Once again, the White Sox offense was almost nonexistent against a decent but unspectacular lefty starter. The key point, though, is the “almost.”
The Sox only managed five hits against Gage Jump and two (Sacramento?) relievers and only drew two walks and struck out 11 times, but fortunately one of the walks came before one of the hits. Colson Montgomery worked a seven-pitch pass from Jump with two outs in the sixth and Chase Meidroth followed with a shot down the line in left for a double that scored
Colson thanks to some help by a bad throw in from the corner.
Otherwise, there was some good Sox pitching, including four innings from Erick Fedde, that was helped along by an atrocious A’s lineup that was missing key elements including Nick Kurtz, and which seldom saw a bad pitch they didn’t swing at or a good one they did. But the pitching was really helped by some excellent defense.
The D started with the second play of the game, when Luisangel Acuña robbed Tyler Soderstrom:
Then, in a more critical situation, was Randal Grichuk. While not exactly known for his prowess in the field, Grichuk made a diving grab with runners on second and third and two outs in the second:
Acuña later made a nice running over-the-shoulder grab on a shallow fly, and most importantly stole another hit from Soderstrom on a 104.2 mph shot with a man on third and no one out in the eighth. That man-on-third-no-one-out situation was part of an 0-for-10 with RISP for the Athletics, who looked ready for the All-Star break and maybe taking the rest of the season off.
The win runs the Sox record to 49-45. The last game before the break comes tomorrow afternoon, with Noah Schultz and J.T. Ginn the expected mound opponents.
