Montgomery has career-high 4 RBIs in 9-1 win, White Sox extend A's losing streak to 9

CHICAGO (AP) — Sam Antonacci and Braden Montgomery homered in a six-run first inning and the White Sox extended the Athletics' losing streak to nine with a 9-1 victory on Sunday that left Chicago atop the AL Central entering the All-Stark break.

Montgomery, who debuted on June 9, drove in four runs in a big league game for the first time. He entered with eight RBIs in his first 28 games.

Chicago (50-45) swept the three-game series by outscoring the A’s 24-2 after getting swept in three games against Boston. The White Sox lead the division over Cleveland (51-46) by less than a percentage point.

The A’s, on their longest skid since dropping nine straight from May 27 to June 4 last year, have lost 13 of 14 and 17 of 20, falling to 41-55.

All-Star Shea Langeliers hit his 21st homer in the first off Noah Schultz (3-6), giving the A's their first lead since July 1.

Antonacci went deep in the bottom half on the third pitch from J.T. Ginn (7-6) to ignite Chicago's high-scoring first inning this season. Kyle Teel hit a two-run single and Montgomery hit a three-run homer for a 6-1 lead.

Montgomery had an RBI single in a three-run fifth.

Schultz won for the first time in seven starts, allowing one run and four hits in five innings. The left-hander had given up 16 runs in 18 2/3 innings in his four previous outings.

Jordan Hicks struck out the side in the sixth, Seranthony Domínguez pitched a perfect seventh and Tyler Schweitzer gave up two hits over the final two innings.

Ginn gave up a career-high eight runs in 4 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and three walks with seven strikeouts.

Athletics: Host Washington in a three-game series starting Friday.

White Sox: Open the second half Friday at AL champion Toronto.

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

Athletics' Shea Langeliers hits a solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago White Sox's Kyle Teel hits a two-run single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago White Sox catcher Kyle Teel, left, celebrates with relief pitcher Tyler Schweitzer after the White Sox defeated the Athletics in a baseball game in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago White Sox's Braden Montgomery hits a one-run single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Chicago White Sox's Braden Montgomery celebrates with teammates after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Athletics in Chicago, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

MADRID (AP) — Thousands of people who travel every day between the southern tip of Spain and the British territory of Gibraltar will no longer have to cross a physical border, beginning on Wednesday.

The official opening at midnight on Tuesday — after a border fence was fully removed — allows a new freedom of movement under a historic treaty between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It came after years of post-Brexit wrangling.

The contested British Overseas Territory of 38,000 people is perched at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, in a strategic location mere miles from Morocco where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Throngs of people in Spain's La Línea de Concepción crossed into Gibraltar after midnight and vice-versa, many in Spanish soccer jerseys after Spain's team defeated France in the World Cup semi-finals on Tuesday.

“What you feel here is the brotherhood between the two people,” Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

When Britain left the EU in 2020, the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc had been left unresolved.

Previous talks on a deal to ensure people and goods could keep flowing across the border had made halting progress. In 2025, the EU and U.K. announced an agreement on those issues, with the two sides and Gibraltar’s government signing a treaty Tuesday that eases border crossings.

The U.K.’s Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said Tuesday that the agreement secured Gibraltar’s long-term economic future and interests.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade representative, praised the agreement, too.

“It has taken four years of patient, complex negotiation, but the outcome speaks for itself,” Šefčovič said. “It is a very special feeling to see a fence come down.”

Without a deal, Gibraltar could have a faced a hard land border with full passport checks, posing economic risks for the territory deeply dependent on some 15,000 Spaniards — almost half of Gibraltar’s workforce — who cross the frontier every day for work.

Leisure visits by people crossing both sides of the border would have been affected, too.

“People who are visiting family in Spain, or whose Spanish family is visiting them in Gibraltar. Children who are going to football matches and extracurricular activities, either in Spain or in Gibraltar. They will be able to do that without having to worry about frontier queues,” Picardo told The Associated Press in an interview.

The deal in effect brings the territory into the EU’s Schengen free travel area. At Gibraltar’s airport and port, entry and exit checks will be conducted by both U.K. and Spanish border officials. The arrangement is similar to what’s in place at Eurostar train stations in London and Paris, where both British and French officials check passports.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations between the two countries on the issue of Gibraltar have had their ups and downs over the centuries. The treaty that removed the border fence does not resolve the territory’s contested status.

In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in the Rock, as the territory is popularly known in English, supported remaining in the EU.

Travelers to Gibraltar from countries outside the Schengen area — including the U.K. — will have to contend with the EU Entry-Exit System, or EES, which was rolled out in Europe in April and replaced passport stamps with biometric data collected through photographs and digital fingerprints.

With the border fence gone, Gibraltar officials have set up live facial recognition cameras at entry points and throughout the territory.

Chief Minister Picardo said the territory will have many more CCTV cameras, and that it has increased its police presence as well as resources for customs and Coast Guard agencies.

“The fortress has become a digital fortress now,” Picardo said.

People queue to cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar, in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marcos Moreno)

A Spanish Guardia Civil officer holds a sign during the dismantling of a border checkpoint that separated Spain from the disputed British overseas territory of Gibraltar in La Línea de la Concepción, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marcos Moreno)

People queue to cross the border between Spain and Gibraltar, in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marcos Moreno)

Against the backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, workers dismantle a Spanish border checkpoint that separated the disputed British overseas territory from Spain in La Línea de la Concepción, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marcos Moreno)

Against the backdrop of the Rock of Gibraltar, workers dismantle a Spanish border checkpoint that separated the disputed British overseas territory from Spain in La Línea de la Concepción, Spain, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Marcos Moreno)