White Sox come up short in attempt to sweep 4-game series from A's
The Oakland Athletics roared into Guaranteed Rate Field Monday night with the best record in the American League (9-3) in August.
They were tied with the White Sox for the AL's third-best overall record at 68-50.
On Thursday, the A's limped out of Guaranteed Rate Field feeling fortunate to avoid losing four straight to the Sox.
Oakland lost ace starting pitcher Chris Bassitt on Tuesday after he was hit on the right side of the head by a Brian Goodwin line drive.
The White Sox went on to win the second game of the series 9-0 after taking the opener 5-3 and hanging on for a 3-2 victory Wednesday.
"Their record speaks for itself, what they've done," Sox manager Tony La Russa said of the A's. "They're very tough to play against. Every game was tough. Disappointed we didn't win the last one."
The Sox came close to pulling off the four-game sweep before falling 5-4. The Athletics came dangerously close to losing another player to injury.
Trailing 5-3 in the ninth inning, Sox catcher Zack Collins led off with a single before Cesar Hernandez struck out swinging and Luis Robert flied out to deep center field.
The game appeared to be over when Jose Abreu flied to medium center, but as Starling Marte came in to make the catch, he collided with Oakland shortstop Elvis Andrus and the ball hit the ground.
As Andrus rolled on the grass in pain, Collins came around to score and made it a 1-run game.
Andrus was able to stay in the game after being clothes-lined in the neck by Marte, and Eloy Jimenez lined out to Marte to end it.
Before looking ahead to a challenging weekend series vs. the Rays in Tampa Bay, the White Sox looked back at the Oakland series with satisfaction.
"It was a good series," said Andrew Vaughn, who gave the Sox a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning with a 2-run homer off A's starter Cole Irvin. "We played hard every single game and even played hard today and had a couple miscues and gave up a couple of homers and ended up losing. But we get on the plane and get to Tampa Bay tomorrow and start a new one."
Dylan Cease started for the Sox and gave up 3 runs in 6 innings.
"It wasn't great, but I kept us in it," Cease said. "It wasn't the worst outing, but it wasn't anything special."
After Matt Chapman hit a solo homer off Cease in the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3, Matt Olson hit a 2-run shot off relief pitcher Michael Kopech in the seventh to put Oakland ahead for good.
"They had a couple of pitches to hit and they didn't miss them," La Russa said. "The only thing we prioritize is nine hard innings, play as good as you can, as hard as you can, never give in, never give up. We obviously were doing that. When the score goes against you, you just tip your cap to the other club."