Oakland Athletics Hammer White Sox 8-2: Game Notes and Scouting Report
By Joe Piazza
Athletics Batting
For Oakland, the runs came early and they came in spurts. Five singles and two walks led to a five-run first inning, knocking White Sox starter Zack Putnam out before he’d even recorded two outs in the game. Matt Joyce, Trevor Plouffe, Yonder Alonso, Mark Canha and Chris Parmelee all collected hits in the first, while Jed Lowrie and Stephen Vogt drew walks. Putnam was replaced with Matt Purke, but Purke couldn’t stop the bleeding. The White Sox were leaving the ball over the middle of the plate, and the A’s took full advantage of it.
With the bases loaded and one out, Marcus Semien hit the first pitch off Purke for an RBI ground out to short. Canha and Parmelee followed up with RBI singles before Joyce flied out in his second at bat of the inning. The A’s started the second inning as well as the first. Lowrie singled to left to lead things off, which brought Ryon Healy to the plate. Healy drove a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left, extending Oakland’s lead to 7-0. They loaded the bases once again, but Jake Petricka came in and induced a double play to minimize the damage. The A’s loaded the bases again in the fourth, and Jace Fry walked in another run to push their run total to eight.
White Sox Batting
Chicago was ill-prepared for the A’s pitching, and failed to ever get the ball rolling. A Tim Anderson single and RBI double by Avisail Garcia was the extent of their success against Graveman, but that was it. They managed to score another run in the eighth, albeit unearned. Tyler Saladino barreled the ball up a few times, including a line drive double to left in his first at bat.
Altogether, the White Sox could only muster five hits against Oakland. Four of those were doubles, but they could never get the momentum going. Luckily for White Sox fans, only two, maybe three everyday starters appeared in this game. Anderson, Saladino and maybe Garcia were the lone Chicago hitters we can expect to see regularly in 2017. It wasn’t a good day for the White Sox hitters, but they’re not all going to be winners.