White Sox clobber A’s 10-3; Rodon and Moncada impress

Well that was fun, huh?

Contributors to future contending Chicago White Sox teams certainly showed up in today’s 10-3 victory.

Sox starting pitcher Carlos Rodon was magnificent, going a solid eight innings of two-run ball. He struck out only three, but induced a lot of soft contact off the bats of a potent Oakland A’s lineup.

Rodon allowed seven hits, but most importantly, did not walk a batter. He had great control throughout the game and continued to attack hitters in the strike zone. Rodon’s fastball stayed in the mid 90s — we haven’t seen any remnants of that shoulder injury when it comes to the radar gun, so that’s certainly promising.

Yoan Moncada had arguably his best game of the season, driving in six (!) runs on a double and a three-run home run. Yes, his average is still only .228, but today’s offensive outburst can hopefully trigger some more consistency.

Moncada started the series with one of his worst efforts of the year, but responded nicely throughout the weekend. He also turned some nice double plays with Tim Anderson in the later innings.

The Sox added more runs with solo home runs off the bats of Daniel Palka and Yolmer Sanchez.

Jose Abreu added an RBI single of his own to get his season total up to 44. Keep using #VoteAbreu on Twitter to help send José to Washington! Avisail Garcia was responsible for the other RBI, with a single in the fifth.

There was, however, a strange occurrence in the ninth inning. Bruce Rondon entered and walked the first batter on four pitches. Rick Renteria immediately made a pitching change and had an extensive conversation with Rondon on the mound. Not entirely sure what to make of it, but Rondon certainly was not pleased with the early hook.

Anyway, the ninth went relatively smoothly after that for Xavier Cedeno, and the Sox locked up the win.

And let’s not forget about this, either: the Reds swept the Cubs in a four-game series. Overall, a great Sunday afternoon.

Now, someone help me find Hawk (he seemed to disappear in the last two innings).