Lenyn Sosa, Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi homered and Touki Toussaint pitched five shutout innings to boost the Chicago White Sox to a 6-2 win against the visiting Oakland Athletics on Saturday.
After allowing seven home runs in losing the first two games of the series by a combined score of 20-9, the White Sox turned things around while out-hitting the A’s 9-4.
Toussaint won for the first time in five starts behind his best outing in a frustrating August. The right-hander improved to 2-6 after scattering two hits, three walks and four strikeouts in five innings.
Bryan Shaw, Jimmy Lambert, Sammy Peralta and Aaron Bummer combined for four innings of two-hit, two-run relief. Both runs were unearned.
Oakland starter JP Sears (2-11) wasn’t as successful as he lost for the fourth time in five starts. The left-hander surrendered six runs and nine hits, including three homers, in six innings. He walked two and struck out eight.
Sears fanned the first two hitters he faced before allowing a double to Luis Robert Jr. and an Eloy Jimenez RBI single.
Sosa hit a solo home run in the second inning, also with two out, before Chicago added three runs in the third. An intentional walk to Jimenez with a runner aboard and two outs burned the A’s, as Moncada smashed a three-run home run.
In the fifth, Benintendi hit a solo shot to the opposite field for a 6-0 White Sox advantage.
Oakland avoided the shutout with two runs in the eighth, capitalizing on a walk and a single to start the inning. A Moncada error on Carlos Perez’s fielder’s choice allowed the first A’s run to score. Jonah Bride’s RBI single accounted for the final margin.
Robert Jr., Jimenez and Sosa had two hits apiece for Chicago. Oakland did not collect an extra-base hit while stranding 11 men on base and going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
The A’s lead the season series 4-2 entering Sunday’s series finale.
–Field Level Media
