GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jose Quintana had another strong outing and left after six innings with a lead, but the White Sox bullpen couldn’t hold off the Oakland A’s, who scored two runs in the seventh inning and six in the eighth in a 10-4 victory at Camelback Ranch.
Quintana, whose Cactus League ERA is 2.92 with one more start to go, gave up two runs in the first inning, then strung together five scoreless innings. He struck out five and walked none while allowing six hits. Quintana threw 86 pitches, 61 for strikes, and went to the bullpen for 15 more pitches after his outing to get stretched out to 101 pitches.
“I’m ready,’ Quintana said.
The bullpen? Not so much. Except for Zach Putnam, the relievers who were healthy enough to pitch were shaky at best, giving up a lead as the Sox fell to 8-14-3 in Cactus League play. Maikel Cleto (11.74 ERA) walked two and gave up four hits including a homer, Matt Albers (5.14) gave up two hits and was charged with two runs over 2/3 of an inning and lefty Dan Jennings (2.84) allowed a walk, single and wild pitch over 1/3 of an inning. Putnam pitched the ninth, throwing his third consecutive scoreless inning after a shaky start to his spring.
Jose Abreu (.479) was 2-for-5 with a pair of singles, Emilio Bonifacio had two hits and Alexei Ramirez singled in two more runs, hiking his Cactus League leading RBI total to 17. Avisail Garcia was 1-for-4 with a double to deep right center.
The Sox defense was far from clean. Third baseman Gordon Beckham and second baseman Bonifacio made diving stops in the field, but Bonifacio also made a throwing error. Garcia made a poor throw from right field, seemed to let up going to the fence on a ball at the warning track and didn’t run the best route on a double that got to the fence.
On deck: The White Sox play the Indians on Sunday at 3:05 CST (CSN, 670-AM). Scott Carroll gets a start against T.J. House while starter John Danks will throw on the backfields on his scheduled day as the Sox, as is their custom, don’t show their starters to division teams. Closer David Robertson, who hasn’t pitched since last Saturday because of forearm soreness, is scheduled to pitch an inning against the Indians.
