In the A’s quest for a victory over the White Sox, Zack Gelof hopes to remain heated.
Ken Waldichuk, the starter for the Oakland Athletics, throws once every five days.
Meanwhile, the left-hander contently watches rookie Zack Gelof at second base.
“Every time he’s up, you stop what you’re doing and you watch him go,” said Waldichuk.
Gelof, 23, has hits in 13 of his last 15 games going into Saturday night’s game against the host Chicago White Sox. In August, he had a batting average of.333.
He led the team to a 12-4 victory in Chicago on Friday, capping a five-run second inning with an RBI double. In Thursday night’s 8-5 series opener, he launched a game-winning two-run home drive.
It’s excellent. Throughout spring training, he gave us signs. “He gave it his all to get on this team,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay remarked. We believed that he required a little extra time in Triple-A. Instead of putting his head down, pouting, or moping, he went to Triple-A. worked so hard there. This is his chance to sort of prove to us why he ought to have opened the season here.”
Chicago has lost 10 of 13 games and four of the past five it has played, while Oakland has won four of the previous five. In an attempt to maintain their run, the A’s will turn to struggling lefty JP Sears (2-10, 4.61 ERA).
In his four starts this August spanning eighteen innings, Sears is 0-3 with an 8.00 ERA. He gave up seven runs and nine hits in four innings of Sunday’s home loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
In his lone prior start against them on September 8, the White Sox thoroughly humiliated Sears, giving up six runs and eight hits in two innings. Against Sears, who gave up a long ball to Elvis Andrus, Yoan Moncada hit two home runs.
