CHICAGO (AP) — Shea Langeliers homered twice, Zack Gelof hit a tiebreaking two-run drive in the seventh inning and the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox 8-5 on Thursday.
The teams combined for eight homers on a hot and humid night, with the Athletics hitting five on the way to their third win in four games. Chicago has dropped nine of 12.
Gelof put major league-worst Oakland (37-91) on top for good when he lined a 2-2 pitch from Jimmy Lambert (2-3) just beyond the left-field wall after Ryan Noda singled with two outs, making it 7-5.
The surging Langeliers hit a three-run drive in the fourth and chased Jesse Scholtens with a solo shot in the sixth that tied it at 5-all, giving him four home runs in four games. It was his second career multihomer game.
Brent Rooker hit a solo drive in the sixth after getting robbed of a two-run shot in the fourth when Luis Robert reached high above the center-field wall. Tony Kemp added a solo homer in the eighth.
Ken Waldichuk went five innings, allowing five runs and eight hits. Lucas Erceg (3-3) worked an inning. Trevor May came on in the ninth for his 14th save in 17 chances, and the Athletics opened winning note in a four-game series between teams with among the four poorest records in the major leagues.
Chicago’s Andrew Benintendi hit a solo homer in the first, Elvis Andrus connected leading off a four-run fifth and Robert capped that inning with a two-run drive that made it 5-3. But after firing executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn on Tuesday, the White Sox continued to stumble.
Scholtens gave up five runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
TRANSACTION
The White Sox recalled catcher Korey Lee from Triple-A Charlotte and the rookie went 1 for. The 25-year-old Lee played in 12 games for Houston last season. and rhe White Sox acquired him for reliever Kendall Graveman on July 28. Chicago optioned catcher Carlos Pérez to Charlotte.
TRAINER'S ROOM
White Sox: RHP Michael Kopech was fine after leaving Wednesday's start against Seattle prior to the fifth inning because of the heat. “He's feeling good,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He had some cramping going on. It started in, I think, his left arm and went down to his quad.”
UP NEXT
The White Sox send RHP Dylan Cease (5-6, 4.50 ERA) to the mound Friday, while RHP Zach Neal (0-0, 8.25) makes his first major league start since 2016 with the Athletics. The 2022 AL Cy Young Award runner-up, Cease has a 5.44 ERA over his past eight starts. ___
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