A’s 5, White Sox 3:
Oakland rallies for sweep.
CHICAGO — As the A’s went for their first road sweep of the season, Derek Holland made it tough on them.
Once the White Sox starter exited, Oakland shook off some earlier mistakes and went to work, getting a key pinch-hit double from hobbled second baseman Jed Lowrie in the seventh and RBIs from the heart of the order in the eighth to beat Chicago 5-3 on Sunday. Sonny Gray, who worked seven innings, earned his first victory since May 24 and his first road win since July 26, 2016.
The sweep was the A’s first on the road since taking four games at Kansas City in September and it was their first in Chicago since July 8-10, 2005.
“We were basically stagnant for a good portion of the game today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “But we kept fighting back and from the sixth inning on, it seemed like the at-bats were completely different than the first half of the game.”
Gray pitched well, with only a few blips — a pitch that Adam Engel lifted out to left for his first big-league homer in the third and two that got past catcher Josh Phegley.
The first of those turned into a terrific play. When a pitch to Jose Abreu eluded Phegley in the first inning, Alen Hanson raced for home and Gray ran to cover the plate. Phegley flipped him the ball and Gray, perfectly positioned, applied the tag right into Hanson’s kisser.
“One out and a runner at third, you really don’t draw it up like that,” Gray said. “We kind of turned a bad play into a great play.”
The second time around wasn’t so good. With Abreu at third in the fourth inning, Gray’s pitch to Todd Frazier got by Phegley and the catcher couldn’t get to the ball in time as Abreu scored on the passed ball.
The A’s best chance against Holland came right at the outset, when Rajai Davis walked to open the game and Franklin Barreto singled. Holland got Ryon Healy to pop up, Khris Davis flied out to right and Yonder Alonso popped up. The A’s didn’t get another hard hit off Holland until the seventh, managing just two infield singles.
Alonso led off the seventh with a single, and Holland departed. With one out, Dan Jennings walked Matt Olson, then Adam Rosales hustled to first on a grounder, avoiding a double play and putting men at the corners with two outs.
Up stepped Lowrie, who wasn’t expected to play until Tuesday at the earliest because of a mild knee sprain. “He came in the dugout and said, ‘Hey, I can hit,’ so I was looking for a spot,” Melvin said.Lowrie said the inflammation had gone down enough to take swings in the cage, which felt OK, so he volunteered for duty.
He rapped a double to right, sending in Alonso — but Rosales, a third of the way around third, was held up at the last moment by Steve Scarsone, the A’s fill-in third base coach. Rosales was stranded there when Rajai Davis struck out. “Talking to Scar, he said all the right things,” Melvin said. “One of those where if you don’t send him, everyone is second-guessing you. If you do and he gets thrown out — you’re kind of in a no-win.”
The A’s roared right back out in the eighth. Barreto knocked another single leading off the inning, Healy reached on an error by third-baseman Matt Davidson and Khris Davis singled to left to score Barreto. Alonso then lined a ball that went to the wall in left, scoring Healy, but Davis had to make sure the ball wasn’t caught and held up at second, leaving Alonso with a very long single — but one that gave Oakland the lead.
Rosales, playing in his hometown, homered to center leading off the ninth and he turned in his fastest time to date on his home-run sprint, 15.88 seconds; he already held the record in the Statcast era for fastest trot.
Matt Joyce, who’d entered as a pinch runner for Lowrie in the seventh, made it back-to-back shots with a blast to right.