Chris Sale's scoreless streak ended at 28 innings today. And even though the A's did the bare minimum to snap Sale's string of zeroes, that's just an insurmountable amount of damage these days.
Sale walked Coco Crisp to lead off the sixth. Crisp advanced to third on a single, and after a Yoenis Cespedes strikeout, Josh Donaldson muscled an inside-corner fastball deep enough to right field to get Crisp home.
Otherwise, Sale pitched beautifully, allowing just four hits, that walk, and a hit batsman while striking out five. The A's did make him work for 104 pitches over six innings with some extended ABs, but Sale didn't give in.
But Sale was on his own, because a different lineup offered more of the same. Oakland pitching, led by Jarrod Parker, allowed just five White Sox baserunners -- a double, two singles, and two walks.
Parker had to defuse a minor threat in the first inning. With one out, Alexei Ramirez singled and Conor Gillaspie walked to bring the supposed heart of the order to the plate. But Parker won a 10-pitch battle against Dayan Viciedo by acing him on the outside corner with a fastball, then racked up an easier backwards K against Adam Dunn to end the inning.
The Sox only had two other chances with runners in scoring position the rest of the day, and both opportunities arose with two outs. The Sox couldn't make use of that one bullet, and that's how they were shut out for the sixth time this season.
The A's tagged one more run against Addison Reed in the ninth. Crisp reached on a single, and scored from first on Jed Lowrie's single. It was a hit-and-run, which means he would've reached third standing up. When Jordan Danks couldn't come up cleanly with the ball, third base coach Mike Gallego waved him home with no throw.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox have not held a lead in the 55 innings played during this six-game losing streak.
*Casper Wells played for Alex Rios, Jordan Danks took Paul Konerko's spot in the lineup, Tyler Greene played for Jeff Keppinger, and they combined to go 0-for-9.
*Gillaspie made a nice diving catch in the seventh.
*I listened to a large chunk of this game on the radio. It didn't sound like there was much to see, but if I missed anything from the visuals, let me know.
Record: 24-30 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights