The White Sox had a case of deja vu in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s 1-0 win against the Mariners.
Leading by one run in the eighth, reliever Steven Wilson allowed a leadoff double to Leody Taveras, got Miles Mastrobuoni to fly out to left field and hit a batter before being replaced by Cam Booser.
Booser started shaky, walking J.P. Crawford in a four-pitch at-bat to load the bases. But the veteran left-hander found his strike, striking out Mitch Garver for the second out of the inning. That’s when the scene played out in a fashion familiar to the Sox. Julio Rodriguez was up to bat with the bases loaded.
In Monday’s 5-1 Sox loss, Rodriguez broke the game open with an eighth-inning grand slam off Booser — three runs were charged to the reliever — that extended the Mariners’ lead from 1-0 to 5-0. The Sox added a run in the ninth.
On Tuesday, Here Rodriguez was again against Booser: bases loaded in the eight. The only difference was that the Sox were winning 1-0 — because of a third-inning RBI single by Joshua Palacios.
Booser attacked from the start, throwing three straight four-seam fastballs to get ahead in the count 0-2. He finished the at-bat with a sweeper outside of the zone that Rodriguez connected on for a fly ball to center field that Luis Robert Jr. caught to end the inning.
“Baseball is funny like that; it throws challenges at you, and [Booser] was able to step up this time,” manager Will Venable said.
Booser was able to redeem himself after allowing the grand slam Monday.
“If you are fortunate enough to get back in the next day, it’s best case,” Booser said of bouncing back from a tough outing. “ Yesterday is in the past and try to focus on today.”
The Sox (15-34) didn’t falter late in their win over the Mariners after a one-hour, 35-minute rain delay. Powered by six shutout innings from Adrian Houser, who signed and debuted on the same day, the Sox did just enough to squeak by in Tuesday’s win. Houser allowed two hits, three walks while striking out two batters.
Hauser was adept at getting out of jams on Tuesday. He allowd a leadoff single to J.P. Crawford in the first before forcing Jorge Polanco to ground into a double play. After walking Rodriguez, Hauser got Cal Raleigh to pop out to end the inning.
Then in the fifth, Hauser got Taveras to groundout for the first out. The right-hander then walked Dylan Moore before getting Ben Williamson to ground into a double play to end the inning.
“[Hauser] attacked the zone,” Venable said. “Two-seam and four-seam fastball were really good. [He] was able to get some chase with the secondary stuff, and then a couple of big double plays there.”
With Tuesday’s win, the White Sox avoided setting the worst 49-game start in franchise history. The club also snapped a five-game losing streak.
Houser that set the tone for the club, even though he didn’t know much of his teammates — including the catcher, Edgar Quero, he was throwing to.
“It’s been wild with the whirlwind of getting here, traveling up here and then the rain delay,” Houser said. “All things considered, it was a pretty good day.”
The Sox improved to 3-10 in one-run games following Tuesday’s win.
“These guys have been grinding,” Venable said. “A lot of these close games haven’t gone our way. So really nice to be able to finish it off and get a ‘W.'”