Chicago White Sox held to 1 hit — an Andrew Benintendi single in the 7th — in 2-0 loss to Braves

Chicago White Sox designated hitter Andrew Benintendi made sure there wouldn’t be history Thursday, breaking up a no-hitter in the seventh inning with a single to left field against Atlanta Braves starter Grant Holmes.

That turned out to be the team’s only hit in a 2-0 loss to the Braves in front of 17,052 at Rate Field.

“Everyone that we saw obviously was really good, starting with Holmes,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “Thought he did a really nice job controlling the zone, pitched in parts of the zone that were just tough for us. Not a lot of pitches over the plate. I thought we did have some good swings early, hit some balls hard.

“Really, just no traffic there — obviously with just the one hit late and the one opportunity in the seventh there. But they did a really nice job pitching.”

Holmes and three relievers combined for the one-hitter. The right-hander struck out three and walked three in six-plus innings.

“The slider was good,” Sox catcher Drew Romo said of facing Holmes. “He’s got a good slider and he was throwing it a lot and it was giving us trouble.”

Thursday was a makeup of an originally scheduled June 11 meeting that was postponed because of storms.

“I thought the fans did a great job for a midweek day game that’s made up, coming out and giving the boys some juice there,” Venable said.

It nearly became a day for the record books.

“How the day was going, I felt like I could throw it anywhere and they were going to hit it to somebody,” Holmes told reporters covering the Braves. “I was just keeping that mindset, trying to fill up the zone as quick as possible, get the outs as quick as possible.

“Just keep the team in the game.”

Holmes retired the first five Sox batters before Colson Montgomery reached on a one-out walk in the second inning. The Sox didn’t have another base runner until the sixth, when Romo walked with one out.

There were a pair of hard-hit balls that were caught — Miguel Vargas lined out to third in the fourth inning, and Braden Montgomery lined out to first in the fifth. But neither was close to being a hit.

The Sox trailed 2-0 in the seventh when Vargas walked leading off the inning. Benintendi followed with the single on a 3-1 slider.

That was it for Holmes, who threw 94 pitches in the outing.

“You’re going to have different challenges you have to solve for and obviously the slider was one of them today,” Venable said. “And he just did a good job with everything really. It was just one of those games where you’ve got to find a way, and we just couldn’t.”

Reliever Didier Fuentes entered for the Braves with runners on first and second and no outs. He struck out Braden Montgomery, Colson Montgomery and Chase Meidroth.

That was the best offensive opportunity of the game for the Sox, who were shut out for the ninth time this season. The first-place Sox (66-61) hold a 3½ game lead in the American League Central over the second-place Minnesota Twins (63-65), who were off Thursday.

Anthony Kay pitched well in the loss, allowing two runs on five hits with six strikeouts and one walk in six-plus innings.

“It felt like we had a pretty good game plan against these guys,” Kay said. “Me and Drew executed pretty well. I was in the zone a lot, got good pitcher’s counts and that led to some good results.”

Venable said Kay’s sweeper, in particular, was effective.

“We worked on it a little bit, just the way I was releasing it my last outing was a little off so it was a big focus in between starts to figure that back out and get it back in the zone,” Kay said. “I think the results show we were pretty good with it.”

Austin Riley drove in both Braves runs. He had an RBI double against Kay in the third and an RBI single against reliever Huascar Brazobán in the seventh, driving in Michael Harris II, who had reached on a double against Kay.

The Braves were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position but produced just enough offensively to top the Sox.

“These guys are a really good team also,” Kay said. “I think you have to be on top of your A-game against everyone in this league. Especially a team like them, they are really good. I think we were ready. It just didn’t work out.”