SEATTLE — Marco Gonzales did his part for the Mariners on Monday afternoon.
Lance Lynn did his just a little bit better for the Chicago White Sox.
Lynn struck out a season-high 11 and the White Sox snapped the Mariners’ seven-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory in the opener of their three-game series before a Labor Day crowd of 37,109 at T-Mobile Park.
The Mariners rallied in the ninth inning of White Sox closer Liam Hendriks. Mitch Haniger had a leadoff single and later scored on J.P. Crawford’s clutch two-out, two-strike single to right field.
But with runners at second and third, Hendriks struck out pinch-hitter Adam Frazier on three pitches to end it.
The Mariners (76-59) dropped back into a tie with Tampa Bay (75-58) for the top spot in the American League wild-card race, just a half-game ahead of Toronto (75-59).
After arriving home around 3 a.m. Monday from Cleveland, following a 6-0 road trip, the Mariners couldn’t muster much offense against Lynn, Chicago’s robust right-handed veteran.
Lynn, who was drafted by the Mariners out of high school in 2005 but didn’t sign, allowed just three hits and one unearned run over seven innings.
Cal Raleigh doubled, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on an Abraham Toro bloop single in the second inning for the Mariners’ lone run.
Lynn retired the final 17 batters he faced on a day when the afternoon shadows appeared troublesome for hitters.
Gonzales took the hard-luck loss after allowing three runs over seven innings. He delivered a quality start when the Mariners needed it, a day after using all nine pitchers out of their bullpen in an 8-hour, 11-inning, rain-delayed victory in Cleveland.
A.J. Pollock hit a first-pitch homer on a Gonzales change-up in the second inning.
Veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus hit a two-run home run to right field in the third inning to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead. Right fielder Mitch Haniger, battling the sun, leaped at the wall to try make the catch, only to have the ball ricochet off the lip of his glove and bounce over the wall.
Ex-Mariner Kendall Graveman struck out Toro — a year after they were traded for each other — to open the bottom of the eighth inning. Jake Lamb grounded out after a 13-pitch battle.
With two outs, Julio Rodriguez singled on a 2-2 pitch from Graveman, ending a stretch of 19 consecutive outs by Mariners batters.
Ty France followed with a high fly ball to left field that looked like it had a shot to leave the yard — only to be caught by White Sox left fielder Pollock on the warning track, ending the inning.
