Associated Press
CHICAGO — A comeback victory with a grand slam, a last-inning homer-saving catch. Just another win for the Oakland Athletics during a run that has put them in first place in the American League West.
Josh Donaldson hit his first career grand slam, Josh Reddick made a homer-saving catch in the ninth inning, and the Athletics rallied from a three-run deficit Friday night for a 4-3 victory over Chris Sale and the Chicago White Sox.
“It’s a fun run,” Oakland right-hander Jarrod Parker said. “I think right now we’re putting together complete games and we’re playing well in all facets of the game.”
Donaldson’s ninth home run of the season came in the sixth inning and helped Parker (5-6) earn his fourth win in five decisions.
“He’s a really good pitcher, probably one of the best — if not the best — left-handed pitcher in the game,” Donaldson said of Sale. “He just put himself in a situation where he kind of had to come at me a little bit.
“I was fortunate enough to get a pitch that I could drive and I was able to hit it out of the park.”
Reddick made a leaping catch to take away a home run from Chicago’s Conor Gillaspie with one out in the ninth to preserve the win. The White Sox also had a ball Adam Dunn hit die at the warning track in Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the A’s in the ninth inning.
“I was stunned when Conor’s ball didn’t go out,” said White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper, who acted as manager with Robin Ventura in California for his daughter’s graduation.
Sale (5-4) hadn’t given up more than two earned runs since April 13, and he cruised out to a 3-0 lead through five innings in this one.
In the sixth Adam Rosales singled and, after Coco Crisp struck out, Jed Lowrie singled. Yoenis Cespedes followed with walk, and Donaldson hit a 1-1 pitch for an opposite-field home run to right to give Oakland a 4-3 lead.
“Just shows you how important one pitch can be in a ballgame,” Sale said. “Off the bat I figured it was going to be a sac fly or something. It just kept going.”
Donaldson had also driven in a run against Sale to help beat him in Oakland 2-0 Sunday.
“He keeps coming up with bigger and bigger hits and his approach is great every time, especially with runners in scoring position,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said of Donaldson. “He’s pretty impressive.”
The Athletics won for the 18th time in 21 games and the White Sox lost for the 10th time in 11.
Parker beat the White Sox with a seven-inning, five-hit effort. He walked two and struck out four.
Reliever Ryan Cook pitched out of a first-and-second jam with none out in the eighth and Grant Balfour pitched the ninth for his 15th save.
Sale stayed in the game for 118 pitches. He left after striking out Crisp to lead off the eighth. Sale allowed five hits, walked one and struck out six.
“We got our best guy out there, things are looking good — all of sudden they ain’t looking so good,” Cooper said. “But we did battle back.”
The White Sox led 1-0 on Tyler Flowers’ third-inning home run on a 0-2 pitch by Parker.
In the fourth, Dayan Viciedo’s sacrifice fly to left scored Alex Rios, who had singled, stole second when Dunn struck out, and moved to third when catcher Derek Norris threw the ball into center field for an error on the stolen base.
Chicago expanded the lead to 3-0 on a fifth-inning sacrifice fly by Alejandro De Aza, scoring Gordon Beckham. Beckham had led off with a single, moved up on Jordan Danks’ ground out and took third on Flowers’ single.
TIGERS 7, INDIANS 5
DETROIT — Justin Verlander pitched seven solid innings, Victor Martinez homered and the Tigers took a 3½-game lead over the Indians atop the AL Central.
Martinez and Torii Hunter had three hits each for the Tigers in the opener of this three-game series. Detroit led 5-0 before Cleveland scored three runs in the fifth off Verlander.
That was all the Indians could manage against the Tigers’ ace. Verlander (8-4) allowed three runs and seven hits on the night. He walked two and struck out six.
Detroit’s Jose Valverde came on with a four-run lead in the ninth. He allowed solo homers to Jason Giambi and Drew Stubbs but held on.
Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4) allowed five runs — three earned — in three-plus innings.
BLUE JAYS 6, RANGERS 1
TORONTO — Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run double, Neil Wagner earned his first major league win and Toronto won for the ninth time in 13 home games.
Melky Cabrera homered, scored twice and drove in two runs for the Blue Jays.
Texas batters struck out 13 times against five Blue Jays pitchers as the slumping Rangers lost for the seventh time in 11 games.
Making his second start of the season, Blue Jays right-hander Esmil Rogers allowed one run and three hits in four innings.
Aaron Loup struck out four of the five batters he faced, Wagner (1-0) pitched 1 1-3 innings, Brett Cecil worked the eighth and Steve Delabar fanned two in the ninth.
Rangers rookie right-hander Nick Tepesch (3-5) lost for the fourth time in his past five decisions.
RAYS 2, ORIOLES 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Chris Archer pitched seven strong innings and Desmond Jennings hit a two-run homer to lead Tampa Bay over Baltimore.
Archer (1-1) limited the Orioles to Manny Machado’s third-inning RBI single and Ryan Flaherty’s fifth-inning double in his second start of the season. The 24-year-old right-hander spent the first two months of the season at Triple-A Durham and allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings of a 5-0 loss to Cleveland after being promoted to the majors last weekend.
Jennings homered to the deepest part of the ball park in the seventh inning off Jason Hammel (7-4), who lost on the road for the first time this year after winning his first six decisions away from Camden Yards.
Joel Peralta worked the eighth for the Rays, and Fernando Rodney finished the combined two-hitter with a perfect ninth for his 13th save in 18 opportunities.
ROYALS 4, ASTROS 2
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Billy Butler drove in Eric Hosmer with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, and Kansas City beat Houston for its third straight win.
Kelvin Herrera (3-4) worked a perfect eighth inning in relief of James Shields, and Greg Holland pitched the ninth for his 11th save and second during the Royals’ modest winning streak.
Shields engaged in a pitchers’ duel with the Astros’ Jordan Lyles, but the game came down to the bullpens. Houston brought in Wesley Wright (0-2) in the eighth and Hosmer greeted him with a single, and then Butler doubled off Josh Fields for the go-ahead run.
MARINERS 4, YANKEES 1
SEATTLE — Brendan Ryan and Jason Bay both hit two-out, two-run singles in Seattle’s four-run fourth inning, and Jeremy Bonderman pitched six sharp innings to win for the first time since 2010.
All of Seattle’s offense came in one stretch of the fourth inning when six straight batters reached base, capped by the clutch hits from Ryan and Bay off Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda. Seattle entered the night hitting .221 with runners in scoring position, but capitalized on the few chances they got against Kuroda.
The surprise was the effort by Bonderman, who won for the first time since Sept. 8, 2010, while still pitching for Detroit. He struggled to get through the first two innings, but shut down the Yankees from there.
