Ryan Rowland-Smith stifled the White Sox with eight innings of one-run ball, and the Seattle Mariners dealt Chicago a 4-1 loss to further diminish the South Siders' playoff hopes.

Rowland-Smith (4-3) was touched for a Gordon Beckham solo homer in the eighth, but otherwise yielded eight singles while walking one and notching two strikeouts.

The lefty hurler has allowed three earned runs or less in each of his last five starts and has lasted a career-high eight frames in three of the last four outings.

Jose Lopez stroked an RBI double as part of a 2-for-4 effort and Mike Carp hit his first major league home run for Seattle, which had lost seven of nine coming in. Adrian Beltre added an RBI single to the winning cause.

Gavin Floyd (11-11) lasted three innings before leaving with a sore left hip and gave up three runs on four hits. The young right-hander is just 1-4 over his past five decisions.

The Sox are 6 1/2 games behind the Tigers for the division lead, while the Twins are second at 4 1/2 games off the pace. Both Minnesota and Detroit won on Wednesday.

The M's posted two runs in the first off Floyd to take the early lead. Ichiro Suzuki doubled leading off and Lopez doubled to right two batters later to light the scoreboard. Beltre later singled home Lopez for a 2-0 edge.

Kenji Johjima then led off the second with a double, advanced on a grounder to first and scored on Ryan Langerhans' sac fly.

D.J. Carrasco took over for Floyd in the fourth and was tagged for Carp's homer with two outs.

Chicago got three straight singles in the fifth but failed to score. After Jermaine Dye flied out to start the inning, Carlos Quentin got things going with a base hit but was hung up between first and second. Alex Rios and Jayson Nix then strung together a pair of two-out hits but Scott Podsednik grounded out to end the frame.

Alexei Ramirez walked and Dye singled to begin the seventh but Rowland-Smith set down the next three in order before Beckham connected for a home run in the eighth.

David Aardsma pitched a spotless ninth for his 35th save of the season.

Game Notes