Oakland, California: Chicago’s Jose Abreu hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to continue his powerful start to his Major League Baseball career and lift the White Sox to a 4-2 win at Oakland on Wednesday, ending a run of four straight defeats.
Elsewhere, National League-leading San Francisco reached double figures in a win over see-sawing Atlanta, Detroit completed a three-game sweep of Baltimore and Kansas City edged Colorado in an inter-league clash.
Chicago’s rookie Cuban slugger Abreu became just the fourth player in major league history to hit 15 homers in his first 42 games, joining Wally Berger, Kevin Maas and Wally Joyner.
Gordon Beckham homered on the first pitch of the game for the White Sox, who ended a seven-game losing skid at the Coliseum.
Beckham and Conor Gillaspie started the eighth-inning rally with one-out singles against Fernando Abad (0-1), and Abreu greeted Luke Gregerson with a shot over the left-field fence.
San Francisco dominated Atlanta in a clash of NL divisional leaders, with Hunter Pence, Michael Morse and Brandon Crawford all hitting homers in a 10-4 win.
Gregor Blanco stole three bases and scored three runs for the Giants who won five of six against the Braves this season.
Pence finished with four hits and three RBIs, Crawford collected three hits and three RBIs and Morse connected for his team-leading ninth home run.
Detroit overcame an uncharacteristically shaky performance by ace Justin Verlander to beat Baltimore 7-5 and complete the three-game sweep.
Verlander (5-2) allowed a season-worst five runs in six innings. He still improved to 7-0 in eight career outings at Camden Yards, but it was the first time in 15 games a Detroit starter allowed more than three runs.
Rajai Davis homered and had two RBIs for the Tigers, who have won eight straight road games.
Kansas City’s pitchers performed strongly to guide the Royals to a 3-2 win over Colorado.
Mike Moustakas hit a three-run double in the second inning to account for all the hosts’ scoring and the pitching staff made it stand up from there.
Kansas City starter Jason Vargas (4-1) did not allow a hit until the fourth inning and did not concede a run until he gave up a two-run homer in the seventh.
Louis Coleman got the Royals out of the inning without any more damage, Kelvin Herrera worked a perfect eighth and Greg Holland survived a shaky ninth.
Miami had two innings of six runs each to rout the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-3.
Ed Lucas homered during a six-run second inning in which an error by L.A.’s second baseman Dee Gordon’s led to five unearned runs, and the Marlins scored another six runs in the fourth.
Marlins starter Anthony DeScalfani (1-0) allowed two runs over six innings to earn the win in his major league debut. He also had a single and drove in two runs.
Pittsburgh’s backup catcher Chris Stewart hit a single that prompted a three-run burst in the ninth inning which lifted the Pirates to a 4-1 win over majors-leading Milwaukee.
Stewart, making only his eighth start of the season, singled for a 2-1 lead. Starling Marte, returning from a back injury, then hit a two-run double.
Brewers closer Francisco Rodriguez (1-1) had given up only one run over his first 21 games. But the Pirates tagged the Milwaukee closer for four consecutive hits to beat the Brewers for only the second time in nine games.
Cleveland’s David Murphy had five hits and five RBIs while Lonnie Chisenhall also had five hits as the Indians cruised to a 15-4 win at Toronto, setting a season high for runs and hits (22).
Cleveland’s Corey Kluber (4-3) pitched seven innings to win consecutive starts for the first time this season, while Carlos Santana and Yan Gomes homered.
