After a couple of losses against the Yankees that had the White Sox kicking themselves, the opener of a four-game series against Oakland acted as a palate cleanser.
At the plate, the White Sox were able to put the ball over the fence at least once. While their other nine hits were all singles, they were able to take the extra base with regularity, and even scored via the squeeze.
On the mound, Dallas Keuchel recovered from a scary second to throw five, Michael Kopech served as a one-man bridge to the closer cabal, and while Craig Kimbrel endured a rocky eighth, Liam Hendriks struck out the side in the ninth to recover from his pair of shoddy outings.
In the dugout, Tony La Russa avoided the temptation of pushing Keuchel one inning too long, deployed a challenge on a Luis Robert stolen-base attempt, and was rewarded for being proactive both times.
Add it all up, and the White Sox posted a well-rounded effort to secure a very nice 69th victory of the season.
For about two innings, it looked like Keuchel might justify the presence of Mike Wright in the bullpen, because he was lucky to limit Oakland to two runs. Matt Chapman lined a rolling slider over the left-field wall for the game's first run with one out in the second, after which Keuchel loaded the bases on a HBP on a 1-2 count, followed by two walks on a total of nine pitches.
Mark Canha then ignored conventional wisdom for profit, lining the first pitch he saw to left for an RBI single. He hit it too hard for another run to score, with Eloy Jiménez returning the ball quickly enough to keep the bases loaded. When Starling Marte bounced the mound, Keuchel got the force at home, and while Marte beat the throw to first, Keuchel persevered and struck out Matt Olson on a 3-2 borderline checked-swing call that went in his favor.
Over the next three innigns, Keuchel faced the minimum, erasing the lone single with a double play. He needed just 26 pitches.
With Oakland's offense stalled, the White Sox got to work after seeing former South Sider Frank Montas one time through.
Seby Zavala opened the third with a single, moved to third on Tim Anderson's single, then scored on César Hernández's well-struck sac fly to cut the Oakland lead in half.
In the fourth, after Andrew Vaughn grounded into a double play two batters in, Luis Robert propped open the door with a two-out single, followed by a Brian Goodwin walk. Zavala then came through with his second hit in as many innings to score Robert and tie the game.
Goodwin ran into an unnecessary out to end the inning by assuming the throw from left would go through, but Anderson started his own rally in the fifth with a single through the left side. Hernández sprung a bunt on Matt Chapman, who tried to pounce with equal aggression on the play by the line, but an uncharacteristic bobble gave Hernández his own base hit.
Two batters later, Eloy Jiménez again tested the Gold Glover Chapman with a line drive, and it deflected off his glove and into shallow left field for a go-ahead single.
Robert then took it upon himself to add insurance. In the sixth, he led off with a single, stole second successfully after La Russa's challenge, took third on a Goodwin groundout and scored on a perfect safety squeeze by Zavala.
And then after Kimbrel survived his own scare in the eighth by stranding two runners with a pair of strikeouts, Robert increased the cushion with a solo homer to left.
Robert went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, backed by Zavala, who turned the lineup over with a pair of singles, and pair of RBIs and a run of his own.
Their efforts were more than enough for the kind of performance expected from the revamped White Sox bullpen. Kopech struck out three over two hitless innings, working around a walk. Kimbrel allowed a leadoff HBP and a one-out ground-rule double to put the tying runs in scoring position, but rallied with a pair of K's to strike out the side.
Hendriks then struck out the side in order, relying on his slider after his fastball had been getting spanked.
Bullet points:
*Keuchel only threw 78 pitches, but La Russa learned from previous sixth-inning cave-ins.
*Zavala had a passed ball with Keuchel pitching, which was the lone defensive goof.
*The White Sox went 3-for-3 in stolen-base attempts.
*The A's are the only AL contender worse than the White Sox against teams with a winning record, and they're now 22-32. The Sox improved to 17-21.
*The Twins beat Cleveland in 10, so the White Sox lead the Central by 11.
