White Sox pitching implodes in 8-5 loss to the Athletics

Oakland bats exploded off of Chicago pitching this evening, teeing off five times to eventually seal the fate of the White Sox. It was a true battle for the bottom of the league, and congrats to the A's on win number 37 and serving up the 78th South Side L.

Jesse Scholtens came out hot in the first inning, showing no mercy to the A's and striking out the side. The Good Guys got off to a great start, with Andrew Benintendi taking one deep off Ken Waldichuk in the bottom of the inning to give the South Siders an early one-run lead. That's Benny's second bomb this week and just his third of the year. That's our $75 million man!

Scholtens kept the momentum up for the next three innings, efficiently working his way through the Oakland lineup several times before they started catching up to him. In the fourth inning, Seth Brown started up the rally, and before the jam got worse, Luis Robert Jr. robbed Brent Rooker of a two-run shot — which was just foreshadowing the home run that would come two batters later.

Tony Kemp doubled to get himself and Brown into scoring position, just for Shea Langeliers to launch a three-run bomb to left. Just like that, it's 3-1, A's. Scholtens would hit the next batter before getting out of the inning and turning it back over to the offense in an attempt to come back.

The problem was that they couldn't get the bats going after Benintendi's long ball in the first. Outside of a few singles from Andrew Vaughn and Eloy Jiménez and a Tim Anderson double, the bats were relatively dead until the fifth, when they finally got to Waldichuk when Elvis Andrus led off the inning with a solo dinger. Korey Lee was called up today from Charlotte, and making his debut for the White Sox, he got his first hit for the club to keep the inning going. Welcome to Chicago, Korey!

Lee would advance on the same play, and Scott Merkin would be correct here; it was certainly not a good throw.

The South Siders kept putting the pressure on as Andrew Benintendi poked another single up the middle to score Lee and tie the game at three!

It really is a treat to have an MVP-caliber player on the team with Luis Robert, and after robbing a home run earlier in the game, he smoked his own two-run bomb nearly to the concourse in center field. He is a monster and one of the few bright spots on this ridiculous team.

It was a beauty, folks. 5-3, and the Good Guys take the lead!

Soak that one in; it was the last run they scored.

The A's were on one tonight at the plate, and naturally, Scholtens had to get beat a couple more times before exiting the game. The sixth inning started to replicate the fourth but unfortunately got worse. Brent Rooker might not have gotten the long ball earlier because of Robert, but he sure got enough of it this time around. A couple of batters later, Shea Langeliers hit ANOTHER home run to tie the game at five.

The bullpen was also subpar at best, and outside of Edgar Navarro working through a no-hit inning, they couldn't stop giving up round-trippers. Jimmy Lambert came in for 1 1⁄3 innings and was about as effective as Scholtens was, giving up another two-run home run in the seventh, this time coming off the bat of Zack Gelof.

But on the night of their reverse boycott, the fun didn't stop there for the A's. Tony Kemp added an insurance run in the eighth, going deep off Lane Ramsey in an effort to ruin the night of every Chicago pitcher and any fan who actually decided to show up to the game tonight.

And not for lack of chances, the White Sox had scoring opportunities in both the bottom of the eighth and ninth, but they couldn't get the job done to bring in any more runs. As a team, they went 1-for-7 with RISP, and seeing that back, it definitely checks out. Gelof strikes again on a clutch defensive play to get the first out of the ninth, and Luis Robert misses his second home run of the night to end the game.

A lot of action tonight, but the A's take the first game of the four-game set. There is plenty of time left to win the series, but does it even matter for these teams? At least we get to see some prospects get reps in the big leagues!

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Six Pack of Stats

FanGraphs

Pressure Play

Korey Lee came up in a key situation in the bottom of the sixth with two runners on and the game tied at five, but he grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning. The play had a 2.73 LI.

Pressure Cooker

Lucas Erceg faced the most pressure tonight, working out of a sticky situation in the sixth inning to stop the Sox from scoring. He had a 2.16 pLI.

Top Play

Shea Langeliers' first home run in the fourth was the top play, with a .316 WPA.

Top Performer

No surprise here: Shea Langeliers was the top performer, topping out at a whopping .468 WPA, with a pair of four-baggers and four RBIs to show for it.

But really, it was this fan in center field that was the top performer. They didn't spill their nachos either! 10/10 on the execution.

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Hardest Hit

Yoán Moncada's single in the sixth inning left the bat at 109.2 mph.

Weakest Contact

Eloy Jiménez's ground out in the fifth left the bat at just 33.7 mph.

Luckiest Hit

Tony Kemp's double in the fourth had just a .100 xBA.

Toughest Out

Moncada grounded into a double play in the fourth, which was smoked off the bat at 106.6 mph and had a .510 xBA.

Longest Hit

Also, no surprise — Luis Robert's moonshot in the fifth traveled 444 feet.

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Magic Number: 5

South Siders scored five runs, and the pitchers game up five homers. What a day!

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