Chicago, IL – Alex Rios and Tyler Flowers each hit solo homers and Chicago White Sox received a solid outing from Hector Santiago in taking a 4-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics in the finale of a four-game set from U.S. Cellular Field.
Santiago (2-4) picked up his first win in over a month in limiting the Athletics to four hits over 6 1/3 frames. He struck out six and gave up two runs -- one earned -- while walking three.
"He was effectively wild," said A's third baseman Josh Donaldson. "You had to respect all of his pitches, he did a good job."
Addison Reed notched his 19th save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth, Gordon Beckham had an RBI double and Conor Gillaspie added a sac fly to help the White Sox earn their second straight win and a series split.
"Teams go on winning streaks too," said White Sox manager Robin Ventura, whose team had dropped 10 of 11 before grabbing their first win of the weekend. "As cold as you can get, you can get just as hot."
Oakland, losing for just the fifth time in its last 23 games, saw starter A.J. Griffin (5-5) surrender all four runs on seven hits over 7 1/3 innings.
Coco Crisp had a solo homer and Yoenis Cespedes recorded two of the Athletics' five hits in the setback.
Crisp's solo blast with one away in the third staked Oakland to a 1-0 lead, but Chicago countered in the bottom half of the frame on Flowers' shot into the left field seats.
The White Sox then took control the following inning by plating a pair against Griffin. Adam Dunn doubled with one away, moved to third on Paul Konerko's single and scored on Gillaspie's sac fly.
Konerko advanced on the sacrifice as well and Beckham drove him in with a double into left, which lifted Chicago's edge to 3-1.
Santiago retired eight in a row to keep Oakland off the board, but was lifted after issuing a one-out walk to Josh Reddick in the seventh.
A single and a force out at second pushed Reddick to third and he ended up scoring on reliever Matt Thornton's errant pick off throw toward first base, bringing the Athletics within 3-2.
Rios restored Chicago's two-run edge with a solo blast into left. Oakland, which mustered just 15 hits over the last three games of the set, went hitless over the final two frames to secure the win for the White Sox.
Game Notes
For the seventh straight game, an Athletics starter lasted at least seven innings ... The A's fell to 11-14 in day games this season ... Konerko played in his 2,115th game for the White Sox, tying Nellie Fox for second most games played in club history ... The Athletics were 0-for-3 with RISP.
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