• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Mariners, White Sox kick off set

Jul 4, 2014 - 2:45 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Seattle Mariners take aim at their fifth straight win on Friday when they open a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

It won't be easy, though, as they go up against lefty Chris Sale, who has won two of his last three outings and is 7-1 overall, with a 2.30 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings over 12 starts.

Sale completed a stellar June in triumphant fashion on Saturday, as he defeated Toronto, holding them to a pair of runs over seven innings. However, he did walk five batters in the win.

Still, Sale posted a 2.79 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in six June starts and notched a quality start in all but one of those outings, while going seven innings or more four times.

Sale has faced the Mariners five times (3 starts) and is 2-0 with a 2.92 ERA against them.

Seattle completed a three-game sweep of Houston on Wednesday and has won its last six on the road. On Wednesday, Chris Young struck out eight and yielded just a pair of solo home runs over seven strong innings to guide the to a 5-2 win.

Young (8-4) didn't allow a hit besides the two homers and improved to 3-0 over his last four starts. Logan Morrison drove in two runs for Seattle, while Robinson Cano scored twice.

"Early on we were pretty flat," said Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon. "(Brad Peacock) was pitching pretty good. We were fortunate to get back into the ball game."

With a win on Friday Seattle will have its longest road winning streak since ripping off a franchise-best 13 in a row from May 15-June 5, 2003.

Roenis Elias will try to keep the Mariners in the win column, as he attempts to bounce back from a poor showing versus Cleveland his last time out. Elias fell to 7-6 in that one, surrendering five runs and six hits in six innings to raise his ERA to 3.96.

"It was just a bad outing," Elias said through a translator. "I didn't make pitches and they hit them."

The White Sox, who split six games with the Mariners last season, snapped a two-game losing streak with a win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday and have won four of their last six.