Chicago White Sox hang on to win opener

OAKLAND, Calif. - Pretty? Nope.

Ravaged by a litany mistakes last year, let's be honest, the last three years, the Chicago White Sox still were sloppy in Monday night's season opener at Oakland Coliseum.

But they were able to overcome baserunning mistakes by Adam Eaton and Brett Lawrie, an error by defensive specialist Austin Jackson and dangerous leadoff walks by relievers Jake Petricka in the eighth inning and closer David Robertson in the ninth.

The White Sox also survived a shaky third inning by ace starter Chris Sale while hanging on to defeat the A's 4-3.

"It wasn't pretty," manager Robin Ventura said. "But they came through. It's not always pretty."

The Sox were looking great in the top of the third inning after taking a 4-0 lead against Rich Hill, Oakland's fill-in starter on Opening Day.

Hill, who was moved up a day in the rotation after A's ace Sonny Gary was scratched with food poisoning, looked shaky early when he hit Adam Eaton with the first pitch of the game and also hit Jose Abreu in the first inning.

Hill was able to work out of the jam, but the Sox hit him hard in the third inning.

After Jackson drew a one-out walk, the Sox' new center fielder advanced to third base on Hill's throwing error.

Eaton tripled to score Jackson, and Jimmy Rollins singled to score Eaton.

Jose Abreu followed with a double, and after Todd Frazier struck out for the second time in as many at-bats, Melky Cabrera reached on first baseman Mark Canha's error, with Rollins and Abreu scoring to make it 4-0.

Sale (1-0) rarely pitched with big leads last season, so maybe that explains the bottom of the third.

With two on and two out, Oakland's Jed Lowrie laced a 2-run single to right field, and Danny Valencia followed with an RBI single to center.

"You put some runs on the board and you try to go out there in that shutdown inning and try to do a little bit too much," Sale said. "It got away from me, but I held it together and thankfully, we got out of it.

Sale wound up going 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits while striking out eight and throwing 104 pitches.

"I don't know if I was overthrowing," Sale said of the third. "Maybe just trying to do a little bit too much. This is a great atmosphere and they feed off it, so you have to take that into consideration and try to not get overwhelmed."