Alejandro De Aza drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 16th inning as the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 7-5 in a 16-inning saga.
Neither team could get a run on the board over the first 13 innings Wednesday, then both scored five in the 14th to extend a contest that eventually stretched to five hours and 42 minutes.
White Sox closer Addison Reed gave up a game-tying grand slam to Kyle Seager in the bottom of the 14th, but struck out the side in his third inning of work to end the epic.
Seager’s blast made him the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit a tying grand slam in extra innings.
That made the Mariners’ eventual defeat even harder to swallow.
“It was a tough game, obviously,” Seager said. “It was a real good game. A hard-fought game. We had some opportunities early in the game where we weren’t able to quite get a run across.”
Alex Rios went 4-for-8, and his second run-batted-in of the game scored De Aza and gave the White Sox an insurance run in their final turn at bat.
The marathon affair saw the White Sox take the lead for good after Gordon Beckham stole second base following his leadoff single in the 16th. De Aza drove a one-out single to center to send home the go-ahead run, and then came around himself on Rios’ infield hit.
This time there would be no miracle rally for the Mariners, although Seattle had their chances earlier. They finished 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position, failing to provide any support for Japanese starting pitcher Hishashi Iwakuma, who gave up just three hits in eight strong innings and retired the last 16 batters he faced.
The teams were a combined 0-for-16 with runners in scoring position through 13 innings.
In the 14th, De Aza drew a lead off walk, advanced to third on a single from Alexei Ramirez and scored the first run of the game when Rios belted a single to center off Mariners reliever Danny Farquhar.
The White Sox then loaded the bases and drove in four more runs.
That five-run burst, however, wasn’t enough.
In the bottom of the inning, four Mariners batters reached base with consecutive one-out singles and Endy Chavez scored a run with his hit.
Jason Bay struck out with the bases loaded, then Seager, down to his last strike, smacked a breaking ball from Reed into the seats in right center.
“You don’t score any runs for 13 innings and then you score 10 in one inning,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of both teams.
“That’s baseball. So, when you talk about never being able to figure this game out, that’s a great example … you’ve got to love the fight.”
White Sox best Mariners in 16-inning saga
