White Sox smack four homers to change eight-year fortune in Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Carlos Quentin felt right at home in Oakland.

Quentin hit his 34th homer and drove in four runs, Alexei Ramirez added a grand slam and the Chicago White Sox won a series in Oakland for the first time in eight years by beating the Athletics 13-1 Sunday.

Quentin, who was a standout player at Stanford, went 6-for-9 with two homers in his first three games in Oakland.

"There's a lot of people I still care about here in the Bay Area," Quentin said. "I love coming back to Stanford, although I didn't have a chance to go back this trip. The Bay Area is familiar to me and I always liked the Bay Area."

Javier Vazquez (10-10) allowed four hits in eight innings to help the White Sox win consecutive games in Oakland for the first time since August 2000. Chicago also took the season series from the A's for the first time in eight years.

"When I get that many runs I think just throw strikes and be aggressive," Vazquez said. "Everything was working. With that many runs, just continue to pound the strike zone."

Juan Uribe added a two-run shot and Jermaine Dye also homered as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games to remain tied with Minnesota atop the AL Central. DeWayne Wise had an RBI for Chicago, which moved a season-best 17 games over .500 at 70-53.

"Every time we come here we get some crazy games," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We start out good with the Uribe home run and we took advantage of the guy not throwing strikes. He was all over the place and when he tried to find the plate, we didn't miss them."

Cliff Pennington doubled for his first major league hit and Daric Barton had an RBI single for the A's, who lost for the fourth time in five games.

Gio Gonzalez (1-2) was tagged for eight runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. The A's rookie, who walked five and struck out two, was making his third career start and was coming off his first victory. The A's have lost 10 straight series, falling to a major league-worst 5-23 since the All-Star break.

"I tended to put too much pressure on myself," Gonzalez said. "I was trying to do too much, trying to be very detailed on every pitch, and I let it get the best of me.

Quentin hit a two-run shot in the third, followed by Dye's homer. Ramirez's slam in the seventh made it 13-0.

"We have a very good team in all aspects of the game," Quentin said. "We can play defense, hit and pitch and our bullpen is very good. I think we're doing a good job of bringing the same effort level every day."

Quentin, the Stanford product who took over the big league home run lead, had three hits in his first 24 career at-bats against the A's.

"You come in with the same game plan, read up on the pitchers, check out the scouting report and that's baseball," Quentin said. "You go play the game and whatever happens, happens."

Vazquez, who had a 15-inning scoreless streak snapped when the A's scored in the eighth, also reversed a bad streak against the A's by winning his first game in Oakland in five starts. He also kept the ball from leaving the park for the first time in seven games against the A's.

"He worked ahead in the count and moved the ball through the strike zone," A's slugger Frank Thomas said. "He didn't straighten anything out. He was sinking it, stayed on the corners and was pretty good at it."

The right-hander gave up 19 runs in his first 24 innings in Oakland.

Vazquez retired 13 of his first 14 batters. He struck out eight and did not walk a hitter as he moved into a tie with Al Leiter for 66th place on the career strikeout list at 1,974.

Game notes
For the first time in major league history, three members of the 500 home run club (Ken Griffey Jr., Jim Thome and Frank Thomas) were pinch hit for in the same game. ... In response to Nick Swisher' warm welcome in Oakland, White Sox players pinned up a Swisher A's jersey on the A's right field wall, officially "retiring" his No. 30. ... The A's play their next seven series in seven different cities, the first such trip since 1999. ... A's LHP Dan Meyer was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento after the game.