La Russa’s White Sox prevail with small-ball
CHICAGO — Tony La Russa managed the “Bash Brothers” era for the A’s. Against them Monday night, La Russa oversaw a small-ball win for the White Sox.
A sixth-inning sequence illustrated it. Luis Robert struck a leadoff single against Yusmeiro Petit. Three pitches later, Robert left for second base. Yan Gomes’ throw looked on time. Robert was called out. La Russa summoned a lifeline that wasn’t available in his Oakland tenure: a replay challenge.
An official in New York studied the play for nearly three minutes. Fans at Guaranteed Rate Field cheered as it showed on the scoreboard. Robert’s left hand looked to have touched the bag ahead of Vimael Machin’s tag. The replay official agreed: Robert was safe.
A groundout sent Robert to third for Seby Zavala. Chicago’s ninth hitter squared around on a 1-0 pitch. His bunt carried Petit up the first-base line as Robert sped home. Petit opted for the out at first.
“I don’t think (Robert) got a great jump or a
great read on it; the ball was placed fairly decently where (Petit) had a tough time getting a handle on it,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “But you’re trying to scratch a run across right there and add one on at the bottom of the lineup.”
The squeeze play gave the White Sox a two-run lead. Robert added a solo home run in the eighth inning that was Chicago’s 10th hit and only one for extra bases. The A’s lost 5-2 in the opener of a four-game series and were left ruing two innings in which they could have done more.
Oakland jumped ahead 2-0 in the second. Matt Chapman hit a one-out home run, his fourth in three days. Dallas Keuchel’s command faltered. The White Sox left-hander hit Josh Harrison with a pitch and walked his next two batters. Mark Canha then lined a first-pitch RBI single.
The A’s could not add on. Starling Marte hit a comebacker to Keuchel for one out. Matt Olson battled to nine pitches and tried to check his swing on the last. Third base umpire Bruce Dreckman ruled he didn’t. Olson stared in that direction well into the changeover.
“You get those opportunities, you want to be able to cash in,” Harrison said. “But at the same time it’s baseball. Sometimes you get the job done, sometimes you don’t. We had him on the ropes. But he made a couple pitches, got some force-outs and that was all she wrote.”
Frankie Montas yielded the lead amid traffic. The White Sox hit eight singles against him in a span of three innings. Zavala singled in the third, took third on a Tim Anderson single and scored on César Hernández’s sacrifice fly. Three more singles plated a run in the fourth.
Anderson began the fifth chopping a single into left field. Hernández dropped a bunt up the third-base line. Chapman, shifted toward second, charged at an angle and bobbled his exchange. Eloy Jiménez hit a 102.2-mph line drive that clipped off a leaping Chapman’s glove two batters later, scoring Anderson.
“Against a team like that that has really good hitters, you need your command, you have to execute your pitches,” Montas said. “And that’s not what I was doing tonight.”
Chicago’s bullpen is also formidable. Keuchel exited after five innings. The A’s managed one more hit. Michael Kopech worked two scoreless frames Craig Kimbrel hit Olson to start the eighth. With one out, Jed Lowrie drove a first-pitch fastball to right-center that onehopped the wall.
Olson had to stop at third. Kimbrel bore down. He struck out Chapman waving at a fullcount curveball. Harrison swung through a 96 mph fastball for strike three. The A’s finished 1-for-7 with men in scoring position.
“They’ve got good arms, you know that going in, and reinforced with Kimbrel here,” Melvin said. “We’ve got a chance to break through early in the game and then (Keuchel) settled down and threw a lot better after that.”
The A’s faced familiar heat in the ninth. Liam Hendriks struck out Seth Brown to open the inning and showed the fire Oakland fans came to know the past five seasons, screaming and stalking about the mound. Mitch Moreland struck out on a check-swing. Hendriks blew a 98 mph fastball past Canha to end the game, turned and let out one more roar.