Oakland A’s pitcher Lou Trivino (left) and teammate Seth Brown (right) shares congratulations after defeating the Chicago White Sox at Guarantee Rate Field in Chicago on Fri Jul 29, 2022 (AP News photo)

Oakland Continues Their Winning Ways Beating Chicago 7-3

By Barbara Mason

After sweeping the Houston Astros earlier this week, the Oakland A’s (39-63) took on the Chicago White Sox (49-50) Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field for a three game series. Oakland has been a far improved team since the All-Star break and despite their record they have been playing some winning baseball.

The White Sox got up on the scoreboard in the first inning for a 1-0 lead. Jose Abreu singled driving AJ Pollock home and Chicago had a nice start in this game. Although unable to get anything going in the first inning, Oakland did have an exceptional second inning. Stephen Piscotty homered with Ramon Laureano and Elvis Andrus on base and the A’s had taken the lead 3-1.

Oakland continued on through the fifth inning with some excellent defense as did the White Sox. The A’s got some more offense going in the sixth inning. Seth Brown and Andrus both hit solo homers to extend their lead to 5-1.

Chicago would score two runs in the seventh inning. Josh Harrison hit a homer with Eloy Jimenez on base and the White Sox were challenging Oakland trailing 5-3.

In the eighth inning Brown would hit his second homer of the game to extend the Oakland lead 6-3. The A’s had seven hits in this game so far and were making the most of every hit.

James Kaprielian had a great game going six innings. He allowed four hits, the one run and had four strikeouts. Domingo Acevedo pitched one inning, the seventh and Zach Jackson pitched a three up three down eighth inning.

In the ninth inning Nick Allen executed a perfect bunt bringing Andrus home and giving the A’s a 7-3 lead. Chicago had their last chance in this game going into the bottom of the ninth. Lou Trivino closed out the game with a three up, three down and that was the ball game. The A’s have won seven of their last eight games with a season high four game winning streak.

Tomorrow in game two of this series first pitch will be at 4:15 PM PT. Paul Blackburn (6-6, 4.35) will take the mound for the A’s and Chicago will send veteran Johnny Cueto (4-4) who is doing a great job for the White Sox with a 2.89 ERA.