OAKLAND, Calif. — The White Sox had no answer for left-hander Sean Manaea, who struck out nine in seven dominant innings Thursday in the Athletics’ 3-1 victory.
Manaea (9-9) allowed one run and five hits in his first win since July 28.
‘‘Most important was his command,’’ Sox manager Tony La Russa said. ‘‘He’s got good stuff, but he kept it out of the middle of the plate the whole game.
‘‘It’s got good life, so if guys got the barrel to it, they really didn’t square many up. Give him credit.’’
The Sox dropped two of three games to the Royals and Athletics on the road trip.
“We’ll be fine, just got to get better,” La Russa said.
“Notice it, work on it and improve it. That’s what we have to do for the next 20-plus games.”
Jose Abreu had two hits and drove in a run for the Sox, who have lost 10 of their last 11 regular-season games at the Oakland Coliseum.
Tony Kemp put the A’s ahead with a run-scoring triple against Reynaldo Lopez (3-2) in the second inning.
The Sox tied it when Abreu singled home Cesar Hernandez in the third, giving him 104 RBI.
But Oakland answered with two unearned runs in the bottom of the third. Lopez attempted to pick off Starling Marte at second base, but his throw went into center field, allowing Marte to score and Matt Olson to go from first to third. Matt Chapman then drove in Olson with a sacrifice fly.
Former Cubs reliever Andrew Chafin pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his third save.
Lopez allowed three runs (one earned) and six hits in five innings.
“I had to battle through a few things,” Lopez said. “My stuff wasn’t as good as it usually is. Today was one of those days you have to battle through, and even though I didn’t have my best stuff, I was able to get through five innings. I made one mistake; I paid for it.”
La Russa was fairly satisfied with Lopez’s performance.
‘‘One slider mistake that hurt,’’ La Russa said. ‘‘He got us through five. Only three runs on the board. He did his thing.
‘‘We were able to prevent any more runs from scoring in the second half of the game. You started to think we could maybe win it. I thought we were in a real good position to come back, and we didn’t.’’
Tim Anderson (injured list), Eloy Jimenez (foul ball off knee Tuesday) and Yoan Moncada (rest) didn’t play.
The Sox are 26-25 since the All-Star break and 1-6-1 in road series since the break.
