The Oakland Athletics scored a much-needed win on Tuesday night, as they took the second game of their three-game home series against the Chicago White Sox by a final score of 2-0. Now the A's will have a chance to try for a series win in Wednesday's rubber game at the O.co Coliseum.
The story in this one was the pitching, as A's starter Tommy Milone dueled with Gavin Floyd for eight innings. Through the first three and a half innings, the teams managed just one baserunner each, both reaching on errors. In the bottom of the fourth, A's second baseman Jemile Weeks finally managed a hit off of Floyd.
Heading into the bottom of the eighth, the A's had recorded just two hits off of Floyd and the White Sox had managed just three off of Milone. Oakland finally gave their starter some run support in the eighth, however, as Daric Barton drew a leadoff walk. After striking out Luke Hughes, Floyd was removed from the game and Matt Thornton came in to face pinch hitter Kurt Suzuki, who promptly doubled home Barton. Although that would be all the offense the A's would need, Eric Sogard singled home Suzuki with two outs. Grant Balfour came in for the save, striking out Adam Dunn swinging to end the game.
Milone improved to 3-1 with a dazzling win, going eight shutout innings of three-hit, no-walk baseball, while striking out five. Floyd was charged with one run on two hits and two walks in 7.1 innings and picked up six strikeouts.
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