Luke Raley's monster game carries Mariners past White Sox

CHICAGO - Just over a week ago, Luke Raley was feeling the cruel side of baseball like a kick to his gut. He was scuffling at the plate. His timing and rhythm felt off with his swing. He was missing pitches that he knew he should hit.

In the final game of the previous road trip, Raley struck out three times in four plate appearances vs. the Twins, making him hitless in his last 21 plate appearances.

In a game of failure, he was failing too much.

Nine days later, Raley delivered his best game as a member of the Mariners. He smashed a pair of homers, including his first career grand slam, and drove in a career-high seven runs to lead Seattle to a 12-8 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night at Rate Field.

When he gets a pitch and when he finds the barrel, it goes a long way," manager Dan Wilson said. "He's so strong. He got a couple pitches tonight, and really put a good swing on them. That's what Rales does."

Raley is doing it now. He broke out of his slump on the homestand, coming up with big hits in the games he started, including a three-run homer.

What changed? Well, he had some lengthy sessions and conversations with Edgar Martinez about his swing. They made a few small adjustments to his setup. It was Martinez who suggested that Raley adjust his posture at the plate and incorporate a toe tap to his swing to release his athleticism and strength. Martinez provides a calm to his teaching. A hitting Yoda for Luke.

"I definitely feel better and more confident at the plate right now," Raley said.

And yet, it won't give him any reason to savor a good night any longer than trying to forget a bad night.

"As I've told you guys, I go home, flush it and come back the same guy tomorrow," he said. "I'm really trying to do that through good games and bad games. So same thing tomorrow. I'm going to show up, do my work and get back on it."

The Mariners (19-20) hit four homers in the game with Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor adding long balls for a season-high in runs scored.

The run support was necessary with Emerson Hancock allowing a season-high five runs in his outing, but still doing enough to get the victory.

With two outs in the third inning of a 1-1 game, the Mariners loaded the bases on White Sox starter Sean Burke on singles by Naylor and Randy Arozarena and a walk from J.P. Crawford. Raley immediately fell behind 0-2 on a pair of swinging strikes. But instead of seeing if Raley would chase a pitch out of the zone, Burke decided to challenge Raley with a fastball. It had worked for a swinging strike three in the second inning.

But this fastball was essentially in the middle of the plate. Raley, who thought Burke might try and overpower him again, capitalized on the mistake, sending a low, screaming line drive over the wall in right field for his first career grand slam and a 5-1 lead for Seattle.

That big lead was lost in the bottom of the third when Hancock, who has been one of the Mariners most consistent strike throwers this season, couldn't find the strike zone. He walked the first batter of the inning - No. 8 hitter Tristan Peters. With one out, he gave up an RBI single to Sam Antonacci and then walked Munetaka Murakami, who had homered off him in the first inning, and Miguel Vargas to load the bases.

If three walks in an inning seemed odd for Hancock, it's because he hadn't walked more than two batters in his seven previous starts this season.

Colson Montgomery unloaded them with a sinking line drive to the gap that got past Rodríguez, who made a half sliding/half diving attempt for a three-run double that tied the game at 5-5.

"Uncharacteristic inning," Hancock said. "That's not what you want to do. Offense goes out, puts up four and I start it with a leadoff walk. Not exactly how you want to execute in that situation. You give really good teams free bases. They make you pay for it, and they were able to capitalize on it there."

Rodríguez gave the Mariners the lead for good in the fifth inning, launching a solo homer to deep left-center on a slider just off the corner of the plate.

To his credit, Hancock retired 11 of the 13 batters he faced after the Montgomery double, not allowing another run.

"Emerson battled the one inning, but then I thought he really bounced back and gave us what we needed tonight," Wilson said. "And give him a lot of credit for coming back in that one and getting us six strong to set up the bullpen again and let the offense take over."

With improved stuff, increased confidence and enough MLB experience, Hancock is more equipped to bounce back within an outing.

"Just in that moment, you just want to try to slow everything down," he said. "It didn't feel like I was sped up. I just had a couple of misses in a couple spots. But after that, it's like, 'all right, let's reset. It's a 0-0 game. Let's go out. Let's just keep doing what we try to do and see how the rest of the game plays out.'"

In the seventh inning, Raley broke the game open ... again ... with two outs.

Arozarena singled to right and Crawford worked a walk, giving Raley a chance to face right-handed reliever Tyler Davis.

Raley took advantage of a 2-1 fastball left in the middle of the plate, sending another rocket over the wall in right field.

It was his first multi-homer game since April 30, 2023, when he hit a pair of homers for the Rays at Rate Field of all places.

"Yeah, I like hitting here, he said.

Naylor made it 12-5 in the eighth with a three-run blast off right-hander Trevor Richards. It was his third hit of the night.

With a sizable lead and the game in hand, Wilson went to his middle relievers for the final two innings, which didn't go as planned. Alex Hoppe gave up two runs on three hits in the eighth and Josh Simpson allowed a homer in the ninth.

BOX SCORE

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.