Athletics fall to White Sox 7-6

Getting walked off is never fun

Oakland fell to the White Sox on Saturday evening, losing in walk-off fashion to the South Siders 7-6 after a walk-off home run and surprisingly being eliminated from playoff contention. Who would have thought?

Oakland starting pitcher JT Ginn was on the bump for tonight’s contest. Making just his fourth career starting appearance, Ginn couldn’t quite match what he’d done over the previous three outings. Facing the lowly White Sox Ginn allowed a whopping 10 hits over just four innings, thankfully allowing just three runs. Tonight was not his night as Chicago seemed to have him beat on every pitch. Ginn managed just three strike outs over the course of his outing, a career-low for what it’s worth as early into his career as he is.

The offense meanwhile struggled against Chicago starting pitcher Chris Flexen. A former Seattle Mariner, these A’s have seen Flexen before but tonight he really had their number. Over the first five innings of tonight’s contest the Green & Gold could manage just six hits against him, unable to push any runs across during the first half of today’s game. Not a good look.

The Athletics finally broke through in the sixth, only after Flexen was gone from this one and the A’s were into the bullpen. Facing Chicago reliever Chad Kuhl, the A’s managed to finally get on the board in the sixth inning. The big hit? Who else but snubbed All-SBrent Rooker:

That hit tied this game up 3 apiece but it would take a bit longer to figure out tonight’s winner. Left-hander Kyle Muller, freshly recalled from Triple-A, was the first out of the bullpen after Ginn’s short-ish start. His first two Innings of work couldn’t have gone better. His third? Tough to watch as Muller allowed a pair of hits that would eventually turn into a pair of runs. But don’t let the box score fool you; Muller looked solid over those first two innings of work. Will the club give him a chance to start a game? With just a couple weeks left it couldn’t hurt, right? Right??

Anyway, the White Sox added on an extra run in the eighth that gave them a bit of an extra cushion and that would matter later. The A’s rallied hard during their final gasp, scoring three runs in the top of the ninth to knot this one all up and give a chance for extra innings.

Not to be tonight however. White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi and to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and collected his third hit of the evening, swatting his 17th home run of the season to end this game and give the White Sox their first win in some time.

Not fun! Oakland could have taken this one but things don’t always work out like you hope. They’ll try to avoid losing the series tomorrow in the finale, bright and early!

It’ll be lefty JP Sears on the mound for the good guys, while Chicago will counter with Sean Burke, who will be making his second career appearance in the major leagues and first career start. Excellent chance to nab a win, if I dare say so myself!