A game that saw what should have been a fine pitchers’ duel between Sale and Gray was scrapped before it was even started. A’s ace Sonny Gray came down with food poisoning hours before first pitch in a a contest that ended in a 4-3 White Sox on Opening Night Monday in Oakland.
It was hardly the prettiest of victories, but wins are wins, and I’ll try my best not to pick nits after Game 1 of 162.
The entirety of Monday’s scoring came in the third inning, with the White Sox tacking putting up four runs thanks, in part, to a pair of Oakland errors. After Austin Jackson walked and advanced to third base on an errant pickoff throw by Rich Hill (Oakland’s foul territory is really spacious!), Adam Eaton tripled him home with his first of two hits on the night. After Jimmy Rollins singled home Eaton with his first hit in a White Sox uniform, Jose Abreu doubled and the White Sox brought home their final two runs of the night when Mark Canha couldn’t handle the throw to first on a grounder by Melky Cabrera.
A 4-0 lead for Chris Sale seems more than safe enough, but a shaky third inning coupled with the White Sox bats going silent made things interesting until the end. After Sale retired his seventh-straight to open the game, and third via strikeout, Stephen Vogt reached on an infield single, old friend Marcus Semien walked, and after a Billy Burns groundout advanced the runners, Jed Lowrie singled them both home. After another single by Josh Reddick, Danny Valencia drove home Oakland’s final run of the inning and, as it turns out, the game.
Sale settled down from that point on, making it through seven innings, striking out eight and walking one. Robin Ventura wound up using four relievers on the night, three to get through the eighth inning. After right-hander Jake Petricka came in to face Lowrie — and walked him — he then turned to Zack Duke to retire the left-handed Reddick. Nate Jones then entered the game and retired Valencia and Khris Davis.
David Robertson recorded his first save, walking Coco Crisp to leadoff the ninth inning before retiring the final three batters.
Some notes from a 4-3 victory:
- Sale’s shaky third inning seemed a combination of him overthrowing his fastball and some tough luck with balls in play. He didn’t allow a single extra base hit in the inning, and the only two he allowed for the game were both doubles by Billy Butler, who improved to an absurd 17-for-50 off of Sale for his career.
- Jackson bobbled a single to center during Oakland’s third-inning rally. He had an outside shot at throwing out Lowrie at the plate had he not done so, but it would have had to be perfect, thus why all three of Sale’s runs were earned.
- The White Sox had a pair of TOOTBLANs on the night. More specifically, they had a pair of runners picked off first base, as both Eaton and Brett Lawrie were thrown out at second base after jumping too early.
- The debuts: The White Sox had five guys in their Opening Day lineup who were not on the roster last year. Rollins finished 1-for-4 with an RBI, Lawrie went 1-for-4 (and was picked off after his hit), Jackson went 1-for-3 (and also drew the team’s lone walk of the night), while Todd Frazier and Dioner Navarro both went 0-for-4. Frazier struck out in his first two at-bats and finally hit the ball hard in his last at-bat, lining out to third base. Navarro tried sacrificing Lawrie after his aforementioned single and promptly popped out. He did, however, make a nice defensive play later by picking off Burns on a botched steal attempt.
- As mentioned before, the White Sox offense was mostly quiet outside of the third inning, and their lone extra-base hits both came in that frame with Abreu’s double and Eaton’s triple. No dingers like the Spring foretold, but Oakland isn’t exactly the easiest park to go yard in.
- Ventura REALLY wanted the platoon advantage in the eighth inning, and while it seems strange to use Petricka, Duke AND Jones to get three outs, the three of them combined to throw 17 pitches so I can’t imagine it affects their ability to pitch the rest of the series. Also, Jones looked great in his two-thirds of an inning of work, particularly in striking out Davis.
- Although the White Sox’s four-run third inning was defense-aided, it also knocked Hill out of the game after just 2.2 innings. Oakland’s bullpen, of course, shut down the Sox, with Fernando Rodriguez, Ryan Dull, John Axford, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle combining to allow just four hits over the final 6.1 innings.
Record: 1-0
Up next: 9 p.m. CT Tuesday against the Athletics on WGN. Jose Quintana vs. Chris Bassitt
Lead photo credit: Kelley L Cox/USA Today