Long Does His Share for the A’s

Terrence Long kept to his routine, and for one day it worked.

Long homered twice and drove in four runs to break out of a lengthy slump and the Oakland Athletics completed a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox with a 7-4 victory Sunday.

“I live and die by what works for me,” Long said. “I’m not changing anything. I know what works for me.”

Barry Zito (17-5) matched his career high for victories, giving up three runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

The A’s, who have won five in a row and 11 of 14, remained two games behind first-place Seattle in the AL West.

Oakland’s Scott Hatteberg tied a career high with four hits.

Long was three for four after getting only four hits in his previous 47 at-bats.

“I’ve been struggling basically the whole season,” said Long, one of two A’s (along with Miguel Tejada) to play in every game this season. “I keep doing the same thing, but it just wasn’t happening for me.”

Oakland Manager Art Howe was obviously glad to see Long break out of his slump.

“I know he wants to be part of the offense,” Howe said. “He hasn’t been, and that’s frustrating. Now he can breathe a lot easier. He needed that and we needed that.”

Zito won despite his third-shortest outing of the season.

“That’s the frustrating thing,” Zito said. “I shouldn’t have to come out that early, but I understand why.”

David Justice robbed Tony Graffanino of a home run in the first inning, reaching over the left-field wall to haul in the drive.

“That was a great catch,” Zito said. “It was discouraging to me to give up that pitch on the first hitter of the game.”

Royce Clayton homered for the White Sox, who lost their fourth in a row.

Dan Wright (8-11) gave up seven runs--five earned--and 10 hits to lose for the third time in four starts.

“I kept making more mistakes as the game wore on and they took advantage,” Wright said.

The White Sox have lost nine consecutive games in Oakland since June 30, 2000.

“Wright was just inconsistent,” Manager Jerry Manuel said. “He got behind hitters and couldn’t put them away.”

Clayton’s seventh home run of the season, a leadoff shot in the third, gave Chicago a 1-0 lead.

The A’s batted around in the bottom half of the third and took a 4-1 lead, highlighted by Long’s two-run homer.

Mark Ellis walked to open the inning, and Long hit a 2-and-0 pitch into the left-field bleachers.

“He left it over the plate,” Long said. “I don’t think he wanted it there.”

After Ramon Hernandez singled, Ray Durham was safe on second baseman Graffanino’s fielding error.

Tejada followed with a sacrifice fly, and Jermaine Dye added a run-scoring single.

Long’s two-run homer in the fourth put Oakland up, 6-1, and Ellis singled home a run in the fifth.

Chad Bradford, Ricardo Rincon and Billy Koch combined to yield one run in 3 1/3 innings of relief for the Athletics.

“Our bullpen has been lights out lately,” Howe said.