Mariners sink White Sox, 5-1

When the highlight of your game is the fact nobody got hurt, you know you didn’t have a good day.

That’s especially true when the No. 2 big moment was a rookie making his big league debut and striking out his first batter, albeit aided by a very dubious checked swing strike call by a third base umpire who obviously wanted to get the game over with so he could get out of the cold and the wind.

Anderson Severino ended up throwing 1 ¹⁄₃ innings and notching three K’s to go along with a hit batsman and a walk, but the effort was really only important to Severino and his mom, because the game was all but over when he came in.

Not that the White Sox didn’t have any offense in their 5-1 loss. Well, actually, it was more that Chicago weather had some offense, because the Windy City lived up to its name in the fifth:

And the error that put Adam Engel on and in position to score only came after his foul pop-up had already been dropped.

Mariners starter Logan Gilbert was the victim of the hilarity, mainly in the sense it greatly increased his pitch count, but he still lasted five innings to pick up the win.

At the time of the wind aid, the Sox were down 2-0 on a 114 mph EV, 389-foot, definitely-not-wind-aided line shot to right by Jarred Kelenic off of Jimmy Lambert in the second, That shot marred an otherwise nice three-inning emergency start for Lambert, who ended up with a loss that dropped his career record to 1-2.

The wind became equal opportunity in the top of the seventh on a fly to left by Cal Raleigh which, while hit hard (105.7 mph), seemed too high to travel far (42 degree launch angle), but drifted on over the fence to make it 3-1. The Mariners played long ball once again with a Mitch Haniger 111 mph EV, 372-foot shot off of José Ruiz in the eighth, which would have been out if it had been hit into the gale instead of with it.

Four Seattle relievers yielded no hits and one walk, with Andres Muñoz striking out the side with a fastball that reached 102.8 mph. Into the wind. Other than Severino, the best White Sox pitching came from fellow rookie Tanner Banks, with just two walks in two innings, and perennial hopeful Matt Foster, who struck out two in in 1 ¹⁄₃. As for Bennett Sousa and Ruiz, well, nice try.

Nice try was it for the White Sox hitters as well, albeit in a lineup that was missing not only four injured starters, but also Yasmani Grandal, getting a day off after a night game. Burger’s dropped pop, which really should have been an E-6, was one of four singles on the day, one of the others being a broken-bat luckout by Gavin Sheets — but at least it got Sheets his first hit of the season. Leury García remained 0-for-2022, and managed a couple of errors as well, so it will be good if Josh Harrison is ready to play again soon.

Tim Anderson had the other two hits, and even one of those was just a nubber. Still, they raised his average to .471. Maybe Tim should get suspended for a couple of games to open every season.

The Sox are now 4-2 and begin a home series against 4-3 Tampa Bay Friday night, with Dylan Cease trying to break his tradition of suffering against teams with winning records. He’ll be facing Drew Rasmussen, who gave up two runs in four innings in a no-decision against the Orioles in his first outing of the season. Hannah LaMotta will have the (AppleTV exclusive game) recap, with Chrystal O’Keefe on the Six Pack and Adrian Serrano on the Bird App.

All told, a good day to forget.

Unless you’re in the Severino family, in which case it’s a great game to remember.