The Sox are swept in a peculiar ending

The Sox get swept in Oakland after a great start to a peculiar ending. It was a difficult Oakland Athletics series, but the Chicago White Sox have Kansas City to look forward to.

The game was off to a fantastic start when Reynaldo López pitched a clean first inning, and Jon Jay dribbled an extra-base hit down the left field line!

José Rondón drove Jay in with a single to left, so the Sox grabbed the lead early at 1-0!

After a Franklin Barreto one-out single in the third, Marcus Semien reached base by a Yoán Moncada error. Matt Chapman grounded out to score Barreto, which tied the game at one. Luckily, ReyLo kept the damage at that and escaped the inning.

With runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth inning, López continued to dazzle as he ended the inning on a strikeout, unscathed.

In the top of the sixth, Leury García hustled to first to steal an infield hit. Yoán Moncada hit what looked to be a force out at second, but an error by Barreto opened the door for the Good Guys. Two on and nobody out, José Abreu struck out. James McCann hit into a 5-3 double play to close the door.

Eloy Jiménez opened the door right back up with a leadoff home run in the seventh!

Reynaldo finished the day at six innings, and he was fabulous. He pitched six innings; he gave up three hits, two walks, but he struck out seven. The lone run given up was unearned.

For that, ReyLo deserves one round of applause!

For the down side, the Sox were up 2-1, but that didn’t last for long. Evan Marshall came in to relief in the seventh inning, and he gave up a leadoff homer to Ramon Laureano. This tied the game at two, but that was the only damage down during the inning.

Kelvin Herrera was tasked to set down the 2-3-4 batters, but the second and third hitters put runners on the corners with nobody out. However, Ryan Cordell grabbed an out in foul territory and nailed the throw to McCann. Initially the runner was called out, but after replay review, he was confirmed to be out at home! It appeared that Chapman may have been safe, but his hand seemed to hover over the plate. Regardless of the replay, Cordell’s throw was a beauty!

Jace Fry pitched the ninth after the Sox couldn’t plate any runs during the top of the inning. Chad Pinder started the inning with a single, and an error by Rondón had the ball dribble to the vast foul area alongside first base and right field. With that, Pinder reached home in a walk off win for the Athletics.

The Sox are swept in a strange fashion, but they must look to tomorrow.

For the second leg of the road trip, the Boys in Black will make their way back in the central time zone to face the Kansas City Royals in a three-game series. Lucas Giolito (11-3, 3.15 ERA) makes his post-All Star debut, and his mound opponent is scheduled to be Jakob Junis (4-8, 5.33 ERA). WGN, once again, has the broadcast and radio in this 7:15 CT start, and Darren Jackson is back with your SSS coverage! As for the White Sox, they have some work to do.