OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) _ Frank Thomas wanted to put his season of discontent behind him. He's off to a good start.

Thomas had three hits, including a three-run homer and the Chicago White Sox won their fourth straight game by defeating the Oakland Athletics 7-3 Saturday.

Mike Sirotka (1-1), who allowed a career-high four home runs in Chicago's season-opening 10-4 loss at Texas, kept Oakland batters in the park while allowing six hits and three runs _ one earned _ in 5 1-3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.

Despite batting over .300 for the eighth time in nine seasons last year, Thomas was coming off a disappointing year. He was bothered by a painful ankle injury that ended his season in early September and eventually required surgery. Thomas appeared in a career-low 135 games, did not rank among the AL's top 10 in a major offensive category for the first time in his career and clashed with his manager, Jerry Manuel.

It took a sometimes heated spring training meeting between Thomas and Manuel to clear the air and Thomas came out of it vowing to make a fresh start.

His renewed focus has produced hits in all six games, including five multi-hit performances and he's batting at a .541 clip (13-for-24)

The White Sox were leading 3-1 in the fourth when Craig Wilson singled off the leg of Ron Mahay (0-1). Two outs later, Jose Valentin singled and Thomas followed, connecting for his second homer of the season.

Bob Howry got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the ninth by striking out Matt Stairs and getting Olmedo Saenz to pop out.

Oakland had scored first, taking a 1-0 lead on Stairs' first inning sacrifice fly, which scored Frank Menechino, who reached on the first of shortstop Valentin's three errors.

The White Sox tied it on Wilson's run-scoring double in the second and moved in front when Ray Durham and Valentin executed a double steal followed by Magglio Ordonez's two-run single.

Chicago added another run in the eighth on Wilson's double-play grounder.

In the sixth, John Jaha singled, Olmedo Saenz doubled and Ben Grieve walked with one out to finish Sirotka. Sean Lowe relieved and walked Miguel Tejada, forcing home a run. Shortstop Valentin mishandled pinch-hitter Rich Becker's grounder, allowing another run to score but escaped further damage by getting Menechino to fly out to right.

Mahay allowed six runs and nine hits in four innings.

Notes: Thomas moved into sixth on the White Sox' career list, passing Luis Aparicio, with 1,577 career hits. ... The A's stranded 12 runners. ... Sirotka entered 1-4 with a 6.05 ERA lifetime against Oakland, including an 0-2 mark last season. ... Oakland's center field platoon of Ryan Christensen and Becker are 0-for-19 to start the season. ... Chicago's season-opening 10 game, 11-day road trip is the longest in club history. It's the 10th straight year the White Sox have opened away from home.