Tag: Chicago White Sox

The A’s Rout the White Sox

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s had their hitting shoes on Tuesday night as they rapped out seventeen hits and beat the Chicago White Sox 11-2. The A’s ace,Jon Lester, went eight innings allowing just two runs on seven hits, He walked two and had eight strikeouts and won his fourteenth game of the year and the first since August 12th. His record for the year is now 14-10. Lefty John Danks started for the White Sox and was tagged with the loss. He gave up four runs,two unearned, as the White Sox were just awful in the field committing five errors in the game.

The A’s got the scoring in the fourth inning. Josh Donaldson singled to get things going. Jonny Gomes followed with a double to put men on at 2nd and third. Donaldson scored on a ground out. Nate Freiman reached on a throwing error that allowed Gomes to score. A’s lead 2-0.

In the fifth, Coco Crisp reached on an error. On the next play, Craig Gentry bunted and but he collided with the first baseman as the throw from Danks caused the first baseman to run into Gentry. The play was ruled a single and an error on the pitcher but Gentry was knocked to the ground in obvious pain as he hit his head in the collision. Gentry left the game and he was diagnosed with a concussion. The A’s scored two more runs in the inning to take a 4-0 lead.

The A’s picked up another run in the seventh to make it a 5-0 lead but the White Sox scored two in their half of the inning . Dayan Viciedo led off with a solo home run. With two out, Lester walked Michael Taylor who scored a double by Carlos Sanchez. Sanchez was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple.

The A’s made the game a rout in the ninth when they scored five times. The A’s were aided by another Chicago error and a wild pitch as the pounded the White Sox by a final score of 11-2

Notes- Josh Donaldson had five hits in the game and had four RBIs. Jeff Samardzija will pitch for Oakland on Wednesday. The A’s looked like the team that was on top until the slide started after the big trade on July 31st.. One game doesn’t make a season but, hopefully, they can get their mojo back.

White Sox, Abreu Snap A’s Six-Game Winning Streak

Published on by pgackleLeave a comment

BY PAUL GACKLE

OAKLAND — Jose Abreu smacked an eighth inning three-run home run off the facing of the second deck in left field at O.co Coliseum, leading the Chicago White Sox to a 4-2 come-from-behind victory over the Oakland A’s on Wednesday.

With his 15th home run of the season, which leads all of baseball, Abreu helped the White Sox snap the A’s season-high six-game winning streak.

“He’s something special,” A’s starting pitcher Tommy Milone said, referring to Abreu. “Any kind of mistake that you throw to him, it seems like he’s going to hit a home run.”

With the homer, Abreu joined Wally Berger, Kevin Maas and Wally Joyner as the only players in the history of Major League Baseball to hit 15 home runs in their first 42 career games.

The A’s carried a 2-1 lead into the eighth after another stellar outing from Milone, the fifth starter in the A’s rotation. Milone surrendered only one run — a home run to second baseman Gordon Beckham on the first pitch of the game — over six innings of work, following up his eight innings of shutout baseball against the Washington Nationals on May 9.

Eight days ago, the fourth and fifth starters in the A’s rotation — Milone and Dan Straily — had a combined record of 1-5 with a 5.40 ERA. In the last week, the back-end of the rotation — with Drew Pomeranz pitching in place of Straily — is 3-0 with a 0.38 ERA.

“Drew’s really given us a spark and Tommy, the last few times out, has been as good as we’ve seen him over the last couple of years,” Manager Bob Melvin said.

John Jaso responded to Beckham’s long ball with a leadoff home run of his own in the bottom of the first inning, tying the score at 1-1. The A’s added to the lead in the fourth when Josh Donaldson hit his team-leading ninth home run of the season, the third solo shot of the day.

But the bullpen coughed up the lead in the eighth after Beckham and Conor Gillaspie picked up singles off lefty reliever Fernando Abad (0-1) and Abreu took Luke Gregerson deep with a rocket shot to left.

Gregerson leads baseball with five blown saves this season.

“He made a pitch to the middle of the plate to a real-good hitter who’s been hot,” Melvin said, adding: “His stuff’s still good.”

Four White Sox pitchers — Andre Rienzo, Scott Downs, Ronald Belisario and Matt Lindstrom — combined to hold the A’s to just three hits in the contest.

Melvin said he expects outfielder Coco Crisp, who’s missed the last seven games with a strained neck, to return to the lineup at some point during the A’s series with the Cleveland Indians, which kicks off on Friday.

Chicago’s Cuban connection

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Now José Abreu (a powerful first baseman) signs with the Chicago White Sox, for six years and $68 million, largest first time contract for an international player in Major League history. But wait, there is more Cuban flavor with the Chicago White Sox. Their regular left fielder Dayan Viciedo, is from Cuba, as well as their regular shortstop Alexei Ramírez.

Of course one of the greatest Major League baseball players, still alive at age 88, works for the Chicago White Sox in their front office,  Orestes(Minnie) Miñoso. Minoso is the only player to have played professionally in seven different decades. He was the last major leaguer to have played in the 1940s, to play a major league game. He played in the Major Leagues from 1949 until 1980.

For years the Cuban Marxist government has tried to jail and prevent high profile players from escaping the island, but recently from Céspedes, to Iglesias to Puig and now Abreu, their decrepit system of government has much bigger problems than to prevent these players from leaving the island.

All sports in Cuba are under the aegis of the Cuban government, since 1962, Fidel Castro and his cohorts banned professional sports, in the largest of the Caribbean islands. Cuban athletes like regular Cuban citizens do not enjoy the freedom of traveling in and out of the island.

                                                          

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Museum and does News and Commentary each week