SEATTLE – For eight innings Thursday, the White Sox and Mariners played to a draw in a game of home run derby.
In the ninth, the Mariners broke the tie with a small ball run, scratching out a 5-4 victory on Guillermo Heredia’s pinch single against left-hander Dan Jennings scoring Jarrod Dyson for a 5-4 victory. It was the Sox’ fourth loss in a row.
Dyson hit his second home run, and Jean Segura extended his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest in the majors this season, with a three-run homer against Sox starter Dylan Covey to put the Sox in a 4-0 hole.
For the Sox, Matt Davidson hit his seventh homer against reliever Casey Lawrence in the seventh inning with Tim Anderson (double) on base, and Todd Frazier and Anderson hit back-to-back jacks in the eighth to tie the score at 4-4.
The Sox are 0-4 on their 10-game road trip and lost the 10th time in the last 12 games overall. They have also lost seven straight games on the road.
Covey (0-3, 7.64 ERA) made his seventh start without getting a win, allowing four runs on five hits including the pair of homers. Covey walked three and struck out one, finishing six innings for the first time.
“That might have been his best outing,” manager Rick Renteria said.
Leury Garcia left the game in the fifth inning after getting hit with a pitch on the right elbow from Mariners starter Sam Gaviglio, who pitched five scoreless innings.
Dyson tried bunting Taylor Motter (leadoff single) to second in the ninth but Jennings made an aggressive throw to force Motter. When Carlos Ruiz grounded to Frazier, the third baseman went to second trying to force the speedy Dyson, who was running with the pitch, but Dyson beat the throw. Carlos Sanchez’ relay to first got Ruiz for the second out. After Segura was walked intentionally, Heredia, batting for lefty batter Ben Gamel, lobbed the game winning single into shallow right-center, scoring Dyson.
“Jennings had as good a chance of being able to get Heredia as anyone else,” Renteria said.
“Keep battling and eventually good things are going to happen,” Frazier said. “It was just unfortunate. Danny threw a good pitch, the guy hit a blooper. In this game, sometimes you don’t need a good swing.”
The Sox (17-22) are 4-12 in May after going 13-10 in April.
