'They don't give up': Surging Sox stun with comeback

OAKLAND -- Elvis Andrus is having quite the homecoming in Oakland.

The 34-year-old shortstop, who was released by the A's and subsequently signed by the White Sox in mid-August, has been a shot in the arm both on and off the field ever since he came to Chicago. And Andrus stayed hot as he faced his former team for the first time since being released, connecting for a home run in his first at-bat back at the Coliseum on Thursday.

After a slow start on Friday, Andrus and the Sox kept rolling -- all the way to a thrilling comeback victory, their eighth win in their last 10 games.

While the A's were able to keep Elvis in the building on Friday night, he wound up stinging them again anyway, capping a dramatic uprising in the ninth to stun the A's in a 5-3 win. Andrus hit a two-run double in the ninth inning to give the White Sox their first lead of the game, capping the team's five-run outburst against A's left-hander A.J. Puk.

"One of the good benefits of playing your old team is I know a lot of the tendencies of the pitchers, especially Puk," Andrus said. "I've been behind him a lot, and I know how he approaches hitters in different situations. So I had my plan, and I was really glad that he threw me the fastball there and I was able to put a good swing on it."

Prior to the ninth, A's pitchers had stymied the White Sox lineup. Chicago didn't record a knock until the seventh, when Eloy Jiménez singled with one out to break up a combined no-hit bid by Oakland spot-starter Austin Pruitt and reliever Joel Payamps.

After erupting for 21 hits the night prior, the White Sox had three through eight innings on Friday. But with Lucas Giolito's quality start and two scoreless innings of relief from Joe Kelly and Aaron Bummer, they were still in position to make a comeback.

"We were sleeping for a little bit," acting manager Miguel Cairo said. "We just got a wake-up call."

Jiménez kicked off the ninth-inning rally with a one-out solo shot to right, his third home run in as many games. That cut the A's lead to 3-1, but the White Sox got all the way down to their final out before seizing control of the game.

After Andrew Vaughn and Romy Gonzalez set the table with RBI knocks to knot the game at three, Andrus came through to finish the job against his former team. From there, Cairo handed the ball to closer Liam Hendriks -- another former Athletic -- who slammed the door to earn his 32nd save of the season.

Just like that, the White Sox had risen from the brink of defeat to a rousing team win in the blink of an eye. Entering play Friday, Chicago was 3-57 this season when trailing entering the ninth inning.

"It was such a great game because we didn't give up," said Andrus. "We were still having good at-bats. [The A's] made really great plays today, but I think when you keep pushing and pushing, you're going to get through those [early] innings like we did in that [ninth] inning."

Cairo summed up his team's nine-inning effort in one word: "Resilience."

"They don't give up," Cairo said. "That's the phrase that Tony [La Russa] uses: 'Never give up.' And that's what we're using right now. Never give up, and 27 outs."

This series in Oakland is key, because as long as the White Sox keep winning, they will gain ground on at least one of their division foes in the Guardians and Twins, who are facing off this weekend in Minnesota. With the win, Chicago is now alone in second place, one game up on Minnesota in the AL Central after Cleveland held on for a win in the first game of that series.

Friday's display of resilience was emblematic of a tough season for the White Sox, in which they have largely struggled to meet expectations -- but still remain in striking distance of the divisional lead.

Just as they needed all 27 outs to win on Friday, the White Sox will need all 162 games to take a shot at winning the AL Central.

"It helps that we're in a position to win a division right now, which I think anybody in this clubhouse will tell you that we don't really deserve based on that first couple of months," Hendriks said. "Games like this are the ones that really can either turn the season around or completely derail a season, and this is something that hopefully will help us to get over the hump and continue to move forward."