Yoán Moncada homers as Chicago White Sox beat Oakland Athletics 6-2 a day after shooting

By SARAH TROTTO
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Yoán Moncada hit a three-run homer, Touki Toussaint pitched five scoreless innings and the Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing a difficult week for the franchise with a sorely needed victory.

Lenyn Sosa and Andrew Benintendi also homered for the White Sox, who had dropped four of five. Eloy Jiménez went 2 for 2 with two walks, and Luis Robert Jr. had two hits.

Approaching the end of a disappointing season, Chicago fired executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn on Tuesday.

Then two women were injured Friday night in a shooting that occurred during the Athletics’ 12-4 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox said they were unsure if a gun was fired from inside or outside the ballpark.

Toussaint (2-6) allowed two hits, struck out four and walked three in his first win since July 28. The right-hander went 0-3 with an 8.84 ERA in his previous four starts.

“The walks are still something I’m working on, but other than that I felt pretty consistent, being able to make pitches when I needed to,” he said.

Oakland had won four of five. JP Sears (2-11) allowed six runs and nine hits in six innings.

“I just didn’t do my job to give my team a good chance to win tonight,” Sears said. “I felt good about my pitches but just didn’t execute the way I need to with guys on base. Just a little frustrating.”

Chicago opened a 5-0 lead in the third. With two out and Tim Anderson on third, Jiménez was walked intentionally before Moncada connected for his fifth homer.

CHECKING ON THINGS

After the Jiménez walk, the umpires met in the infield and then talked to Sears, bringing manager Mark Kotsay out of the dugout to join the conversation. Moncada homered on the next pitch.

Kotsay said the Athletics had catcher Shea Langeliers step out from behind the plate to give a first-and-third sign, and Oakland was assigned a disengagement.

“I went out to make sure that was the reasoning behind it and that the clock actually was down below nine seconds,” Kotsay said.

BOUNCING BACK

Oakland scored two unearned runs against Sammy Peralta in the eighth. Jonah Bride hit an RBI single.

The Athletics scored 20 runs to win the series’ first two games.

“A couple of tough games. It was a good bounce-back win,” Benintendi said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Athletics: RHP Luis Medina (blister) is on track for a full bullpen after he threw Friday without a bandage, Kotsay said.

UP NEXT

RHP Paul Blackburn (3-3, 4.00 ERA) will start for Oakland against RHP Mike Clevinger (5-6, 3.47 ERA) in Sunday’s series finale.

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