The Oakland A’s went on the road to take on the Chicago White Sox, hoping to build a little momentum into what has now become a critical match-up this coming weekend in Seattle against the Mariners. The plan failed as the A’s lost three of four in the series and fell further behind the Angels in the AL West. It is time to put the Athletics in discussion with the Wild Card race and out of the discussion for winning the AL West and/or as having the best record in baseball.
The way the A’s are playing right now, they will be lucky to play in October and a one game playoff against either the Tigers or Mariners is downright frightening for Oakland’s fans.
Here is a recap of the four game series in the Windy City.
Game 1 final score: White Sox 5, Athletics 4 (12 innings)
The rough times continued on Monday. The A’s were able to rebound from two early runs given up by Sonny Gray in the 1st inning with back to back home runs by Josh Reddick and Jed Lowrie in the 5th inning, giving Oakland a 3-2 advantage. After Conor Gillaspie tied the game in the bottom of the 6th with a solo shot, the A’s were able to retake the lead in the 8th inning on a swinging bunt, RBI single from Sam Fuld.
After getting two outs in the bottom of the 9th, Eric O’Flaherty blew a save opportunity by giving up a game tying solo home run to Tyler Flowers. Three innings of scoreless baseball later, Flowers came up again and hit another solo home run off of RP Jesse Chavez to send the teams to the locker room.
Game 2 final score: Athletics 11, White Sox 2
The A’s scored twice in the 4th inning and continued to pour it on the White Sox inning after inning. With Jon Lester pouring in strikes on 119 pitches in 8 innings, the 11 runs from the A’s were more than enough to get the job done. Aside from Lester, Josh Donaldson was the game MVP going 5-6 with 4 RBI’s. Donaldson has had a knack for being able to tack on runs when they are “unnecessary” and then struggle when the A’s really need to plate one run in critical game situations.
Game 3 final score: White Sox 2, Athletics 1
For the second night in a row the A’s scored first in the 4th inning to take a 1-0 advantage. SP Jeff Samardzija led the way, dominating the White Sox lineup for seven scoreless innings.
Bob Melvin made defensive replacements towards the end of the game and they came back to bite the team again. RP Luke Gregerson replaced Samardzija on the mound and he received absolutely no help from his defensive infield. Eric Sogard bobbled a hard hit ground ball to start the inning, but was not charged with an error. 1B Nate Freiman through the next ground ball into left field trying to get the runner at second and things looked to be unraveling for the A’s very quickly.
Luke Gregerson struck out the next two batters and was then asked to intentionally walk Conor Gillaspie. That wound up being another mistake from the dugout as Avisail Garcia singled in two runs. The A’s went down quietly in the 9th inning to drop the club nine games behind the Angels in the AL West.
Game 4 final score: White Sox 1, Athletics 0
SP Chris Sale dominated the A's lineup one more time, shutting out the Athletics and giving up only two hits over eight innings. The A's offense wasted a splendid pitching performance from SP Scott Kazmir, who made one mistake to Avisail Garcia in the 6th inning to give the White Sox the 1-0 lead.
What’s Next?
The A’s head to Seattle to take on the Mariners this weekend. The three game series is a critical set of games and will likely go a long way to determining the Wild Card. The A’s rotation for the series is Jason Hammel, Sonny Gray, and Jon Lester, while the Mariners will counter with James Paxton, Felix Hernandez, and Chris Young, respectively.