OAKLAND - Jake Peavy, Adam Dunn and Alex Rios question marks? At the rate they're going, they won't be much longer.
Paul Konerko? Never.
Peavy, Dunn and Rios, three-fourths of the White Sox' subpar group of 2011 that's being counted on to bounce back and have the 2012 team playing meaningful games in September, kept their fast-track starts going in the Sox' 4-0 victory over the Oakland A's on Monday night.
The Sox (10-6) have won four in a row on their West Coast trip and five of their last six overall.
Konerko, sore foot and all, continues to hit like he's in the prime of his career. Against former Sox right-hander Bartolo Colon, Dunn and Konerko opened the fourth inning with back-to-back home runs to break a scoreless tie.
Dunn's homer, his fourth, was pulled down the right-field line. Konerko's, his third this season and 399th of his career, was launched to right-center field.
Dunn has three homers and 11 RBI in his last six games. He played first base for the second straight game while Konerko, nursing a sore right foot from a ball he fouled off in Seattle on Friday, was the designated hitter.
Dunn has 369 career home runs, tying him with Ralph Kiner for 71st on the all-time list. Konerko is tied for 48th with Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga.
Rios, who batted .227 last season, had three hits for the second straight game to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He's 17-for-40 (.425) in that stretch.
But the biggest story of the night - and perhaps the young season -- is Peavy, whose three perfect innings to open the game were more notable than usual because it's been that kind of stretch for the Sox lately -- two days after Philip Humber pitched a perfect game in Seattle.
The A's Jemile Weeks and Coco Crisp dashed Peavy's Late Night with David Letterman dreams by opening the fourth with a single and walk, but Peavy got Josh Reddick to rap into a double play and Yoenis Cespedes on a foul pop-up to catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
The only hit Peavy gave up after that was Cespedes' double in the seventh.
Peavy made his fourth quality start in as many outings and was very good - or better -- for his third in a row. This one followed two runs in 6 2/3 innings against the Tigers and one run in seven innings against the Orioles. He was going for his first complete game since May 18 of last year against Cleveland.
Even struggling Sox Brent Morel and Gordon Beckham contributed. Morel (2-for-4 with a double) reached base three times and scored the third run on Beckham's single over a pulled in infield in the ninth. Beckham had hit into two double plays before that