Chapman uncharacteristically 'human' on 'D'

CHICAGO -- It both was and was not Matt Chapman’s night.

On one hand, Chapman homered for the third straight game. One the other, a pair of rare misplays at third base helped the White Sox take the lead in the fifth inning of the A's 5-2 defeat at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday.

There are few more reliable gloves at the hot corner than Chapman’s, but a bunt single by Cèsar Hernández ate him up and put Tim Anderson, who singled to lead off the fifth, in scoring position. Two batters later, Eloy Jiménez hit a single that glanced off Chapman’s glove into left field to drive Anderson home.

“As good as he is over there, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make mistakes,” Josh Harrison said.

Harrison said Chapman was shifted against Hernández’s fifth-inning bunt, forcing the third baseman into an awkward angle while trying to field and then throw.

On the Jiménez single, Harrison said the exit velocity (102.2 mph) and top spin on the ball made it too much to handle.

“That’s not making an excuse for him, but he’s human,” Harrison said. “You try to make plays. You can’t make every one. We expect ourselves to, but we know nine times out of 10, Chappy’s going to make those plays.”

This on the same night Chapman handled a 110 mph scorcher with a .610 expected batting average off of Jiménez’s bat in the third inning with ease.

Chapman also struck out while facing Craig Kimbrel with two runners in scoring position and just one out in the eighth inning, spoiling a chance to cut into Chicago's lead. Harrison then punched out swinging, ending the A's threat.

The A’s took an early lead, plating two runs in the second inning. Chapman’s 18th home run of the season provided the first run, and Mark Canha’s RBI single to left field the second. But from there, it was all Sox.

Squandering an opportunity to blow the game open in the second inning didn’t help the A’s, either. They had a chance to tack on more runs, but Matt Olson couldn't check his swing with two outs and the bases loaded on what could have been ball four.

“Our biggest chance was in the second, where we had them on the run a little bit, and that’s our best guy up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve got a chance to break through early in the game, and then [Dallas Keuchel] settled down and threw a lot better after that.”

After the second inning, the A’s put only three runners on base until the eighth. And before Chapman and Harrison struck out, Olson was hit on the foot on a pitch from Kimbrel, and a batter later he moved to third on Jed Lowrie’s ground-rule double, which could have cost the A's a run.

On the mound, A’s starter Frankie Montas lasted five innings, giving up three runs on eight hits and three walks, with six strikeouts. He struck out Sox slugger José Abreu three times, twice with his splitter.

But otherwise, Montas said he didn’t feel like he had full command of his pitches.

“I felt like I was fighting with my mechanics the whole game,” Montas said. “I didn’t have my command, and I feel like that was what hurt me today.”

As a result, the Sox were able to cut down Oakland’s lead via small ball. Other than Luis Robert’s eighth-inning home run, Chicago had nine singles.

“They’re a team that can run, they can hit,” Montas said. “They were taking pitches, they were swinging at really good pitches, and they were able to put good contact on.

“A team like that that has really good hitters, you need your command. You need to execute your pitches, and that was not what I was doing tonight.”

Liam Hendriks, who closed out 39 games for Oakland in 2019 and '20, earned his 27th save of the season against his former club.

“Liam’s made quite the name for himself since he’s moved into that closer’s role,” Melvin said prior to Monday's game. “And we know how tough he is, but you just have to move past that and compete hard against him.”