Home run record, but only a split
CHICAGO — Oakland’s homer streak carried over to Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader, but not much else did.
Matt Olson struck his 16th homer to run the A’s string of consecutive road games with home runs to 23, an Oakland record. It’s tough to sweep a doubleheader, though, even against a team playing as poorly as the White Sox: Chicago snapped an eight- game losing streak by topping the A’s 6- 4. Oakland entered the nightcap riding a season- high five- game winning streak after taking the first game 11- 2 behind a pair of three- run homers by Franklin Barreto.
Game 2 was a tough one for two former White Sox; one, Marcus Semien, made a key error in the sixth inning, fum-
bling away a potential doubleplay grounder, his second error of the day. The White Sox scored two in the inning, both runs unearned off Chris Bassitt, who, like Semien, came to Oakland in the Jeff Samardzija deal with the White Sox after the 2014 season.
“It stinks it wasn’t made, but it’s baseball,” Bassitt said of the likely double- play ball he induced from Tim Anderson.
Bassitt had his left hand wrapped after the game after he was struck by a comebacker by Yoán Moncada. Bassitt said, “It doesn’t feel good,” but he said he neither wanted, nor needed, X- rays.
The A’s cut Chicago’s lead to a run on Khris Davis’ two- run single in the eighth, which put men at the corners with no outs. But the next batter, Olson, drilled a line drive that shortstop Anderson caught with a leap. Oakland wound up stranding both runners, and Anderson’s homer off Yusmeiro Petit the next inning provided the final margin.
Barreto had a sensational time of it in the first game in the same park and against the same pitcher, James Shields, he’d hit a three- run shot off in his big- league debut last year. And Sean Manaea turned in his best start since April, working seven innings and allowing only one run.
Barreto recorded his first multi- homer game as a bigleaguer and his six RBIs were a career high.
“It’s double the emotion. To help the team with two of them feels really good,” Barreto said.
The rookie second baseman also hit a three- run homer in Oakland’s previous game on the road trip, Wednesday at San Diego.
“We all know he’s got that in him; it’s just a matter of getting
him consistent at- bats,” manager Bob Melvin said. “When he’s swinging the bat well, he’s definitely capable of doing that.”
The White Sox chipped in with three errors in Game 1, so while Shields was charged with eight runs, only two of them were earned, thanks to mistakes by second baseman Moncada in the second and Leury Garcia in the fifth.
The White Sox didn’t score against Manaea ( 7- 6) until the sixth — and they made a baserunning mistake in the process. With one out and men at second and third, Kevan Smith hit a grounder to third; Jed Lowrie went to first for the second out of the inning, and José Abreu came in from third, but Matt Davidson also tried to advance to third and was cut down on the return throw from Olson to Semien, ending the inning.
Pitching in front of 100 friends and family members who came in for the series from Indiana, Manaea allowed five hits, walked none and he struck out seven, his most since April 27. He did not give up a homer, also for the first time since April 27, ending a nine- game stretch.
“I’m figuring out some things, trying to be smooth, trying to be compact, not thinking too much out there and just attacking guys,” Manaea said.
It was Manaea’s first career appearance against the White Sox. At one point during Friday’s first game, Manaea and Chicago’s Juan Minaya were the dueling pitchers of record.
Jonathan Lucroy drove in the A’s first run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning, and he started the A’s four- run fifth by walking to open the inning. Dustin Fowler, playing in his first game at Guaranteed Rate Field since incurring a severe knee injury against the White Sox in his big- league debut, added a base hit.
Lowrie drove in a run with a single, Davis another with a hit; Garcia’s error allowed Lowrie to come in, too, then Davis scored on a strike out wild pitch that allowed Mark Canha to reach first.
Chicago scored a run in the ninth off reliever Josh Lucas.
The A’s have outscored opponents 31- 14 over the first four games of the 10- game road trip.