ANAHEIM, Calif. -- One big inning, one big win.

If there were a game the Chicago White Sox seemingly had to win, it was Thursday night's contest against the Los Angeles Angels.

The White Sox lost the first three games of the series, and before the finale, general manager Rick Hahn fielded questions about the job status of manager Robin Ventura and his staff.

While Hahn said no decisions would be made until after the season, it couldn't have hurt that the White Sox were able to put together an 8-2 victory, avoiding a four-game sweep.

Chicago broke open a 1-1 game with a five-run fifth inning and rode Jose Quintana and three relievers to get out of town and head to Seattle coming off a win.

"It's good to get that last game and not get swept. To finish on a positive note is always a good thing going into the next series," said White Sox first baseman Adam LaRoche, who went 2-for-4 with a home run to snap out of a 1-for-23 slide.

The White Sox scored just four runs total in losing the first three games of the series. They bettered that in one decisive inning Thursday, when they had six hits off Angels starter Nick Tropeano.

"We haven't had many of those," LaRoche said of the big inning. "It's good to take the pressure off our pitchers and take some real stress off our manager with all these one- and two-run games."

Besides the six hits in the inning, the White Sox also got a sacrifice fly on which Angels left fielder Shane Victorino overthrew the cutoff man, allowing the other two baserunners to advance to second and third.

"On the defensive side, there's no doubt we added fuel to the fire in that inning," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Shane in left field, he's a really good outfielder, but he just airmailed the cutoff man when there was no play at home."

Tropeano, taking the rotation spot of Matt Shoemaker, who was demoted to Triple-A Salt Lake earlier in the week, didn't survive the fateful fifth. Tropeano (1-2) went 4 1/3 innings and was charged with six runs on eight hits and one walk.

"We did some things early that kept us in the game, and I thought Nick made some big pitches," Scioscia said. "Then in the fifth, things got away from what Nick was trying to do out there. He lost his fastball command a little bit and struggled putting some guys away."

Center fielder Adam Eaton, third baseman Tyler Saladino, catcher Geovany Soto and LaRoche each had two hits for Chicago, which ended a seven-game road losing streak.

Quintana (7-10) gave up two runs on eight hits and two walks in six innings. He earned his first victory in August after two no-decisions and a loss.

"I don't know if it was his sharpest night, but he just continues to battle," Ventura said of Quintana. "It's nice for us to get some runs for him; he hasn't had a ton of it. Once he got through the sixth -- he had struggled somewhat to get there -- you want Jonesy (Nate Jones) going through the middle of their lineup just to control that."

Chicago relievers Jones, Nate Petricka and Dan Jennings each threw a no-hit inning to close out the win.

With the loss, the Angels missed a chance to move closer to the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West, instead remaining 2 1/2 games back. Because the Baltimore Orioles also lost, the Angels maintained a half-game lead for the second AL wild-card spot.

The White Sox are six games behind the Angels in the wild-card race.

The final hit of Chicago's big inning was the result of a replay challenge. Designated hitter Jose Abreu's fifth-inning liner down the left field line initially was ruled foul, but the replay clearly showed the ball hit the foul line. Abreu was awarded a double, driving in two runs and knocking Tropeano out of the game.

NOTES: Angels slugger Albert Pujols was back in the lineup after getting a day off Wednesday, part of manager Mike Scioscia's plan to keep the 35-year-old veteran healthy over the course of the season. Pujols started at DH for the 28th time this season. He has started at first base 88 times. He went 1-for-3 with an RBI on Thursday. ... Angels 1B C.J. Cron started for the fourth consecutive game, a result of the White Sox throwing lefties in all four games of the series. He was hitting .359 (14-for-39) over his previous 13 games before going 0-for-4 Thursday. ... The White Sox's road record of 85-138 (.384) since 2013 is the second worst in the American League. Only Houston is worse at 83-138 (.376).