The 41-52 Athletics took on the 47-45 Chicago White Sox at Rate Field in Chicago today. While the A’s are struggling, the Southsiders are amid the most dramatic turn-around from last season.
Jacob Lopez took the mound as today’s opener, going up against 26-year-old righty Sean Burke for the White Sox. Lopez took on the first five Pale Hose batters before turning the game over to Aaron Civale. Civale cruised up until the bottom of the fifth when things began to unravel. Chase Meidroth doubled on a sharp
line drive to left field. Andrew Benintendi doubled, driving in Meidroth. Civale walked Kyle Teel. Tristan Peters singled, driving in Benintendi. Sam Antonacci singled to right fielder, scoring Kyle Teel. Elvis Alvarado relieved Civale with no outs in the fifth. Miguel Vargas hit a sacrifice fly to center fielder Henry Bolte, scoring Tristan Peters. That gave the White Sox a 4-0 lead. In the meantime, Sean Burke had given up just two hits leading up to the seventh inning. But Tyler Soderstrum got the A’s on the board with a solo rocket to right field. That was number 14 for Soderstrom.
Justin Sterner got rocked in the bottom of the seventh. Kyle Teel walked and Tristan Peters homered, scoring Teel. Sam Antonacci walked, and Munetaka Murakami doubled, driving in Antonacci. Miguel Vargas hit a ground rule double, scoring Murakami. Mason Barnett replaced Sterner with a score of 8-1 and no outs in the inning. Andrew Benintendi doubled, scoring three more Sox. Tristan Peters tripled, completing the cycle for him tonight. The last White Sox batter to hit for the cycle was José Abreu, who hit for the cycle on September 9, 2017, against the San Francisco Giants. That brought the score to 12-1.
Carlos Cortes came in to pitch the eighth. He struck out Murakami, but Miguel Vargas homered to left field. Chase Meidroth singled, driving in Montgomery to mercifully end the scoring for the White Sox. The final was 14-1 and continued the A’s slide at seven games in a row.
