Considering the White Sox offense only provided Dallas Keuchel and Reynaldo López two whole runs of support combined, the White Sox should feel fortunate that they backed Jimmy Lambert well enough to leave Oakland with one out of three.
López had little for margin for error, and he used it with an ill-advised pickoff move of Starling Marte that trickled into center field, allowing Marte to score the go-ahead and Matt Olson to move to third. Olson then scored on a sac fly for a second unearned run and a 3-1 lead, and that's where the score stayed.
The lineup was once again shorthanded, with Yoán Moncada, Eloy Jiménez and Leury García all getting days off, and Seby Zavala starting behind the plate with Yasmani Grandal at DH against lefty starter Sean Manaea. The top of the White Sox order -- César Hernández, Luis Robert and José Abreu -- combined to go 5-for-12, and scored the lone run when Abreu followed up a Hernández double with a two-out RBI single in the third. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-21 with nine strikeouts.
As for López, he looked more or less like his old self, for better (96 mph fastball) and not great (12 swinging strikes over 90 pitches, but only two strikeouts), but he gave the Sox what they were looking for. He tried picking off Marte at second because he was successful in getting Josh Harrison on the same play to defuse a first-inning threat. He also minimized a second scoring threat in the second. Although he allowed Tony Kemp to drive in Jed Lowrie with a slicer down the line, Billy Hamilton made matters worse by letting the ball get past him and into the corner for a triple with just one out. López stranded Kemp by fielding a comebacker and getting a groundout.
López and three White Sox relievers actually limited Oakland to fewer hits than the Sox tallied 7-6, with Ryan Burr, Aaron Bummer and Ryan Tepera all striking out two during perfect innings. The White Sox lineup just hit a wall after the fourth spot.
Bullet points:
*Romy González picked up his second hit and first extra-base hit with a double off the left-field wall in the ninth, and also saved his own face by spearing a 109-mph liner.
*Andrew Vaughn went 0-for-13 with four strikeouts over a series that was supposed to be a triumphant return to Northern California.
