Gavin Sheets came about as close as a baseball player not named Shohei Ohtani can to winning a game by himself. The White Sox right fielder tied the game against the A’s with a two-run homer, and then started a rally in the bottom of the ninth with a double. Pinch runner Adam Engel ended the game a few batters later when a Zach Jackson pitch veered wide of the catcher and allowed him to run home for the 3-2 win.
Sean Murphy started the game by making quick work of the quick-working Johnny Cueto. The A’s catcher took the 36-year-old veteran deep for a first-inning solo home run. When Seth Brown hit his 15th home run of the year and third homer in two nights during the third, that gave A’s starter Paul Blackburn a two-run cushion to work with.
The A’s lone All-Star entered his second start since the break on a skid of sorts. Blackburn had lost his last three starts, and had continued a troubling trend where his ERA had increased over each month. Blackburn’s ERA went from 5.13 in June starts to 9.15 in July starts. Blackburn ended Saturday with a final line of five innings pitched and five hits allowed.
“We’ve talked about mechanical adjustments, and that even when he’s not right, and that he’s still competing,” manager Mark Kotsay told reporters before the game.
Shorstop Elvis Andrus stopped what could have been a big White Sox inning with great glovework in the bottom of the fourth. With runners on first and second with a single out, Yasmani Grandal sent a sharply hit ball up the middle. Andrus went to one knee and snagged the ball before he quickly flipped it to Nick Allen to start the inning-ending double play.
Blackburn ran into more trouble in the next inning. Two runners got on with no outs in the fifth. Blackburn then channeled his All-Star form to work his way out of a jam. Sheets popped up, Josh Harrison struck out and then smashed his bat into pieces in frustration, and then former batting champion Tim Anderson whiffed on a breaking ball to end the inning.
Anderson is set to serve a three-game suspension for making contact with an umpire during Friday’s game, but he was allowed to play on Saturday after he appealed the suspension. A.J Puk kept things interesting when he entered in relief in the bottom of the sixth. The A’s hurler too allowed two runners on with one, and then got his next two batters out to escape unharmed and unhit.
Austin Pruitt wasn’t as fortunate. The A’s second reliever of the night gave up a two-run shot to Sheets in the bottom of the seventh to erase a lead that had stood untouched up to that point. The White Sox came back in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the game, and the A’s will have to win on Sunday to win their fourth series in a row.
