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Walk-off blast by Suzuki lifts Athletics over White Sox

Aug 16, 2008 - 6:46 AM By Mike Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Pinch hitter Kurt Suzuki's two-run homer with one out in the ninth inning lifted the Oakland Athletics to a 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday.

Suzuki's blast was the fourth of the game for the Athletics, who won for the third time in 14 games.

With pinch runner Cliff Pennington on third base after Emil Brown's leadoff double and Daric Barton's sacrifice, Suzuki greeted righthander D.J. Carrasco by driving a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall for his sixth homer.

"I knew," Suzuki said, "at the worst it was a sac fly. I was happy - we have a day game tomorrow, we didn't need to play extra innings."

Lefthander Horacio Ramirez (1-2) started the ninth for the White Sox and ended up with the loss when his inherited runner came around to score.

Trailing, 4-2, in the eighth, the A's climbed back into the game via the home run, as Mark Ellis led off the frame with a solo blast and Jack Cust followed two batters later with his 22nd shot to forge a 4-4 deadlock. Both homers were hit off setup man Octavio Dotel.

"I threw my best," Dotel said, "and he (Cust) hit it."

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said that while no loss is easy to take, it's easier when the pitcher is challenging hitters and just gets beat.

Oakland, which has had trouble scoring runs all month, has managed six runs in back-to-back games after failing to top four in the previous 15 contests.

The setback for Chicago (68-53) pushes the club back into a first-place tie with the Minnesota Twins (68-53) atop the American League Central.

"You can't breathe until the game is over," Guillen said. "We scored three in the first inning, and then got shut down all the way to the eighth."

Huston Street (3-5) pitched around a single in the ninth to earn the win.

The White Sox had grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first when A.J. Pierzynski homered and Jim Thome and Paul Konerko added an RBI apiece.

After that inning, Oakland starter Dallas Braden pitched well, throwing just 72 pitches in the final six innings he threw and allowing three hits and a walk over that span. Braden tweaked a groin muscle in the third inning, and it began to tighten on him.

"I would have left him out there for the eighth the way he was throwing," A's manager Bob Geren said.

Braden was dismissive of the injury. "It's still attached," he joked. "This game was a matter of not straying from the game plan after being touched up a little in the first."

Gavin Floyd took a shutout into the sixth until Juan Uribe - subbing for the disabled Joe Crede at third base - unwittingly sparked a rally when he dropped Frank Thomas' foul popup. Thomas lined the next pitch to left for a single and scored on Cust's 21st home run to close the gap to 3-2.

Carlos Quentin greeted Jerry Blevins in the eighth with a 425-foot blast to dead center on the first pitch, doubling the

Chicago lead. The home run was Quentin's 32nd, which tied Ryan Howard for the major league lead.