O'Neill homers twice, Red Sox send White Sox to 111th loss

BOSTON (AP) — Tyler O’Neill homered twice for the Boston Red Sox in a 7-5 win Saturday night that sent the Chicago White Sox to their 111th loss.

Chicago wasted Andrew Vaughn’s two-run homer in the first, trailed 7-2 by the fifth and lost its 19th consecutive series.

The White Sox (32-111) are nine defeats shy of tying the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses since 1900 and are on pace to finish 36-126. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the loss record at 20-134. Chicago has lost 14 of its last 15 games and 44 of 49.

Rob Refsnyder hit an RBI grounder and O’Neill put Boston ahead with a two-run homer in the four-run first off Garrett Crochet (6-11), who dropped to 0-6 in 15 starts since beating Boston on June 7.

“Poor execution and didn’t command the fastball,” Crochet said.

O’Neill cleared the Green Monster and hit the ball out of Fenway Park off Chicago’s Enyel De Los Santos in the fifth for his 27th home run this season. It was his 11th career multihomer game, his sixth this year.

“I feel that I’ve been taking good at-bats lately. For me, it’s about controlling the strike zone and working a walk when I can. You’re not going to feel your best every day, but I’m trusting my preparation right now,” O’Neill said. “I’m sending the barrel where I want to.”

Boston (72-70) won its second straight game after a five-game losing streak and trails Minnesota (76-66) by four games for the AL’s final wild card berth.

“We talked about it two days ago: you lose ground, you lose a day,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.

Trevor Story went 1 for 4 with an RBI single in his first game since April 5 after recovering from a shoulder injury that required surgery and caused him to miss 133 games.

“We didn’t think I would be here at this point," he said. 'It feels like forever ago when I was fielding questions about it being a season-ending injury. Just so grateful for the opportunity to do it."

Connor Wong added an RBI double in the first. Romy González had three hits and stole three bases.

Kenley Jansen got three straight outs on seven pitches for his 26th save in 30 chances, the 446th of his big league career. Jansen has been dealing with lat inflammation.

Boston is 4-2 against the White Sox, clinching the season series for the first time since 2019.

Cooper Criswell (6-4) allowed two runs and six hits over five innings in the 28-year-old rookie right-hander’s first start since he was removed after four perfect innings and 52 pitches at Detroit because Cora wanted to bring in left-hander Rich Hill, who wasted a one-run lead in a 4-1 loss.

“There was some traffic out there, but the defense did a terrific job behind him," Cora said of Criswell. "Overall, it was what we needed.”

Andrew Benintendi hit a three-run homer in the seventh against Chase Shugart, the 16th of the season for the former Boston outfielder.

Boston improved to 35-13 when wearing its yellow alternate jerseys, including 20-9 since the start of 2023 and 8-6 this season.

TRAINER’S ROOM

White Sox: 3B Miguel Vargas was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts after missing two games with a right eye abrasion.

Red Sox: RHP Isaiah Campbell was recalled from Worcester and placed on the 60-day Injured list with right elbow inflammation. Campbell pitched in eight games this season for Boston, allowing 12 runs in 6 2/3 innings. ... To make room for Story on the active roster, Boston optioned INF Mickey Gaspar to Triple-A Worcester.

UP NEXT

RHP Chris Flexon (2-14, 5.36) starts Sunday’s series finale for the White Sox. The Red Sox have yet to name a starter.

__

AP MLB: https://www.apnews.com/hub/mlb