If Seth Brown was stressed out over the birth of his firstborn son, one could not tell in his Friday night return from the paternity list.
Brown stepped into the batter’s box in the sixth inning and hammered a Lance Lynn pitch into the Chicago stands for a solo home run. He then hit another line drive home run in the top of the eighth and added to a 7-3 A’s win over the host White Sox.
Ramon Laureano should have been out by a proverbial mile when he grounded the ball to third in the second inning, but Chicago’s 2020 MVP Jose Abreu literally dropped the ball from third and put the A’s slugger on base. This mistake cost Chicago a few moments later, when Lynn’s former St. Louis teammate Stephen Piscotty ripped his fifth home run of the season over the wall.
This three run-blast gave the visiting A’s a two-run lead after Abreu’s RBI single slipped into right-field the bottom of the first. For the next four innings, James Kaprielian held down a potent Chicago lineup, allowing no more earned runs as he induced weak contact from up and down the opposing lineup.
After Piscotty’s second-inning blast and Brown’s big fly in the sixth, the A’s starter got more run support from shortstop Elvis Andrus, who continued the long-ball theme by belting a homer later in the sixth to make it 5-1.
The bottom of the sixth saw Kaprielian begin to falter as he faced the White Sox order for the third time.
The right-hander gave up a leadoff double to Tim Anderson, and then walked AJ Pollock. With Domingo Acevedo warming up, Kaprielian showed off his glove by fielding a bouncing Abreu ball for the second out of the inning. Acevedo never got to take the mound in that inning, because Kaprielian got Yasmani Grandal to chase on a slider to end the frame.
Acevedo had a shaky seventh, as Eloy Jimenez sent a rocket into the outfield for a leadoff double and Josh Harrison hit a home run just over Tony Kemp’s outstretched glove two batters later to cut the lead to 5-3.
Tim Anderson vehemently disagreed with a strike call later in the inning, and got ejected after he bumped into home umpire Nick Mahrley. Manager Tony La Russa got tossed a few moments later while defending his shortstop. The A’s added runs via Brown’s second homer and a Nick Allen sacrifice bunt to close out the series-opening win.
