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Quentin, Vazquez power White Sox past hapless Athletics

Aug 18, 2008 - 1:35 AM By Michael Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Carlos Quentin was just trying to make the Chicago White Sox roster in the spring. On Sunday, he strengthened his case for American League Most Valuable Player.

Quentin was 2-for-3 with two walks, a home run, four RBI and two runs scored in leading the White Sox to a 13-1 victory over the skidding Oakland Athletics.

Acquired in a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the offseason, Quentin hit his major league-leading 34th home run - one of four by Chicago (70-53), which remained tied with the Minnesota Twins atop the American League Central Division.

Quentin, whose prospect star dimmed last season in the desert when he missed 81 games due to shoulder and leg injuries, was not even guaranteed a roster spot when he came into camp in the spring.

"You read up on the pitchers, follow the scouting report, and go play baseball," said Quentin, who was 6-for-9 with five walks in the series, which he began 3-for-24 lifetime against Oakland pitching.

The All-Star Quentin was not alone in the offensive onslaught, as Alexei Ramirez hit a grand slam, Juan Uribe belted a two-run blast and Jermaine Dye added a solo shot to back the stellar pitcher of Javier Vazquez (10-10).

Vazquez (10-10) allowed one run and four hits and had extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 15 before Daric Barton broke up his shutout bid with an RBI single in the eighth inning. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter.

"He worked ahead," said Oakland's Frank Thomas, "and moved the ball through the strike zone. He was sinking it, and was pretty good at it. He stayed on the corners and got ahead of everybody, then pitched with confidence."

In his third major league start, Gio Gonzalez was roughed up by the team that traded him in the offseason to Oakland for Nick Swisher, who clearly had the better day of the two even though he rode the bench.

Gonzalez allowed eight runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings as his ERA ballooned from 4.09 to 7.53. The lefthander went to a 2-0 count on five of the first seven batters he faced, and walked the other two. He wild-pitched Jim Thome home for the game's first run just before Uribe golfed a line-drive above the left-field scoreboard for a 3-0 lead after two innings.

It only got worse in the third, when A.J. Pierzynski led off with a single and, after Quentin homered, Jermaine Dye followed with his 29th blast and the White Sox were up, 6-0, before Oakland had a baserunner against Vazquez. It was the 11th time this season that Chicago had back-to-back homers.

"I had some of the players talk to me after the game, and they told me I have much better stuff than I'm showing out there," Gonzalez said. "I was trying to be too detailed, do too much, instead of trusting my stuff."

The White Sox stretched the lead to 8-0 before A's manager Bob Geren brought in Jerry Blevins, who threw 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief.

Dan Meyer, the last player left from the trade of Tim Hudson to Atlanta, allowed five runs in the seventh - highlighted by Ramirez's second career grand slam, which also marked the eighth time this year that Chicago has hit four homers in a game.

The game was far enough out of hand that Sox manager Ozzie Guillen became the first manager in memory to pinch-hit for both a member of the 500 (Thome) and 600 (Ken Griffey Jr.) home run clubs.

"It seems like every time we're out here (on the West Coast) we have crazy games," Guillen said. "Maybe we can stop thinking negative every time we come out here and start thinking positively now."

When Rajai Davis pinch-hit for Frank Thomas in the ninth, it became the only time in major league history that three players with 500 or more home runs were pinch-hit for in a game.

Cliff Pennington's first major league hit, a double in the eighth, gave the A's their first runner past first base all day. He scored their only run moments later on Barton's single.

"Of course we're going to press when a whole offense isn't scoring runs," Thomas said. "I've been through this process. I just talked to the guys. We have young hitters wondering why they are getting the same pitches over and over - it will happen until they make adjustments. This is when you learn."