Right-hander Davis Martin, who might be emerging as the White Sox’ ace, was sharp again Sunday.
But Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert was even sharper, allowing only one hit and walking none in six innings.
The Sox, however, finally broke through for two runs in the eighth against reliever Eduard Bazardo to pull out a 2-1 victory at Rate Field.
Newcomer Randal Grichuk cracked his second home run in three home games with the Sox to kick off the rally and tie the score at 1-1. His no-doubt drive to left field came on a down-the-middle sweeper on a 1-2 count.
The Sox scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Vargas to Randy Arozarena in short left. Drew Romo had doubled after Grichuk’s shot and advanced to third on a bunt by Sam Antonacci. Bazardo then intentionally walked slugger Munetaka Murakami to set the stage for the decisive play.
Arozarena raced in to catch Vargas’ fly, which was measured at 243 feet by Statcast. Sox third-base coach Justin Jirschele sent Romo, and the gamble paid off.
‘‘That was a shallow fly ball, and I’m a catcher; I’m not the fastest guy,’’ Romo said. ‘‘So it’s, ‘Yes, I’m going until he stops me.’ And he just told me to keep on going.’’
Romo said he ran with his head down and didn’t even notice that Arozarena’s throw sailed over catcher Cal Raleigh’s head.
‘‘Thought it was a decent read with Randy coming in full speed,’’ Jirschele said. ‘‘And then a little bit of the hesitation getting it out of his glove and taking a chance there with two outs to take the lead. Maybe it did catch him off-guard a little bit, but we’ll take it.
‘‘Somebody said I ran three-quarters of the way down the line with [Romo]. I don’t remember that. I think I blacked out.’’
Closer Seranthony Dominguez survived a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth to earn his ninth save. He allowed two singles and a walk but closed out the game by getting Cole Young on a pop-up and Brendan Donovan on a grounder.
The Sox improved to 19-21, despite their offense being shut down for most of the game. Vargas’ double to the base of the left-field wall with two outs in the first was their only hit against Gilbert, who struck out nine.
The Sox didn’t hit another ball with authority until Vargas lined out to Arozarena for the second out in the fourth.
‘‘Gilbert’s really tough,’’ manager Will Venable said. ‘‘He’s as good as they get. I honestly don’t know how anyone scores against him. He’s got such good stuff.’’
Martin allowed one run and three hits, struck out nine and walked two in six innings. He reached a season-high 105 pitches — 72 of them strikes — before Sean Newcomb relieved to start the seventh.
Martin scuffled only during a 27-pitch first, in which the Mariners grabbed a 1-0 lead. Julio Rodriguez doubled with one out, then Josh Naylor walked. After Martin struck out Raleigh looking, Arozarena singled up the middle to score Rodriguez.
Martin retired 14 of 17 hitters after the first but needed some fine-tuning.
‘‘Just the pregame bullpen wasn’t very crisp, but I think it kind of carried into the first inning,’’ said Martin, who remained at 5-1 and trimmed his ERA to 1.62.
‘‘So, you know, had some hard conversations with [pitching coach Zach] Bove in the dugout and made some mechanical adjustments and went out and attacked the zone.’’
Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless eighth, working around a single by Naylor, to earn his first victory of the season. The 6-8 left-hander hasn’t allowed a run in 18 appearances and 16 2/3 innings, the longest streak of scoreless appearances in the majors this season.