The Chicago White Sox needed exactly one run Saturday, and their pitching staff made it stand up. Five pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over the Athletics, Chicago’s second straight and the visitors’ eighth consecutive loss.
Erick Fedde set the tone with four scoreless innings on 55 pitches, allowing two hits with three strikeouts. Sean Newcomb, Chris Murphy and Bryan Hudson carried it to the eighth, and Grant Taylor recorded the final five outs for his fourth save. Taylor now has 67 strikeouts in 48.1 innings with a 2.79 ERA, and the way he was trusted with a five-out assignment in a one-run game says plenty about where he sits in this bullpen.
The offense managed little against Athletics starter Gage Jump, who struck out seven over 5.2 innings and deserved better than the loss. The difference was Chase Meidroth, who went 2-for-3 with a double and drove in Colson Montgomery for the game’s only run. Luisangel Acuña added two hits, including a double, and Munetaka Murakami drew a walk in his second game back from the hamstring strain that cost him six weeks.
At 49-45, Chicago stays deadlocked with Cleveland atop the AL Central — the Guardians won in Miami on Saturday, so neither team has been able to shake the other. Chicago’s grip on first place has survived a rough stretch of 4-6 baseball over the last ten games largely because the pitching keeps producing days like this one. The South Side gets one more crack at the reeling A’s before the All-Star break splits up a race that looks like it will run deep into September.
For fantasy purposes, Taylor is the name here. Four saves, a strikeout-per-inning-plus rate, and now a five-out save in a pennant-race game — he looks like the closer in Chicago the rest of the way and should be rostered in all formats chasing saves. Meidroth keeps hitting near the top of this lineup and has quiet multi-category value in deeper leagues.
