If you were hoping for the White Sox to notch at least one convincing victory against a right-handed starter, then this weekend was a failure.
If you've resigned yourself to the idea that the White Sox just have to take wins however they come in 2022, then this weekend was good enough.
Adam Oller came into this game with an 8.07 ERA over 11 career games and nearly came away with his first-ever quality start. Fortunately, Dylan Cease survived a flurry of deep flies early and posted his 12th consecutive start of fewer than two earned runs, so while it wasn't an authoritative victory, it at least lacked drama.
Cease only wobbled in the second inning, when he gave up a solo shot to Ramon Laureano around two home-run-distance flies that curved on the better side of the right-field foul pole. He eventually found the ears on his slider and held the A's to three hits and a walk the rest of the way. One of those hits was erased by Seby Zavala, who blocked a pitch in the dirt and fired to third to nail Nick Allen, who read the carom poorly and TOOTBLAN'd his way into the third out in the third inning.
He just needed the offense to overcome the smallest of early holes, and they did so immediately. José Abreu, perhaps fired up by Josh's post this morning, hammered a 2-0 cutter out to left to open the inning, tying the game. Josh Harrison kept the inning alive with a two-out double, which turned out to be the first of three consecutive hits. Leury García slashed a single through the right side to score Harrison, then took second on Steven Piscotty's high throw home. That 90 feet proved key when Seby Zavala bounced a double over the wall in left center. Had Piscotty hit the cutoff man and forced García to settle for one base, he would've been held at third.
It would've been nice if the White Sox could've added on against Oller, but he ended up giving the A's six solid innings.
Fortunately, Mark Kotsay looked a gift horse in the mouth and asked him to start the seventh, and Eloy Jiménez launched the first pitch of the inning out to right-center for an insurance solo shot, which deprived Oller of the QS.
Tony La Russa did not ask for a seventh inning out of Cease, pulling him after six innings and 94 pitches. He turned the game over to the ideal arrangement of Joe Kelly, Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks, and each worked around a baserunner to throw a scoreless inning to seal a sorely needed series victory.
Bullet points:
*Cease improved his record to 11-4 while lowering his ERA to 2.01. He sliders for 59 of his 94 pitches.
*Harrison fumbled away a chopper up the middle in the sixth inning, which was generously scored a hit. That was the lone defensive miscue.
*The White Sox and A's finished the series with 10 runs apiece, even though the Sox were outhomered 7-3.
*The White Sox finished July with a 16-11 record.
