Oakland Athletics blast past White Sox with four home runs

OAKLAND — The unofficial second half has begun, and the A’s drew a middling White Sox team to start its roll.

And roll they did, hitting four home runs in a 5-1 win to kick off the three-game series on Friday night in Oakland. The A’s are now 51-41, a half-game back of Cleveland for the second wild card.

Mike Fiers pitched another gem, tossing 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball with four strikeouts. The only walk he allowed was to the final batter he faced, winding him up to a 3-2 count and surrendering on his 111th pitch of the night. He is 7-0 over his past 13 starts with a 2.28 ERA.

Khris Davis, who entered the game with just three RBIs in his previous 14 games, knocked in a run with a single up the middle to give the A’s a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Ramon Laureano and Jurickson Profar hit back-to-back home runs off Ivan Nova in the second inning, and Mark Canha added a third home run in the sixth to give the A’s a 4-0 lead. Marcus Semien crushed his second triple of the year to plate Josh Phegley for the A’s fifth run.

The A’s have now hit 149 home runs, good for fourth-most in baseball.

Joakim Soria couldn’t keep the shutout alive, though. A leadoff walk gave way to some traffic on the basepaths he couldn’t escape, surrendering a two-out, bases-loaded RBI single to Leury Garcia. It gave Liam Hendriks the opportunity to enter the game and extend his scoreless streak to a cool 17 innings and his sixth save.