A’s deliver White Sox record 21st loss in a row

From the Battle of the Bay to the Battle of the Bottom, the Oakland Athletics defeated the league-worst Chicago White Sox, who now have lost an AL-record 21 losses in a row.

While the two teams represent the bottom of the AL, the A’s clearly entered the game as the favorites, carrying a whopping 20 more victories than the Sox this season. And they performed like it, delivering an all-around 5-1 victory and taking their July momentum into August.

While the offense has been doing the heavy lifting the past month, it was the pitching that set the tone tonight. JP Sears, coming off seven scoreless innings against San Francisco last week, went another full seven tonight and struck out five batters along the way. His sole blemish of the night was an Andrew Benintendi single that knocked in Chicago’s only run. Carrying an even 5.00 ERA into July, Sears has dropped that down to 4.35 over his past six starts, leading the staff the way we expected going into the season.

On offense, there wasn’t any single outstanding performer tonight. Instead, they took a piecemeal approach, working a very on-brand nine walks and small-balling their way to five runs. This was on full display in the 1st inning, with Daz Cameron, Brent Rooker, and Shea Langeliers each getting to base on balls and scoring the team’s first run on a Tyler Nevin sacrifice fly. After Chicago tied it in the 4th, the A’s punched back in the bottom half of the inning, loading the bases and scoring a couple on a Max Schuemann groundball single through the hole at shortstop.

Now with a 3-1 lead, the A’s got their big hit to seal the deal. With lefty Ky Bush starting the game, it looked like Lawrence Butler might get his first game off in what feels like forever. With the last month that he’s had, there hasn’t been much reason to give him any time off, even against lefties. But over the past four games, Butler’s hit into a bit of a mini-slump that looked like it might derail his breakout as he went 1-for-15 and striking out seven times.

However, with Bush out of the game after four and righty Chad Kuhl now pitching, Mark Kotsay went to Butler off the bench, and boy did he deliver. Facing a 2-1 count, the outfielder got a 90 mph cutter low and in. With one big cut, he sent the pitch back, back, 409 feet, and all the way over the center field wall, putting the A’s up 4-1 and hopefully putting his slump to rest.

The A’s got their fifth and final run on some heads-up baserunning from the slumping Zack Gelof. After walking to lead off the inning, the second baseman stole 2nd and moved over to 3rd on a Darell Hernaiz sacrifice fly. Then, with Schuemann striking out on a pitch in the dirt and dashing down the first-base line, White Sox catcher Korey Lee lazily threw the ball to get the force out, allowing the eager Gelof to sprint home, beat the throw back to Lee, and score the run. If that’s not small ball, I don’t know what is.

To cap off the night, Austin Adams and Tyler Ferguson dominated out of the bullpen. With a comfortable lead and facing a meager offense, both of the righties struck out a pair of batters and walked away with scoreless innings to close the game out.

The Oakland A’s are now 17-11 since July 1, best in the American League. And with two games left in the series against the White Sox, they’re not likely to get surpassed any time soon.