The Oakland A’s have been floating around .500 for a while now, but took a step forward towards a winning record today against the Chicago White Sox. Taylor Ross extended his streak to 5 games with less than 3 earned runs, David DeJesus hit his career 1,000th hit, and the A’s got the victory by a score of 6-2 at the Coliseum this afternoon.
Ross (W 3-2) lasted for 7.1 innings today allowing only 2 earned runs on 6 hits with one walk and 8 strikeouts. He was relieved by Grant Balfour who pitched a perfect 2/3 if the eighth inning, then finished the Sox off in the ninth.
The A’s used a lot of small ball today to get some crooked numbers on the board, including a 2 run second inning with a Cliff Pennington RBI single and an RBI sacrifice fly from Daric Barton. They continued in the 5th plating 3 runs with David DeJesus’ 1000th hit, a 2 run triple, followed by a Kurt Suzuki single that score DeJesus. The A’s also added a run in the seventh off of a Carlos Quentin throwing error off, scoring DeJesus again.
As for the Sox, Gavin Floyd (L 4-3) only lasted for 4.1 innings today after giving up 9 hits for 5 runs, with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. Paul Konerko was Chicago’s offense today with a 2 run jack in the 6th, his tenth of the year.
With the win the A’s move to 20-19 on the year and an even 9-9 at home. Full box score can be found here.
The A’s will close their series with the White Sox tomorrow as undefeated Trevor Cahill (6-0 1.72 ERA) will take on Mark Beuhrle (2-3 4.05 ERA) for Chicago. Coverage can be found on CSN California and Sports Radio 95.7 FM.
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