A’s split doubleheader in Chicago
CHICAGO — James Shields’ four-run second inning — with the Athletics getting help from the first of Yoan Moncada’s two fielding errors — was just the tip of the iceberg for Shields’ struggles and the Sox’s multitude of defensive problems during an 11-2 loss to the Athletics in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader.
As dismal as the first game was, the Sox showed some fight in the nightcap as they held on for a 6-4 victory.
The Game 1 debacle ran their losing streak to a season-worst eight games. The Sox committed three errors.
“Little rough game,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “We have to put it behind us as quickly as possible. Obviously, James got hit around a little bit. Again, we didn’t make some key plays there early and it kind of led to a couple of different things.”
In Game 2, Lucas Giolito was charged with four earned runs and struck out eight in seven-plus innings, pumping his fist after getting Josh Phegley to whiff for the last out of the seventh. He left the game ahead 5-2 after giving up two singles to start the eighth but both runners scored before the side was retired.
Offensively, Omar Narvaez had a two-RBI liner and Charlie Tilson added an RBI in the second, and Adam Engel had a two-run single in the sixth.
In Game 1, Avisail Garcia and Leury Garcia, activated from the disabled list, showed signs of rust at Guaranteed Rate Field. Avisail struck out twice and had a bat fly out of his hand during one foul tip, and Leury let Khris Davis’ fifth-inning double get by him in left field for an error.
Leury’s run-scoring miscue was just one of several Sox mistakes during a game in which Shields gave up eight runs with only two of them earned.
— Moncada’s error on Matt Olson’s grounder started the carnage in the fourth. Moncada appeared to try to adjust to the bounce and raised his glove too high, letting the ball duck underneath it and on to right field. Olson scored on Jonathan Lucroy’s sacrifice and Franklin Barreto put the Sox in a hole from which they never would recover when he smacked Shields’ 2-2 cutter to left field for a three-run homer.
— In the fifth, Yolmer Sanchez missed a chance to tag out Lucroy on his slide to third after Dustin Fowler’s single. Sanchez applied a tag and was showing the ball to the third-base umpire as Lucroy’s hand slipped off the bag. He couldn’t reapply the tag in time and Lucroy scored on Jed Lowrie’s single for the first of four runs in the inning.
— Later in the fifth, Olson’s chopper bounced out of Moncada’s glove and he reached first before the second baseman could recover on his second error.
— In that same inning, Shields’ wild pitch on Mark Canha’s strikeout bounced off Smith and an eighth run scored. That was it for Shields as he gave way to Juan Minaya.
Throw in a regrettable baserunning decision as well.
Matt Davidson doubled in the sixth to put a Sox runner at third base for the first time in the game. He tried to make it to third himself on Kevan Smith’s RBI groundout but the A’s turned it into an inning-ending double play when he was tagged tout.
Barreto added a three-run blast off Luis Avilan in the eighth for his first multihomer game and a career-high six-RBI day.
It wasn’t all bad in the Garcias’ return to action from hamstring (Avisail) and knee (Leury) injuries. Leury had two hits and Avisail added a single.
Sanchez’s ground-double in the ninth drove in Smith but that’s as much as the Sox could muster. The Sox also put men on first and second in the eighth with no outs, but failed to score.