Benintendi's 1st homer of '23 not enough to lift White Sox

SEATTLE -- The White Sox won the home run battle 2-1, but they ultimately lost a tight 3-2 contest with the Mariners in the first of a three-game series at T-Mobile Park on Friday.

Andrew Benintendi hit his first dinger of the season in the top of the sixth inning, which ended the longest homerless streak of his career at 245 at-bats and 64 games. The highest-paid player in White Sox history (five years, $75 million) finished 1-for-4 from the plate.

“It’s definitely nice to see him hit a homer,” Chicago manager Pedro Grifol said of his left fielder. “But there’s a reason he hasn’t hit homers. I’m not going to get into that right now, but it’s nice to see him hit one. You want him to get that one out of the way so he can get everybody off his back.”

Benintendi signed with the White Sox this past offseason following a breakout All-Star campaign in 2022.

Gavin Sheets, who finished 2-for-3, notched the first home run of the night to break a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth inning with a line drive to right-center, but the Mariners answered back in the bottom-half of the frame. Benintendi’s homer gave Chicago a 2-1 lead, but Seattle answered again in the bottom of the sixth.

Dating back to Thursday's 5-4 loss to the Dodgers, all six White Sox runs in the past two games have come on solo homers. Despite the six dingers, Chicago went 0-2 and lost by one run each night.

“Two more solo homers today,” Grifol said. “I think we have six homers in the last two days. I like the fact that we’re hitting homers, but we gotta find ways to put up crooked numbers. If we do that, we’ll be in pretty good shape with the pitching we have.”

While Seattle nearly doubled Chicago’s hit total, 9-5, White Sox pitchers held the Mariners to just 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Friday.

“I think we’ve done a good job of making pitches when it counts,” said Tanner Banks, who relieved starter Michael Kopech in the fifth. “Coming together as a team and trusting our stuff and trusting ourselves. Michael battled tonight. He made the big pitches when it counted.”

Kopech was pulled after just 4 1/3 innings, but he gave up only one run despite allowing six hits and six walks. While the right-handed hurler mostly kept Seattle off the scoreboard, he was unimpressed with his showing.

“We worked out of some sticky situations,” Kopech said. “But I knew what was needed at the end of the day, and I didn’t execute it. I needed to go long, and I did about as poor of a job as you can.

“Six walks, giving away free bases, and I kept myself in high pitch counts every inning. I put us in a position where we needed a few more innings, and I couldn’t do that. It was a rough day.”

Although Chicago couldn’t pull out a win, Grifol pointed to his pitchers' performance as a positive going forward.

“Our pitching staff has kept us in ballgames,” the first-year White Sox manager said. "And they continue to keep us in ballgames. We’re fighting hard, but our pitchers have been doing that for quite some time.”

One aspect Grifol made note of was his squad's high number of strikeouts (16) compared with its lack of walks Friday.

“I need to look at the tape of the game,” Grifol said. “I’m never discrediting how hard it is to hit at this level.”