Mariners' 8-game win streak ends in bizarre fashion vs. White Sox

The Seattle Mariners' eight-game win streak had to end some time, but it didn't have to end like this.

During their game Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox, the Mariners were on the verge of their most thrilling win of the streak after they erased a two-run deficit with a three-run rally in the top of the ninth inning.

Eugenio Suárez put them on top with a one-out single to score Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford.

Unfortunately, they still had to play the bottom of the ninth, and the White Sox still had a little fight in them amid a miserable season that will be defined by a front-office purge and a lost fistfight.

Chicago rookie Óscar Colás, who entered the game hitting .218/.257/.301, knocked a leadoff double. Two batters later, he beat a throw home on an Andrew Benintendi single to tie it 4-4. The inning ended with back-to-back strikeouts by Yasmani Grandal and Tim Anderson, sending the game to extras.

In the 10th, the Mariners loaded the bases with a Josh Rojas single and a walk by Crawford but failed to score. If that scoreless inning left the door open for the Sox to walk it off, what happened next pushed them through.

Anderson began the bottom of the 10th at second base as the most recent out and appeared to get picked off on the second pitch of the inning. Raleigh got the throw to second, forcing Anderson to break late for third. However, rather than Suárez's glove, Crawford's throw from second hit Anderson's helmet, sending the ball caroming into the outfield and giving the White Sox one of their weirdest wins of the season.

"I shouldn't have thrown it. I tried to go for it all," Crawford said after the game, per the Seattle Times' Ryan Divish, adding that he was "trying to make something out of nothing."

Despite the loss, the 71-56 Mariners are in an enviable position compared to where they were a couple of months ago. They hold a 16-5 record in the month of August and a half-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays for the third AL wild-card spot. After sitting behind the first-place Texas Rangers by as many as 10.5 games in June, Seattle is only 1.5 games back in the AL West.