Noah Schultz opened the game by giving up a single, erasing it with a double play, and then giving up a solo shot to Shea Langeliers before he could record the third out.
Still, Schultz didn't walk anybody, and he threw 13 of his 16 pitches for strikes. If a guy who came into the game with 29 walks in 48 major league innings wanted positive reinforcement for staying in the strike zone, the rest of the game rewarded him for it.
Sam Antonacci immediately countered Langeliers' solo shot with one of his own to start the bottom of the first, and that was only the beginning of it. Before Schultz returned to the mound, the Sox had built him a five-run lead. Schultz pitched to the score, but the Sacramento side's never changed.
It made for an easy Sunday, as the Sox coasted to a sweep that not only overwrote the three-game dud against the Red Sox earlier in the week, but even restored the losses in the run differential. After scoring just two runs over three games against Boston, the White Sox allowed just two runs to the A's, and came away with a 26-17 edge on the scoreboard for the week.
The White Sox offense swamped Ginn quickly, as Munetaka Murakami drew a walk after the Antonacci homer to start a rally in earnest. Miguel Vargas laced a double to left, and although Colson Montgomery struck out, Andrew Benintendi ended up getting intentionally walked after two pitches to load the bases for Kyle Teel.
Teel took that personally, ripping a two-run single to left that put the Sox ahead 3-1, and Braden Montgomery followed with a deep drive to right that somehow missed the glove of a leaping Lawrence Butler, hit the top of the fence and bounced over for a three-run shot and a 6-1 score.
Had Butler caught it, it still would've been good for a 4-1 lead, and either would've been plenty for Schultz and Co. Schultz stayed aggressive, and although the A's mounted a couple of threats, it was more due to the White Sox infield than anything Sacramento's side did. Schultz faced his biggest jam in the fourth when Vargas fired wildly on a Langeliers grounder to start the inning, followed by a Jonah Heim flared single to right. Colby Thomas' soft flyout in the same direction traveled far enough for Braden Montgomery to catch it, and although Joey Meneses notched the first solid single of the inning to load the bases, loaded they remained. Schultz struck out Butler with an ideal pair of sequential sweepers for the second out, then induced a grounder to short for an inning-ending fielder's choice.
Schultz ended up pitching around a Colson Montgomery error in the fifth by less dramatic means, and that allowed him to snap a personal four-game losing streak with the quintessential Schultz line: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP, 53 of 74 pitches for strikes.
His counterpart Ginn recovered well enough to pitch into the fifth, but he could only record one out in that inning, and the Sox uglied up his line again. They chased him with a Colson Montgomery single and a Benintendi (unintentional) walk, and then José Suarez gave up a single to Teel that loaded the bases. Braden Montgomery's grounder to the left side found a hole for his fourth RBI of the game, after which Tristan Peters' grounder to the right side was good for an RBI 3-6 forceout, but with no chance for a double play. Teel then scored via #WILDPITCHOFFENSE for the game's final run.
Jordan Hicks and Seranthony Domínguez handled the first two innings after Schultz, and they continued the theme of strike-throwing. Hicks threw 15 pitches while striking out the side in the sixth; 13 of them were strikes, and 10 were 100 mph or faster, peaking at 101.6 mph. When Domínguez followed with an even more efficient seventh, it seemed like overkill.
Only when Tyler Schweitzer entered in the eighth did the bullpen have the look of a low-leverage unit, although he also pitched a pair of scoreless innings. Chase Meidroth helped, making a diving stop on a Heim grounder that would've scored a run in the eighth, before turning a double play in the ninth to keep the A's off the board the rest of the way.
Bullet points:
*A crowd of 27,175 saw the White Sox post an eight-run victory in two hours and 20 minutes.
*The AL Central remains tied, as Cleveland won its final four games of the first half.
*The White Sox's front-line offense was in place for two of the three games this series, and it produced 24 runs.
*Meidroth was the only White Sox who didn't reach base, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts from the ninth spot.
