Thirteen months ago the Chicago White Sox (24-28) loss to the Oakland A’s (32-24) after 14 innings and a two-run hit off of Hector Santiago’s pitch to Yoenis Cespedes. Although the White Sox have performed relatively well at Oakland since 2008, Friday’s game was a must-win that they were unable to close. Oakland won game one of the series, 3-0.
It was a rough start in Oakland for both the White Sox and the Athletics. Unlike Friday’s delayed and postponed games in St. Louis and Cleveland, rainy weather was not at fault for the scoreless early innings in Oakland.
Impeccable pitching from both teams left the game scoreless until the bottom of the 8th inning when returning outfielder Josh Reddick of the A’s hit off of Matt Thornton’s pitch, which allowed John Jaso to score a run.
After Jaso’s run, Reddick and Brandon Moss scored on a center field hit from Coco Crisp, and Crisp landed on second base. The White Sox were never able to recover from Oakland’s quick three hits and three runs.
Bartolo Colon’s three strike outs and no walks lead the A’s to a 3-0 win at home. Tonight’s game marked history for the A’s as Colon became the second oldest pitcher to throw a shutout in A’s history.
From 2001 to 2007 the White Sox performed poor at Oakland, with a record of 6-27, one series win, and were hitting .220 and had an ERA of 4.68. But since 2008, they’ve hit .248, decreased their ERA to 3.37, won three series, and split their 18 away games at 9-9.
Statistically, they were prepared for the redemption game in Oakland.
Heading into this season’s series against the A’s, White Sox manager Robin Ventura was well aware of their inconsistencies, especially pitching.
“It just needs to become more consistent,” Ventura tells Yahoo! Sports about the team’s performance so far this season. “The last three games, pitching wise, you just didn’t pitch as well as you had before and that just compounds everything…You got through periods where you put so much stress on the pitching anyway because of the way we’ve been hitting that you know the one time that they don’t pitch [good] it gets magnified and it looks like they can’t pitch but you know it’s a stretch you put behind you and go from there.”
White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko experienced their struggles against the A’s first hand back in the early 2000’s and understands that all players must perform at their highest levels to ensure that their team doesn’t fall into a losing slump again.
“We need [a win] coming off of three tough ones against the Cubs,” said Konerko. “We need to get back in the win column. But yeah, going to the West Coast is always a little bit different feeling with the time change and all that. You never know how it’s going to hit the team. Hopefully it’s in a good way. Sometimes it doesn’t matter at all and sometimes you can feel it. Hopefully it doesn’t matter at all.”
The five hits by the White Sox were all singles and all hits were in different innings.
The Athletics’ ability to hold off the White Sox wasn’t surprising; this is the same club that won the AL west last season and has won 12 of 14 games.
With this win the Athletics lead the three game series 1-0 and improve their at home record against the White Sox to 10-9.
