Bassitt, loud bats help A's force Game 3 vs. White Sox

[October 01, 2020]  The Oakland Athletics turned the tables on the visiting Chicago White Sox with strong pitching and powerful hitting on Wednesday afternoon, evening their American League wild-card series with a 5-3 victory.

Right-hander Chris Bassitt (1-0) took a shutout into the eighth inning and Marcus Semien and Khris Davis each smacked early home runs off lefty Dallas Keuchel (0-1).

The victory allowed the Athletics to extend the best-of-three series to the limit on Thursday. Oakland manager Bob Melvin said that he has not decided on the team's starter for Game 3.

The winner of that game will advance to face the sixth-seeded Houston Astros in a neutral-site AL Division Series that is scheduled to begin on Monday.

Bassitt, who hadn't allowed a run in either of his last two regular-season starts, benefited from a leaping catch from Mark Canha in left field to stall a third-inning threat en route by Chicago.

He was pulled after giving up a leadoff single to Tim Anderson, then was charged with a run when Yasmani Grandal belted a two-run home run off Athletics reliever Liam Hendriks one out later.

Hendriks escaped further damage in the eighth despite serving up a one-out single to Abreu, but left after loading the bases with two outs in the ninth.

Left-hander Jake Diekman came in and issued a run-scoring walk to Grandal before inducing Abreu to ground out sharply to second base to record his first career postseason save.

Bassitt was charged with one run on six hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out five.

White Sox starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel (60) pitches the ball against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The second-seeded Athletics, who were no-hit by Lucas Giolito for six innings in Tuesday's 4-1 defeat, did all their offensive damage against Keuchel in the first four innings.

Oakland caught a break in the first when, with the bases loaded and two outs, Matt Olson's grounder into short right field hit the edge of the infield grass. The ball took a high hop on an awaiting Nick Madrigal, who failed to field it to allow two runs to score.

Semien's homer, a two-run shot, made it 4-0 in the second inning before Davis completed the Oakland scoring with a solo homer in the fourth.

Keuchel was removed one batter later, having allowed five runs (three earned) and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out four and did not walk anyone.

Ramon Laureano had two hits for the A's, who won a postseason game for the first time since 2013. They snapped a six-game losing streak in the process.

Anderson collected three hits to boost his total to six in the series. Madrigal added two for the seventh-seeded White Sox.

--Field Level Media

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