Shea Langeliers smacked a three-run homer in a five-run first inning and Gage Jump allowed one hit over seven scoreless innings as the Athletics earned a 5-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday in West Sacramento, Calif.

Tyler Soderstrom also homered in the first inning for the Athletics, who had dropped three of their previous four games.

Jump (3-1) struck out a career-high seven and walked three while throwing 107 pitches in his fifth major league start. The 23-year-old rookie left-hander has won three straight decisions.

Mason Barnett allowed a hit in the eighth, and Hogan Harris gave up two hits while fanning three in the ninth to complete a four-hitter.

The Angels fell to 13-26 on the road hours after putting star center fielder Mike Trout (hamstring) on the 10-day injured list. Los Angeles lost for the fourth time in five games.

Ryan Johnson (0-2) was recalled earlier in the day by the Angels from Double-A Rocket City and settled down after his shaky first inning. He allowed five runs and eight hits — just one after the first inning — while pitching five innings. He struck out two and walked one.

A’s third baseman Zach Gelof went 1-for-3 with a walk to extend his career-best hitting streak to 22 games, the longest active run in the majors.

The Athletics saw their first six batters get hits as they sent 11 batters to the plate against Johnson in the opening-inning uprising.

Gelof singled to start it off, extending his streak, and Nick Kurtz followed with a double. Langeliers then crushed an 0-1 sweeper over the wall in center, with the 430-foot blast giving the A’s three quick runs.

Soderstrom followed with a 402-foot homer to left-center to make it 4-0. Jacob Wilson and Jonah Heim added singles before Carlos Cortes hit a fly ball for the first out.

Wilson moved to third on the Cortes out and scored on Henry Bolte’s sacrifice fly to center. Jeff McNeil singled and Gelof walked before Kurtz flied out to end the frame.

The Angels threatened in fourth as Nick Madrigal drew a leadoff walk and Oswald Peraza delivered a two-out double for the lone hit off Jump. Christian Moore, recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake before the game, struck out swinging to end the inning.

Wade Meckler singled in the eighth off Barnett, and Vaughn Grissom and Moore each singled in the ninth off Harris.

–Field Level Media

Tarik Skubal will make his first home start since April 23 when the Detroit Tigers host the Chicago White Sox on Friday. It could be one of his last appearances at Comerica Park in a Tigers uniform.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Unless the Tigers make a dramatic turnaround, they may have little choice but to deal Skubal before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Detroit is beginning a 10-game homestand after losing four of five on the road. The Tigers are tied with the Kansas City Royals for last place in the American League Central.

Skubal made a surprisingly quick return from non-invasive surgery on his pitching elbow. He had the procedure done during the first week of May and made his first major league start since the operation on Saturday. He lasted 4 2/3 innings and 80 pitches against the Cleveland Guardians, giving up three runs (two earned) and five hits.

He walked one and struck out four in a 3-1 loss.

Skubal wasn’t pleased with his outing.

“I need to be better, plain and simple. ‘Just happy to be there,’ that’s a loser mentality to me,” he said.

Skubal won’t be competing for the Tigers much longer unless the team gets back in the playoff hunt.

“I don’t think about (the trade-deadline implications) a lot,” Skubal told the Detroit News. “I try not to let that consume me because I need to worry about what I’m doing today. That way I can go perform on Friday. Just worry how I stack five really good work days so I can go out there and be ready to compete.

“But there’s also the reality part to it. Everybody, the whole room, needs to focus on winning tonight’s game, winning a series, winning the next series and just let it snowball.”

The Tigers didn’t win either series on their road trip. Their lone victory came on Monday when Colt Keith hit three home runs in a 9-3 victory at Houston.

“The urgency is heightened based on the hole that we’re in and where we are at with our win total,” manager A.J. Hinch said of the homestand.

Skubal (3-3, 2.81 ERA) has an 8-2 record and 3.72 ERA in 11 career starts against the White Sox.

Chicago’s starting pitcher on Friday, Erick Fedde (2-5, 4.50 ERA), is 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in four career outings (three starts) against the Tigers. He allowed two runs and four hits in four innings during a relief outing against Detroit on May 29.

Fedde had a disastrous May in which he posted a 9.00 ERA in five appearances. He has only given up one earned run in 12 2/3 innings across three June outings, including 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.

The White Sox are tied with Cleveland for first place in the AL Central despite the loss of slugger Munetaka Murakami, who had 20 homers before sustaining a hamstring injury against Detroit on May 29. Chicago has won five of its past eight games.

“They haven’t skipped a beat,” White Sox manager Will Venable said of his players. “I think it really speaks to what our offense was when we did have Mune. As good as he is, we’re getting contributions from everywhere. I think that’s evident now. You take him out of it and the guys are still performing well. Obviously, we want him back in that lineup, but the guys are doing a great job without him.”

The latest player to come through for Chicago was Andrew Benintendi. His pinch-hit grand slam in the eighth inning on Thursday lifted the White Sox to a 5-1 win over the host New York Yankees, allowing Chicago to salvage the finale of a three-game series.

–Field Level Media

Although riding quite the hot streak at the plate, Pete Crow-Armstrong was quick to pour cold water on the Chicago Cubs’ recent run of success.

After all, back-to-back series wins — against the two worst teams in the National League, mind you — came right after Chicago posted a 0-9-1 record in their previous 10 series.

Crow-Armstrong and the Cubs will look to continue a successful homestand on Friday afternoon when they open a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

“I’m not gonna buy into (the team turning the corner) yet, I want to keep stacking (wins),” Crow-Armstrong told Marquee Sports Network. “I think what I’m happiest about is coming out after a loss and getting a W the next day. I think that’s what was really consistent about this team last year and really strong and important.”

Crow-Armstrong homered in his third consecutive contest on Wednesday, helping Chicago to an 8-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies in the decisive game of their series. He has hit safely in eight straight games and 20 of his last 21 overall to boost his batting average from .223 to a team-leading .276.

Dansby Swanson also homered on Wednesday for the Cubs, who recorded their first home series win since beginning May with back-to-back sweeps of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds.

“If you just focus on winning every series from here on out, I think we’ll be pretty pleased with where we end up. We just gotta keep on going,” Swanson said after the win.

Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman (4-4, 3.41 ERA) will look to keep Crow-Armstrong and company in check when he makes the start on Friday afternoon.

Gausman saw his winless stretch extend to four games on Saturday despite allowing one solo homer as the lone hit allowed over seven innings in a no-decision against the New York Yankees.

“My split’s been cutting,” Gausman said. “I’ve been throwing a lot of splits that I’ve been getting away with and luckily I haven’t gotten beat by many. I expect that pitch to be my bread and butter. So I needed to figure it out and (Saturday) was definitely a step in the right direction.”

Gausman is 3-4 with a 5.45 ERA in eight career appearances (seven starts) against the Cubs.

The Blue Jays polished off a three-game series sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 4-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.

Brandon Valenzuela hit a go-ahead RBI double with two outs in the ninth inning to give Toronto its first sweep since winning all three contests versus the Athletics in the opening series of the season.

“It’s been no secret that our (pitching) staff has been carrying us for a little bit. It was about time our bats wake up and put everything together,” Valenzuela told Sportsnet.

The Cubs did not announce their starter for the series opener, however right-hander Ben Brown (3-2, 1.74) is a likely candidate.

Brown, 26, allowed one run in five innings of a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants last Saturday. He has yielded just three runs on 15 hits in his last four games, going 2-0 during that stretch.

Brown yielded one run on four hits in four innings of a no-decision in his lone appearance against the Blue Jays in August of last season.

–Field Level Media