Tony Kemp tripled in the middle of a four-run second inning, Luis Medina threw five effective innings for his second win of the season and the Oakland Athletics opened a three-game home series against the Chicago White Sox with a 7-4 victory Friday night.
Trevor May struck out Tim Anderson with the potential tying runs in scoring position to end a White Sox eighth-inning rally, helping the A’s win for just the third time in their last 15 games.
After Chicago got to Medina (2-7) for a run in the first on an Eloy Jimenez RBI single, the A’s took the lead for good in the third against White Sox starter Tanner Banks (0-3).
A JJ Bleday walk and Aledmys Diaz double set the stage for the big inning, which produced its first two runs on Shea Langeliers’ RBI single and Jace Peterson’s sacrifice fly.
Kemp followed with his first triple of the season to make it 3-1, before Jordan Diaz launched the inning’s second sacrifice fly, scoring Kemp, to cap a four-run uprising.
Medina settled down after the first and kept the scoreless over the next four innings. He successfully pitched around four hits and five walks, striking out four.
Banks was pulled after four innings, charged with four runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Carlos Perez increased the lead to 5-1 with a solo home run, his fifth, in the bottom of the fifth, before the White Sox made things interesting against the Oakland bullpen in the eighth.
Singles by Andrew Vaughn, Jake Burger and Elvis Andrus loaded the bases with one out in the eighth, setting up a two-out, two-run double by Andrew Benintendi.
But May came on to replace Sam Moll and, with runners at second and third, fanned Anderson to preserve the lead.
Aledmys Diaz’s second double of the game and, two batters later, Peterson’s second RBI on a single plated insurance runs in the last of the eighth.
Luis Robert Jr.’s 24th homer of the season, a leadoff shot off May in the ninth, completed the scoring. Despite allowing the run, May was credited with his fifth save.
Kemp and Langeliers joined Diaz with two hits apiece and Bleday scored twice for Oakland, which evened its record at 2-2 on a homestand that began with two losses in three games against the New York Yankees.
Vaughn collected a double and two singles, while Benintendi had two doubles for the White Sox, who saw a two-game winning streak come to an end.
–Field Level Media
