White Sox fumble win streak in 11-7 loss to the Athletics

It was another high-scoring affair for the White Sox (11-8), who broke up their win streak by dropping Tuesday’s matchup against the Athletics (8-10), 11-7. Each team played 18 position players and seven pitchers, and despite exchanging the lead back-and-forth for most of the game, the A’s were able to out-hit the South Siders 16-10, and the Sox beat themselves by committing three errors.

Shane Smith was on the mound and struggled through his 2 2/3 innings, walking four batters against two strikeouts, and two of the five hits he allowed were home runs. In 7 1/3 innings this spring, Smith’s ERA and WHIP have inflated to 9.82 and 2.05, respectively. Shane, unfortunately, also accounted for one of the errors on a pickoff to first, which led to two runs scoring on the next batter as Brent Rooker ripped a double to drive in two of his three RBIs. Smith would, however, end up actually picking off a batter in the second inning.

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The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Garrett Schoenle, Mark McLaughlin, and Grant Taylor each blew a save, and the Good Guys surrendered five more runs after Smith’s exit. McLaughlin allowed one run while Taylor let two more in, and ultimately earned the loss.

Lefthander — and typically starting pitcher — Hagen Smith came in for the bottom of the eighth though he, too, wasn’t on his A-game, and he allowed two runs on three hits while striking out one before being yanked with two outs. Swapping out lefty for lefty, Rylan Kaufman re-entered the game to get the final out of the inning. Due to the pitching staff floundering throughout the game, the South Siders were hoping their offense could complete the comeback one last time. Spoiler alert, they didn’t.

Offensively, they had two three-run innings in the first and the third, but the A’s kept clawing back. Four of the 10 White Sox hits were for extra bases, including doubles from Lenyn Sosa, Miguel Vargas, and Ryan Galanie, with the fourth being a three-run bomb from Korey Lee that gave the lead back to the South Siders. Even with 10 hits and seven runs, only Vargas and Luisangel Acuña had multi-hit days, and the Good Guys went 4-for-14 (.286) with runners in scoring position and left another nine on base as a team.