CHICAGO (AP) — Nick Allen homered and drove in a career-high five runs, Zach Neal won his first start in seven years and the Oakland Athletics pounded the Chicago White Sox 12-4 on Friday night.
The Athletics (38-91) tagged Dylan Cease for a career-high nine runs on the way to their fourth win in five games. Chicago lost for the 10th time in 13 games.
Dropping the first two in a four-game series between two of the worst teams in the majors only added to a rough week for the White Sox (50-79), who fired executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn on Tuesday.
Allen hit RBI singles in a five-run second and in the fourth before chasing Cease with a two-run single in the fifth. Allen and Ryan Noda hit consecutive homers in the seventh, the sixth time this season Oakland went deep back to back.
Neal (0-1) went five innings, allowing four runs — two earned — and five hits in his first start since Sept. 6, 2016 for Oakland against Baltimore. The right-hander also picked up his first win since Aug. 9 that year in a start for the Athletics against Baltimore. Neal pitched in Japan from 2019 to 2021 and was in Colorado’s system last year.
Cease (5-7) gave up eight earned runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings. The AL Cy Young Award runner-up last season, he has an 8.16 ERA over his past six starts.
Lenyn Sosa and Eloy Jiménez homered. But the White Sox committed three errors — two by left fielder Andrew Benintendi in the second.
The already frustrated fans got another reason to vent after the game when the team announced a Vanilla Ice concert was canceled due to technical issues. They let out loud boos and chanted “Sell the team! Sell the team!”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: Rookie RHP Mason Miller (forearm tightness) could rejoin the team next month, depending on how his next rehab outing goes, manager Mark Kotsay said. Sidelined since May 7, Miller has a 3.38 ERA in four starts. … OF Seth Brown got hit in the head by a pitch in the sixth, but stayed in the game.
UP NEXT
The four-game series continues with the White Sox sending RHP Touki Toussaint (1-6, 5.30 ERA) to the mound and the Athletics going with LHP JP Sears (2-10, 4.61 ERA). Both pitchers are 0-3 in four starts since picking up wins on July 28. Toussaint has an 8.84 ERA in that span, while Sears’ is 8.00. ___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
