Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER
Sean Manaea held the White Sox to five hits over seven innings and a throwing error by Chicago pitcher Reynaldo Lopez proved decisive as the A’s scored a 3-1 win Thursday afternoon to keep their flailing postseason hopes alive.
Sean Manaea delivers a pitch during the A’s 3-1 win over the White Sox Thursday afternoon. Manaea held the AL Central leaders to just five hits in seven innings while striking out nine batters.
The win gave Oakland the three-game series, and also helped move the A’s within two games of the second AL Wild Card spot two games back of the Yankees.
Along with Manaea, the A’s could be most thankful fr the continued aggressiveness of Starling Marte. After reaching base with a one-out single in the third, Marte stole second, and after a walk to Matt Olson he distracted Lopez enough on the mound to induce him to commit a throwing error on a pickoff play to second, allowing him to come all the way home to give Oaklands a 2-1 lead that they’d never relinquish. A sacrifice fly by Matt Chapman would then score Olson to provide the games final margin as left-hander Andrew Chafin came on in the ninth to record his third save.
Asked what’s changed over his past two starts, Manaea said, “Establishing my fastball and throwing it with conviction. I feel like I was getting away from that and worrying about too many different things. I’ve really simplified things and just keep telling myself to be aggressive with all my pitches. Be aggressive with everything and good things will happen.”
Sean Murphy congratulates Andrew Chafin after the final out of the A’s 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox Thursday afternoon at the Coliseum.
“This was a big series for us,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “Coming off a really tough one in Toronto and losing the first game in this series, we know we have to win a lot of series coming down the stretch. This looked to be a really difficult one. To come back and win two games shows you what our team is made of. I think everybody here expects to get on a roll. Hopefully, these two wins catapult us.”
The A’s return to action Friday night with Texas coming into the Coliseum for their last visit of the season. Paul Blackburn (0-2, 4.12) is scheduled to face the Rangers Glenn Otto (0-0, 1.86) in the opener at 6:40PM.
