WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A five-run lead had vanished.
But the Chicago White Sox still had chance after chance to rebound Saturday against the Athletics.
Each opportunity, though, the team came up empty.
The Sox went a dismal 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left 14 runners on base in an 11-inning, 7-6 loss in front of 11,131 at Sutter Health Park.
“Some chase above the zone in big spots,” manager Will Venable said. “Whether guys were trying to do too much, I don’t think that was the case. That’s not really what I saw. Just weren’t able to make it happen.”
Everything clicked early for the Sox. But the clutch hits dried up and the A’s rallied to win the 3-hour, 34-minute game.
Jacob Wilson scored the winning run on Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly to left field.
“Up early, and there was a lot of game to play left,” Sox designated hitter Andrew Benintendi said. “That team can hit. I mean, they’re hitting right now, especially. So we knew the game wasn’t over.
“I felt like we came out hot and kind of cooled off a little bit there against (A’s starter Luis) Severino. He kind of settled in and we got some opportunities there late, but guys made good pitches.”
The Sox jumped to a 5-0 lead in the second, with a solo home run by Colson Montgomery and a three-run homer by Benintendi part of the damage.
The A’s kept chipping away and got within 5-4 after six. Sox starter Erick Fedde allowed three runs on two hits with four walks and three strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.
“Stuff was pretty terrible,” Fedde said. “Sweeper was good, leaned on it a bunch. Just kind of got to the point where it was like, throw it until it works or it doesn’t. Obviously would’ve liked to go deeper, but the boys did a great job giving me a big lead. And just tried to give up as few runs as possible.
“You never want to lose, but obviously when you have a lead (and lose), it makes it tough. I put a lot of that on myself for not going deeper and walking some guys. I’d much rather give up the solo home run than have the leadoff walk score. That happened to me twice today, so I’ve just got to be better there.”
Munetaka Murakami homered leading off the seventh, his second of the series after hitting a grand slam Friday, to extend the Sox lead to 6-4.
“He’s in a really good spot, another impressive home run today,” Venable said.
The A’s tied the score on a two-run homer by Nick Kurtz in the bottom of the seventh.
Then came a series of solid pitching and missed opportunities. The A’s loaded the bases in the eighth with two outs, but reliever Bryan Hudson struck out Tyler Soderstrom.
The Sox, who missed out on a bases-loaded chance in the sixth, found themselves in that situation again in the ninth. Sam Antonacci grounded out to first to end the inning.
In extra innings, Sox reliever Jordan Hicks executed big pitch after big pitch in the 10th to escape a bases-loaded, one-out jam. He got a flyout to shallow right and a grounder in an inning that also featured a diving play by shortstop Tanner Murray with the infield in for the first out with runners on first and third.
“There were some tough spots,” Venable said. “Those guys (Hudson and Hicks) made the pitches when they needed to. They both were really effective, got the job done.”
The Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th. Montgomery and Everson Pereira struck out, and Antonacci popped out to third.
While the A’s were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, they executed well in the 11th. Wilson, the automatic runner, advanced to third on a bunt and scored on Muncy’s sac fly to win the marathon game.
“The first half of the game was really good,” Venable said. “Offensively we did a nice job, some really good things, obviously that five-run second, third — I don’t even know what inning it was, it was such a long game. … Left some guys out there, a lot of runners on base, not a lot going on with runners in scoring position as we moved through that game.
“And then late, some tight situations there that we were able to navigate. Obviously bases loaded there with nobody out, we weren’t able to push anybody across. But credit to both teams, man, that was a hard-fought game on both sides.”
