Anderson helps White Sox beat Mariners for 4th straight win
CHICAGO (AP) — Tim Anderson homered and drove in three runs in the rain, and the banged-up Chicago White Sox beat Robbie Ray and the Seattle Mariners 6-4 on Wednesday night.
Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert also connected, helping Chicago to its fourth straight win since its dramatic loss at Detroit on opening day. Dallas Keuchel pitched five innings of three-run ball in his first start of the year.
The White Sox have been hit hard by injuries already this season, and they lost two more players in their second home game. Jiménez departed in the fifth with a left ankle contusion, and second baseman Josh Harrison left after seven innings because of lower back stiffness.
Ray (1-1) was charged with six runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings in his first loss with his new team. He won the AL Cy Young Award last year with Toronto and agreed to a $115 million, five-year contract with Seattle in November.
Ty France homered and drove in two runs for the Mariners, who lost their fourth straight game.
Chicago was clinging to a 4-3 lead when Adam Engel robbed pinch-hitter Jesse Winker of a leadoff homer in the sixth, making a leaping grab at the wall in right. White Sox reliever Kyle Crick threw his arms up in celebration after Engel came down with the ball.
Anderson and Robert then hit back-to-back homers in the seventh, and Liam Hendriks worked the ninth for his second save. Hendriks surrendered J.P. Crawford's RBI single before closing it out.
The start of the game was delayed for 47 minutes, and it rained for much of the night. The grounds crew spent almost as much time on the field as the players.
It really picked up with Ray on the mound in the second, and the White Sox took advantage.
Jiménez led off with a deep drive to left for his first extra-base hit of the season. Jake Burger singled in Andrew Vaughn with one out, and Anderson made it 4-1 with a two-run double.
Keuchel (1-0) had to deal with increased rain in the fifth, and the Blue Jays pushed across two runs to pull within one.
Crawford slid home safely when Keuchel picked up Dylan Moore's dribbler and sent a high flip to Yasmani Grandal at the plate. France had a run-scoring groundout, but Keuchel limited the damage by retiring Mitch Haniger on a foul popup for the final out.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Mariners: RHP Sergio Romo was placed on the 10-day injured list with shoulder inflammation. The move was made retroactive to Tuesday, a day after the reliever pitched a scoreless inning at Minnesota in his 800th major league appearance. RHP Matt Koch was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma, and RHP Casey Sadler (shoulder) was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
White Sox: RHP Lance Lynn said he is ahead of schedule in his recovery from right knee surgery. "But we'll see how that goes because there's still a lot of work left to do," he said. Lynn had surgery this month and is expected to be sidelined for four to six weeks.
UP NEXT
Right-handers Logan Gilbert and Jimmy Lambert start the series finale on Thursday. Gilbert (0-0, 1.80 ERA) pitched five effective innings in Seattle's 4-3 victory at Minnesota on Saturday. Lambert is making his first appearance for Chicago this year and his fourth start in the majors.
