SEATTLE — Knowing Robinson Cano will be back soon, Ryon Healy wants to show he deserves to keep Seattle’s first base job.
Healy hit a pair of three-run homers for a career-best six RBI, lifting the Mariners over the Chicago White Sox 8-2 Sunday.
“I want to help this team win every single day whether I’m in the lineup or not,” Healy said. “And I’m going to find a way to do that. When Cano comes back or whatever, I don’t care.”
Cano is eligible to return in mid-August from an 80-game suspension for a positive drug test. Seattle acquired second baseman Dee Gordon in Cano’s absence, and Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said last week that Cano will play every day when he returns, mostly at first.
“Things like that are out of my control,” Healy said. “I’m not a guy who needs to try harder. I think I try too hard at times. It isn’t the first time this has happened to me or anyone else in this game.”
Healy homered in a five-run first off Reynaldo Lopez (4-8) and in the eighth against Hector Santiago, giving him 20 homers and 53 RBIs this season. Healy had five-RBI games against Colorado on July 8 and for Oakland versus Toronto on June 5 last year.
He entered with a .236 batting average and .268 on-base percentage.
“I want to compete and I want to win and I want to go where this team hasn’t gone before,” Healy said. “I want to be a big part of that. My job is to make their job as hard as possible when the moment comes.”
RELATED STORIES
• Young players don’t get importance of defense, Ozzie Guillen says
• Former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen discovers his softer side
Marco Gonzales (11-5) won his fourth consecutive start, allowing two runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings.
“Marco really threw the ball well again today,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “He changed speeds and was really attacking.”
Gonzales did not give up a hit or a walk in the first five innings
“I was trying to stay aggressive,” he said. “They are a team that tends to chase, so I wanted to get ahead in the count early. I was happy where my stuff was today. I take pride in getting a win.”
Lopez allowed five hits and four walks in five innings.
“He was leaving pitches out over the plate a little bit, and he got roughed around,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “But he settled down and got us through five when it wasn’t really his day.”
Seattle had scored only three runs in the previous two games before the first inning, which included Kyle Seager’s bases-loaded, go-ahead walk and Denard Span’s sacrifice fly.
Adam Engel reached on an infield single with two outs in the sixth for Chicago’s first hit and Tim Anderson followed with a home run.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: C Mike Zunino came off the 10-DL after recovering from a bruised left ankle bone. C David Freitas was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. … Manager Scott Servais said RHP Erasmo Ramirez will make another rehab start this week at Tacoma and probably pitch three innings.
UP NEXT
White Sox: RHP Lucas Giolito (6-8, 6.18 ERA) is to start the series opener Monday at the Los Angeles Angels. Giolito allowed two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings against Kansas City in his last start.
Mariners: LHP James Paxton (8-4, 3.70 ERA) is expected to come off the 10-day DL to start Tuesday night against San Francisco. Paxton went on the DL on July 13 because of lower back inflammation. He threw a bullpen session Saturday.
