Grading the glitching Seattle Mariners' nail-biting 2-1 series win vs. Chicago White Sox

It wasn't pretty. And it probably should have been a sweep. But when it comes down to it, the Seattle Mariners have now won two series in a row and five of the first six games on their 10-game road trip.

They had to fight to claim two out of three against the White Sox in Chicago, including all the way up to the eighth inning of Game 3 on Wednesday. The Mariners trailed 5-4 when Leody Taveras came to the rescue with a go-ahead two-run home run, his first since joining the team earlier this month.

This latest win has the Mariners' record at 28-20, and even better is their season-high 3.5-game lead over the Houston Astros in the American League West. They'll take it, even if everyone in the Pacific Northwest would have preferred to see them take even more.

Let's get deeper into what happened by recapping the White Sox series and grading the Mariners' performance in all aspects of the game.

Mariners vs. White Sox Breakdown and Grades: Series Results

• Monday, May 19: SEA 5, CHW 1
• Tuesday, May 20: SEA 0, CHW 1
• Wednesday, May 21: SEA 6, CHW 5

Grading the Mariners’ Offense: D

First and foremost, mark this series down as the latest bit of evidence that Julio Rodríguez is heating up faster than he usually does.

He was a bright spot even as the Mariners were going through turbulence prior to embarking on this road trip, yet this is the brightest he's been shining all season. He got the M's started with a three-run home run in the first inning on Wednesday, and it wasn't even his biggest homer of the series given that he had launched a grand slam on Monday.

Rodríguez is now up to nine home runs through 48 games, putting him nearly halfway to the 20 he hit across 143 games last year.

Meanwhile, the home run beat goes on for Cal Raleigh. His 16th homer of the year briefly tied Wednesday's contest at 4-4, and also pulled him back into a tie with Aaron Judge for the American League lead.

Yet whereas Rodríguez alone drove in seven runs during this series, his teammates combined to drive in just four. And even J-Rod was complicit in a truly ugly group effort on Tuesday, wherein the Mariners mustered only four hits as they were shut out for the second time this season.

Lifeless performances like those have been too common from this offense of late. After averaging 5.3 runs per game through May 2, it's down to just 3.7 in 17 games since then. At-bats have gotten overly passive and resulted in too much weak contact, and even the ground game has become an issue. Since May 9, the Mariners are only 3-for-6 in stolen base attempts.

Grading the Mariners’ Defense: B

At least according to the official scorer, this is another series in which the Mariners played relatively clean defense.

Their lone error was charged to Dylan Moore in the seventh inning on Wednesday, and it ultimately resulted in the White Sox scoring the go-ahead run. But it was going to be tough for Moore to make the out, as he was attempting to field the ball on the shortstop side of second base and therefore would have needed to make a perfect throw to get Tim Elko at first base.

There otherwise weren't as many memorable moments on defense as there were in the Mariners' previous series, though Ben Williamson and Randy Arozarena can beg to differ. The former made a nifty play on a grounder up the third base line on Wednesday, with the latter pitching in a diving catch on Monday:

Should Rodríguez have gotten to the bloop by Andrew Vaughn that scored a run on Monday? Probably, but it might have meant risking injury on a dive or slide. There are times when that is appropriate, yet this was not one of them. The game wasn't on the line and the White Sox offense is not the type to punish teams for giving extra outs.

We do need to talk about the play that set up the winning run on Tuesday, however. That was a stolen base by Chase Meidroth, who made it an even 40 stolen bases against the Mariners. He added another on Wednesday to make it 41 against only nine caught-stealings, an 18 percent success rate.

It's an odd and unwelcome twist after the Mariners tied for second in MLB with a 26 CS% in 2024. Yet since Raleigh's pop time is only up by .03 seconds relative to 2024, the coaching staff should look into whether it's the pitchers who are giving baserunners too much runway.

Grading the Mariners’ Pitching: B

Again, this is the White Sox we're talking about. They came into the series as arguably the worst offensive team in MLB, so anything less than total domination on the Mariners' part would have been unacceptable.

It is more so on the side of acceptable that the Mariners permitted only seven runs in the three games. Luis Castillo turned in an especially brilliant performance in the first game on Monday, allowing three hits and no walks over seven scoreless innings.

Though Castillo is not the same fireballer he's been for most of his career, the 32-year-old is still getting it done with a 3.20 ERA through 10 starts. His determination to attack hitters with his fastball shouldn't be working, but he seems to have varied its shape as a means to obscure its diminished velocity.

As frustrating as Tuesday's game was, you have to hand it for Casey Legumina and Casey Lawrence for piggybacking their way to six one-run innings. While Logan Evans did give up three home runs on Wednesday, two were against pitches outside the strike zone. And with no off day before the next series, it was huge that he was able to go six innings and spare the bullpen undue effort.

The only truly ugly performance in the series was the work of Troy Taylor in the ninth inning of the first game. He was handed a 5-0 lead to close out, yet he forced Dan Wilson to turn to Andrés Muñoz after getting only two outs and yielding two hits and two walks.

All's well that ends well, though, and one thing the Mariners did not do in this series was give the White Sox easy baserunners. They walked only five batters in the three games.

Grading the Mariners’ Strategy: C

Speaking of the quagmire that was the ninth inning on Monday, did Wilson really have to bring in Muñoz to clean up Taylor's mess?

It was an aggressive move, and one that Wilson surely did not want to make given how hard he's ridden the flamethrowing righty this year. But with the bases loaded and the White Sox within four runs, calling on Muñoz to get one out was ultimately a better play than hoping someone else wouldn't give up a grand slam. And in the end, he got the out to keep his ERA at 0.00 for the year.

“He’s been so consistent," Wilson said, per Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times. “Just came in there and did what he does, which is he gets ahead and keeps the ball down, and whether it’s his fastball or his slider, it’s devastating stuff. A great job by him in a tough situation.’’

Wilson faced another conundrum in the second game, this time with the bases loaded and one out for his offense. He made the call to lift Jorge Polanco in favor of Mitch Garver to face lefty reliever Cam Booser. It was ostensibly the right call, as Garver traditionally crushes lefties and the switch-hitting Polanco can't bat righty because of a lingering side injury.

The result was a looking strikeout, however, and it's hard not to wonder if Wilson and the Mariners should be asking Polanco to bat left-on-left until he's fully recovered. He's only done it once in his career, but it might be best for the team if he gave it a shot. After all, his .942 OPS for the season has come entirely from the left side.

A more pressing question is why Matt Brash was not used in this series, and particularly in the seventh inning on Wednesday. Wilson has rightfully been careful with him in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, but he hasn't pitched since Saturday.

Wilson is thankfully going to have more options at his disposal as the season goes along and reinforcements begin to arrive off the injured list. George Kirby will be the first major returnee on Thursday, just in time to help the Mariners pad their AL West lead in a four-game series against the Astros.