Oakland A’s Almedmys Diaz (left) and JJ Bleday (right) celebrate after Bleday’s second inning home run against the Boston Red Sox at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue Jul 18, 2023 (AP News photo)

Boston (51-45). 000 000 000. – 0 5. 3

Oakland (26-71) 030 000. 000 – 3 7. 0

Time: 2:15

Attendance: 10,115

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–I’ve started to think that “bullpen game” is a misnomer. Last night’s knockout performance against the A’s by Boston’s Nick Pivetta featured a reliever, a starter and second relief pitcher, who served as mop up man. Only the order of their appearance was changed; the pitcher on the roster as a starter replaced the opener, a reliever, in the third. It wasn’t the bullpen that defeated the A’s; it was a member of the rotation, coming out of the bullpen.

Tonight’s contest between the teams from the place that calls itself with false modesty The Town and the city that proudly bills itself as The Hub of the Universe, also was one of those that baseball’s new lexicon dubs as a bullpen game. In this case, Red Sox reliever Joe Jacques , a veteran of 10 big league games, none of which he had started, opened for them and gave up three runs, all of them earned in 2-2/3 innings.

Jacques was charged with the loss and now has a record of 1-1, 5.79. He was followed by another left handed reliever, Chris Murphy, who pitched 4-2/3 strong frames . Joely Rodríguez and Richard Bleier also performed well on the mound for Boston.

The Athletics went with Luis Medina, the only right handed starter besides last night’s losing pitcher, Paul Blackburn, on their active roster. The result was a surprise 3-0 win for the home team.

Medina lasted 5-2/3 impressive frames, holding the Bosox to scoreless, although he left with a runner on first. He allowed only three hits and a walk. His pitch count was 80, with 53 strikes. He also was called for a pitch clock violation in the first inning. Sam Long, Shintaro Fujinami, Sam Moll, and Trevor also pitched for the A’s. Medina earned the win, bettering his season’s totals to 3-7, 5.79.

The A’s started strong and fizzled out quickly. Tony Kemp led off the bottom of the first with what might have been the Curse of the leadoff doubles to end all curses of lead off doubles. His hit landed near the right field foul line and got away from Alex Verdugo. It originally was scored as a triple, but that ruling was revised to a double and an error. An inning later, the scoring was again revised. Kemp was credited once more with a triple.

Kemp wisely didn’t try to score on Zach Gelof’s fly to medium deep left but did try to advance when Jacques’ 2-0 pitch to Jordan Díaz got past catcher Jorge Alfaro, who raced back to home to tag Kemp out. Kemp jumped over Alfaro, but home plate umpire Adam Hamari called him out for running out of the base path and ejected manager Mark Kotsay for his vehement arguing of the call.

In spite of that inauspicious start, Oakland took the lead in the home half of the second. with a home run by Ryan Noda, the only Athletic to have gotten a hit in last night’s debacle. It was Noda’s 11th round tripper of the year and travelled 402 feet into right center field with an exit velocity of 105.3 mph. Aledmys Díaz followed with a single to short and went to second on Yu Chang’s errant throw.

The 90 feet Díaz advanced proved to be irrelevant because JJ Bleday parked a sinker 396 feet into left center. The pitch came in at 91.2 mph and left and at 105.1 mph. The A’s now led 3-0, and Chris Murphy relieved Jacques to walk Kemp and strike out Gelof and Jordan Díaz to put out the fire.

Sam Long relieved Medina after Justin Turner’s two out single brought up left handed hitting clean up hitter Yoshida Masataka. The A’s southpaw got him to ground out to third, preserving Oakland’s 3-0 lead.

Shintaro Fujinami pitched a scoreless top of the seventh, and Joey Rodríguez put the A’s down in order in the bottom half of the frame. Sam Moll, with the help of a nifty play by Gelof at second for the third out, hurled a perfect top of the eighth.

Richard Bleier, reinstated yesterday from Boston’s injured list, allowed a leadoff double to Jordan Díaz, but The Curse worked, and we went into the ninth inning with the A’s hanging on to their 3-0 lead.

Trevor May earned the save, his seventh by surrendering nothing more harmful than a walk in the Bosox’ last at bat.

Oakland now is 26-71, .268 IF OK L 25-72 .258. Kansas City’s 11-10 defeat of the Tigers left the Royals. at 28-68, .292

One July 18, 1899, the Cleveland Spiders, until this year the worst major league team ever, split a double header with the Senators in Washington, winning the first game 5-4 and being mauled in the second, finishing the day at 14-64, .179.

The New York Mets of 1962, up to now the model of baseball futility in the modern era, were idle on July 18, which enabled them to preserve their record of 24-64, .273.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Red Sox will send Brayan Bello (7-5, 3.14) to face the A’s and Ken Waldichuk (2-6, 6.66). First pitch 12:37 at the Oakland Coliseum.