A’s get back on track with 3-2 win

It wasn’t pretty, but the A’s take the win to earn a series victory over the White Sox

No matter how ugly it is or how terrible your opponent is, a win is a win. Exhibit A could’ve been todays A’s victory over the Chicago White Sox.

The A’s offense was completely silent for about half the affair and by the end, they were outhit 7-6 with no extra-base hits to show in the box score. The A’s also committed two errors but in the end it doesn’t matter because they escaped with the 3-2 victory.

With the win, the A’s took ²⁄₃ over the struggling White Sox to capture their fourth series victory since the All-Star Break of six total.

Andrew Benintendi got the games scoring started with a second-inning two-run blast to give the White Sox an early lead. The A’s, on the other hand, took a lot longer to get their offense going.

It’d take until the fifth inning of this afternoons game for the A’s to crack the hit column when Abraham Toro singled to center. Zack Gelof singled next to put the A’s first runner in scoring position, but Darell Hernaiz grounded into a double play to quickly end the rally.

Besides the second-inning big fly, credit Estes on cashing in another strong outing. The rookies final line was: five innings thrown, six hits, two earned runs and four punch-outs. He was in line for a loss he surely didn’t deserve until the A’s offense decided to wake up in the seventh.

The rally started with a Brent Rooker single and Toro walk to put runners at first and second. Armando Alvarez — a late substitution to this afternoons lineup for Tyler Nevin — and Gelof stepped up next with RBI singles to knot the game at two.

Hernaiz would ground into a fielders choice to put runners at second and third, and Lawrence Butler clutched up with a superb situational at-bat to put the A’s ahead 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to left.

The bullpen would pick up right where Estes left off to allow the A’s a chance to win the game. Will Klein worked his first full inning of relief in exactly two months while going three up, three down to keep the White Sox offense at bay. Tyler Ferguson struck out a pair over a 1-2-3 eighth himself.

Then in the ninth, the A’s welcomed back their All-Star superstar closer off the Injured List, Mason Miller. Miller unusually didn’t strike anyone out but he still induced three straight outs to earn the stress-free save.

The A’s have tomorrow off where they’ll be flying north to Canada to take on the Toronto Blue Jays for a three-game set starting Friday at 4:07 PM PDT. Mitch Spence will start for the A’s while a Blue Jays starter has yet to be announced.