couldn’t find another crooked number, but it was good at kicking the lead further out of reach.

Third inning: Anderson lofts a fly to left that carries, carries, and carries just over the wall in left for a two-out solo shot.

Fourth inning: Heston leaves the bases loaded with nobody out on a double, walk and error for Dan Altavilla, who induces a 4-3 double play off the bat of Jose Abreu. Still, another run.

Fifth inning: Todd Frazier draws a leadoff walk, moves to second on a wild pitch, takes third on a groundout and scores on another flared Davidson RBI single.

The bottom of the order did the heavy lifting, and Anderson more than the rest by going 3-for-4 with the homer. He, Davidson, and Smith combined to go 7-for-12 with five RBIs and three runs scored from the last three spots in the order. The top five spots were short on impact hits, but they did draw six walks to set up the scoring.

Bullet points:

*And just like that, Anderson’s average is up to .264.

*Sanchez’s two-run single extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and he also made a slick sliding catch in shallow right field.

Record: 20-22 | Box score | Highlights