OAKLAND, Calif. — The White Sox avoided what would have been the biggest indictment on this disappointing season — a sweep at the hands of the lowly Oakland Athletics.
An 8-7 victory didn’t come without a scare. The A’s scored two in the ninth against Gregory Santos and weren’t put away until right fielder Clint Frazier, a defensive replacement, went to his knees to catch Joc Pederson’s fly ball. The A’s got to within a run when Seth Brown’s line fell in front of Frazier, who slipped coming in for the ball.
“There’s never a dull moment,” said manager Pedro Grifol, who had starter Lucas Giolito warming up in the ninth inning on his side throwing day because no one else was available after Touki Toussaint, Aaron Bummer, Keynan Middleton, Bryan Shaw and Santos. “We needed every single run, every single at-bat, every single pitch to get this one.”
Eloy Jimenez stayed on a hard-contact tear, Tim Anderson had his second productive offensive day in a row following the worst slump of his career and Jake Burger showed signs of a revival with two well-cracked hits including a 443-foot home run, his 18th of the season but just his second in his last 16 games.
Jimenez, though, was pinch hit for due to an unspecified reason.
“He wasn’t feeling great,” Grifol said. “I have to talk to our trainers yet but he’s fine. I wasn’t going to push anything. But it’s not a concern.”
Jimenez appeared to be OK in the clubhouse and gave a thumbs up when asked about his condition. Jimenez had a pair of RBI singles, his fifth straight game with an RBI.
Anderson singled twice, stole a base and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
“TA looks like he’s feeling reall good at the plate,” Grifol said. “His hands look good, he looks comfortable and confident.”
Zach Remillard, supplanting veteran Elvis Andrus as the go-to second baseman, drove in two runs with a single and alertly took third on left fielder JJ Bleday’s bobble on the warning track before scoring on Andrew Benintendi’s sacrifice fly.
In short, some good things happened after a wonky walk-off Saturday loss in which so much went wrong and the bullpen got emptied against the 23-63 A’s. That loss followed a 7-4 defeat Friday. The Sox (37-49) finished a West Coast trip at 3-4 trailing Minnesota (42-43) by 5 1⁄2 games in the soft AL Central.
“We needed that one,” Burger said. “I’m glad we got the job done. We knew we’d have to piece it together bullpen wise and came out with the good result.”
Kopech to rest on injured list
Michael Kopech landed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation and the Sox purchased the contract of veteran reliever Shaw from Triple-A Charlotte.
The Sox also transferred infielder Romy Gonzalez (shoulder inflammation) from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL.
Grifol said Kopech will return to the rotation at the front end of the rotation after the All-Star beak, which would give him at least 17 days off.
“We just wanted to skip him one more time, to make sure he’s ready to go in the second half,” Grifol said.
Full day for Shaw
Shaw, 35, had flight delays and arrived during the game, threw in the bullpen when starter Touki Toussaint (three runs allowed in 2 2⁄3 innings) got in trouble in the third after a perfect first and second and pitched the eighth inning. A’s All-Star DH Brent Rooker hit a two-run homer against Shaw to cut the Sox’ lead to 8-5.
