Thursday’s fifth inning played out like a reoccurring nightmare for Seattle Mariners’ infielders.
The Chicago White Sox hit three high pop-ups that stayed in the infield, but with the winds whipping Thursday afternoon at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field — with gusts up to 55 mph, per Action Network — it was anything but routine plays for the Mariners.
All three pop ups fell harmlessly to the ground and two resulted in a Chicago hitter reaching base. Each pop-up happened with two outs as Adam Engel got it started by lofting a pitch sky-high that drifted far away from Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suarez and landed in foul territory.
Later on in his at-bat, Engel hit another pop-up that had Seattle’s infield converging around home plate, only for the ball to glance off the glove of catcher Cal Raleigh. Raleigh was charged with the only error of the inning as Engel made his way to second on the play.
After Engel’s at-bat, No. 9 hitter Jake Burger stepped into the batter’s box and followed suit by lifting another pitch skyward toward shortstop J.P. Crawford. Crawford first came in and then circled around trying to track the ball that he ended up dropping, which allowed Engel to score all the way from second.
Despite the adventurous inning for the Mariners, Seattle got the last laugh as it pulled out a 5-1 win over the White Sox.
