By Morris Phillips

What started out promising for the A’s turned dark and depressing at a familiar juncture on Saturday night.

The A’s jumped to an early 2-0 lead against the White Sox only to see their bullpen and defense falter in the seventh inning of what would become a 4-3 loss, their ninth defeat in the last 10 games.

Like a broken record, the A’s continue to struggle in close games, can’t find proper relief in the seventh inning, and get seem to get through a game without committing at least one error.  Oakland is 1-13 in one-run ballgames, and lead the majors in a pair dubious categories: most runs allowed in the seventh inning (37 in 38 games) and most errors committed (27).

The losing and its familiar pattern had manager Bob Melvin shaking his head after the game.

“When you’re in that many games and you lose by one run that many times, certainly you expect to win more of them.  We just haven’t and we have to find a way to do it,” Melvin said.

“A lot of times it feels like the same game.”

Prior to the seventh inning, the A’s looked like winners with the early lead and a gutty start from Jesse Chavez, who went six innings and did a nice, escape act in the sixth to get out of a jam.  Chavez threw a pair of wild pitches in the inning, but still managed to get Alexei Ramirez to ground into an inning-ending double play.

But Chavez was done, and the A’s bullpen took over with auditions in full swing for the troublesome, seventh inning.  Little-used Fernando Rodriguez got the call and dialed up a couple quick outs but then unraveled.  First Adam Eaton’s quality bunt was fielded by Rodriguez, but he threw wildly to first, which allowed Eaton to motor all the way to third base.

Melky Cabrera followed with an RBI single that gave Chicago a 3-2 lead and Jose Abreu got Cabrera home on an RBI double.  Rodriguez was lifted after Abreu’s double but the A’s were staring at a 4-2 deficit.

The A’s managed to get a run back in the eighth, but they had four hits in the inning with an ill-timed double play in between.  That inning ended with Brett Lawrie lining out with a pair of runners aboard.