SEATTLE — Luis Robert Jr. had a scheduled day off Wednesday against the Seattle Mariners.
But with the Chicago White Sox down a run in the ninth inning, he was called on to hit for Nicky Lopez.
“I knew there was a chance I could pinch hit,” Robert said through an interpreter. “I’m not really used to those situations, but I just went there and tried to make hard contact.”
Robert lined the first pitch of the inning — a 94.9-mph fastball from Mike Baumann — over the left-field wall for a tying home run.
But for the second time in three nights, the Mariners ended the evening celebrating a walk-off win. Pinch hitter Mitch Haniger drove in Luke Raley with a bloop single to right field in the 10th inning to give the Mariners a 2-1 victory in front of 23,312 at T-Mobile Park.
“Great baseball game, we just came up on the wrong end of it,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
Starters Jonathan Cannon and Bryce Miller set the tone.
Miller allowed two hits while striking out eight in seven scoreless innings for the Mariners.
Cannon allowed one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk in seven innings in his return to the Sox rotation after earning a three-inning save against the Boston Red Sox on June 7.
“It goes back to some of the adjustments I was able to make from being up here and then going back down (to Triple A),” Cannon said. “And carrying that into my last outing and into today. It’s going to be about keeping that consistency from start to start.”
Those adjustments included execution against left-handed hitters.
“Those guys really ate me up the last time I was here,” Cannon said. “I was able to go down and work on some stuff. I feel really confident about where my stuff is right now.”
He made one mistake Wednesday, allowing a home run to Raley in the seventh.
“Just a bad pitch,” Cannon said of the first-pitch changeup.
Robert tied it in dramatic fashion with his sixth homer of the season. It was the first pinch-hit home run of his career.
The Sox had a runner on third with one out in the 10th, but Lenyn Sosa grounded out to third with the infield in and pinch hitter Andrew Benintendi struck out.
Haniger batted with runners on first and second and one out in the 10th. He blooped a 2-2 sweeper from reliever Steven Wilson for the winning hit on the ninth pitch of the at-bat.
The Sox received another strong starting pitching outing in the series. Cannon followed similarly impressive performances from Erick Fedde and Drew Thorpe.
But all three games included the Mariners coming through with clutch hits late — Cal Raleigh hit a walk-off grand slam in the ninth to beat the Sox 8-4 on Monday and had a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh to help the Mariners to a 4-3 win Tuesday.
The Sox have lost 22 of their last 25 games. And they are off to their worst 69-game start in franchise history at 17-52. The previous mark was 23-46, which occurred in 1929, 1934 and 1948.
“Every time you lose is difficult,” Robert said. “We have to turn the page and come back tomorrow and try to win the game.”
