Franklin Barreto homered in the ninth inning, Yonder Alonso went deep twice and the Oakland Athletics snapped a season-high six-game losing streak by beating the Chicago White Sox 7-6 on Tuesday.
Matt Joyce's two-run homer and Alonso's long balls in the fourth and fifth helped stake the A's to a 6-5 lead, but Santiago Casilla was unable to close it out in the ninth. That set the stage for Barreto's late-inning theatrics.
With one out, Barreto hit a towering fly ball off Tommy Kahnle (0-3) that just cleared the wall in left field and sent the A's pouring out of the dugout for a sorely needed celebration.
Oakland had scored just 10 runs in the past five games and had dropped eight straight at the Coliseum, matching the franchise's longest home skid in 35 years.
The White Sox rallied in the ninth when Melky Cabrera's two-out single scored a sliding Tim Anderson from second base to make it 6-6 and hand Casilla his fourth blown save in 18 chances.
Casilla (2-3) escaped further damage by retiring Jose Abreu with runners on second and third to end the inning.
Cabrera hit a two-run homer off Oakland starter Daniel Gossett and Abreu added a three-run shot for the White Sox.
Chicago Baseball
Joyce erased an early deficit by matching Cabrera's two-run homer in the bottom of the third and Alonso's first homer since June 15 gave Oakland a 3-2 lead in the fourth against James Shields.
After Abreu put the White Sox back ahead 5-4 with his 16th homer in the fifth, Alonso answered with his 19th in the bottom half to make it 6-5, giving him three multihomer games this season and in his career.
TRAINER'S ROOM
White Sox: All-Star RF Avisail Garcia returned to the lineup after missing five games with a sore left knee and singled in his first at-bat for his only hit of the day. ... RHP David Robertson's wife gave birth to a baby girl, Violet, on Monday and he remains away from the team.
Athletics: 3B Ryon Healy (back) was held out of the lineup for a second straight game. Manager Bob Melvin said Healy but was possibly available off the bench but he wasn't needed.
SERVING UP LONG BALLS
Shields once again was plagued by the long ball. After leading the majors with 40 homers allowed last year and 33 in 2015, Shields has allowed 10 in seven starts this season.
UP NEXT
The White Sox look for their third straight series win at the Coliseum in the rubber game of the series. Chicago hasn't won three straight series in Oakland since 1996-97. Mike Pelfrey (3-6) gets the start. He has lost all five career starts vs. Oakland with a 7.56 ERA. Sonny Gray (3-3) pitches for the A's.
