I ended up teaching curling for 7½ hours this morning and afternoon, and the White Sox played another game that was virtually impossible to make sense of following on Gameday.
Here's the bullet-point recap:
*The White Sox took an 8-3 lead into the eighth inning, only to watch Clint Frazier bring the go-ahead run to the plate with two outs in the ninth by slipping after breaking back on a bloop single, followed by an awkward catch on a line drive to mercifully end it.
*The White Sox built a 5-0 lead in the third inning on a lot of good fortune. They scored the first run when Andrew Benintendi singled Seby Zavala to third, followed by a Tim Anderson sac fly. Benintendi then advanced to second on a passed ball, which prevented Luis Robert Jr.'s groundout to short from being an inning-ending double play.
*Then came the two-out hits. Eloy Jiménez atoned for striking out with runners on second and third with one out in the first inning by smashing a single through the middle to score Benintendi, and then he advanced to third when Tony Kemp couldn't catch Andrew Vaughn's line drive to center. Jake Burger walked to load the bases, and although Gavin Sheets fell behind 0-2, Paul Blackburn spared him by hitting him in the foot with a curveball. After that,. Zach Remillard capitalized on the mistake by pinballing a single off the tip of the third baseman's glove for two more runs and a 5-0 lead.
*They'd need to add more, because Touki Toussaint finally showed the control issues that made him available to the White Sox. He retired the first six he faced, but he started the third with a walk, gave up a bunt single, and after striking out Esteury Ruiz, allowed an RBI single to Tony Kemp. Robert cut down Wade at third base to see, but Touissaint couldn't take advantage. He walked Ryan Noda, hit JJ Bleday with a 2-2 curveball, then walked Seth Brown to make it a 5-2 game. Anderson knocked down a hard grounder up the middle to limit the damage.
*Aaron Bummer stranded two Touissant runners in the fourth to calm down the ballgame, and while he allowed an RBI double to Bleday in the fifth, he and Keynan Middleton otherwise held Oakland scoreless from innings 4-7.
*That bought the White Sox time to tack on. Remillard led off with the sixth with a double, stretched it to a triple on an error, then scored on Benintendi's sac fly. Anderson kept the inning alive with a two-out single literally off Richard Lovelady, forcing a pitching change. Rico Garcia walked Robert, then gave up another RBI single to Jiménez for a 7-3 game.
*Jake Burger then went yard some 442 feet to center field to s
*Bryan Shaw gave up a two-run shot to Brent Rooker after retiring the first two batters in his White Sox debut in the eighth.
*Gregory Santos recorded his first save of the season, but it wasn't pretty. He had two outs and on one when Bleday sliced a double into the left-field corner to make it an 8-6 game and bring the tying run to the plate, and that's when Frazier had his misadventure. At least it wasn't plural.
*The Sox are 5½ games behind both Minnesota and Cleveland, both of whom are one game under .500.
*Toussaint walked four and hit a batter over 3⅔ innings. He threw just 46 of 85 pitches for strikes.
*Lucas Giolito was warming on his side day, and probably would've entered as a reliever if the game went to the 10th.
*Jiménez was pinch-hit for in the eighth inning due to "unspecified soreness."
