By Morris Phillips

If it’s close, don’t expect the game to go to the A’s.

In a season so rough the A’s have sunk to the bottom of the pile in the American League, they’re some things this club has shown that it just can’t do.

Can’t win a close game, can’t win in extra-innings and can’t win during the daytime.

On Saturday afternoon in Boston, it was more of the same in two of the three just mentioned categories as the A’s fell to the Red Sox, 4-2.

Hanley Ramirez got the Sox off to a flying start with a two-run homer in the first inning, and David Ortiz and Mike Napoli had RBI hits in the third to give Boston a 4-1 lead at that point.

The A’s response? One run scored after the third inning, and one hit after the fourth.

So if you want to categorize this one, it’s close without really being close.  The A’s fell to Boston for the second straight day by a score of 4-2, which leaves them 3-9 in games decided by two runs or less.  In one-run ballgames, the A’s are 3-15, and both records are the worst in big league baseball.

“We’re in so many games and however we get there, you get tired of tipping your cap,” manager Bob Melvin lamented.

The A’s came into Boston as winners of nine of 12, and showing signs of breaking out of their malaise, and escaping the AL West cellar.  But Boston’s been struggling too, and their desperation to improve their status has outpaced that of the A’s so far this weekend.  After Wade Miley shut down the A’s on Friday, tough luck Joe Kelly took care of Oakland on Saturday.

Kelly hadn’t won a start at Fenway Park since last season, and hadn’t won anywhere since April 11.  Afterwards, manager Joe Farrell was quick to say he liked what he saw from Kelly, who went six, allowing one run and four hits.

“Whether it’s the ability to reach back and get a little extra velocity, whether it’s making a key pitch as he’s done the last two starts in particular with men in scoring position, he’s got a way about him to keep a moment under control and still execute.”

The A’s truncated offense had just two highlights: Billy Burns tripled home a run in the third inning, and Mark Canha took reliever Alexi Ogando just over the Green Monster in the seventh.

Boston elected to sit former Giant Pablo Sandoval for a second straight day as the Panda’s struggles at the plate extended to the field with two errors on Thursday.  Farrell addressed the subject, saying the consecutive days off were needed to allow Sandoval to “clear his head” and he expects the rotund one will be back in the Red Sox’s lineup on Sunday.

Kendall Graveman gets the ball on Sunday in a matchup with Boston’s Clay Buchholz as the A’s try to avoid the sweep.  Graveman will attempt to win for the third time without a loss since his promotion from AAA Nashville.

UPDATE ON INJURED FAN, TONYA CARPENTER: The Red Sox fan who was struck by a splintered bat in the second inning of Friday’s game has been upgraded from critical condition after spending 24 hours at a local Boston hospital.

Carpenter was sitting in box seats on the third base side of the diamond when Brett Lawrie’s bat broke and was sent helicoptering toward the woman sitting with her husband and child.  Carpenter was struck in the head and her screams could be heard throughout the lower deck of Fenway Park.  Carpenter, who was bleeding profusely, was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital with injuries considered “life threatening.”

Before Saturday’s game a moment of silence for Carpenter was observed by the sellout crowd (pictured above).  Players for both teams admitted to be shaken by the incident with Boston’s Ramirez saying he couldn’t sleep from dwelling on what had transpired.