Oakland A’s Lawrence Butler (4) is congratulated by teammate Shea Langeliers (23) after hitting a three run home run in the top sixth against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston on Tue Jul 9, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (34-59) had a nice start taking an early 2-0 lead but a horrendous second inning that gave Boston Red Sox (50-40) eight runs after scoring 3 in the first inning made all the difference in the game. The Red Sox only scored one run for the rest of the game. Each team had 13 hits but those stats that indicated a close game were clearly inaccurate. Boston had control of this game from the second inning on.

Tuesday afternoon the A’s traveled back to Boston to take on the Red Sox in a another tough set of games. Again the A’s face another giant in the American League East. Every team in this division is a tough customer and the Red Sox are currently in third place.

Oakland is enjoying some pretty decent offense and in the second game of their last series, they managed 19 hits and 18 runs in a blowout win over the Baltimore Orioles. These guys can hit and were looking to be more consistent over their past two series against the Orioles and the Angels and they had some success.

Joey Estes started for Oakland and went 1.2 innings, allowing seven hits, eight earned runs, and struck one batter. For the Red Sox starter Brayan Bello pitched 5.1 innings allowing nine hits and five earned runs.

Game recap: Oakland got a great start scoring two runs in the opening inning as they got going early. Brent Rooker doubled Miguel Andujar home and Shea Langliers singled Brent Rooker home for the early 2-0 lead.

The Red Sox answered back in the same inning scoring three runs and taking the 3-2 lead. A couple of singles from David Hamilton and Rafael Devers brought runners home and Oakland had given up the lead. A’s pitcher Joey Estes began to struggle early.

Joey Estes’ struggles continued into the second inning and when the dust had settled, he had given up seven hits and eight earned runs in a disastrous 1.2 innings. Tyler Ferguson relieved Estes looking to stop the bleeding but did not fare much better giving up three more hits and three more runs in 0.1 innings.

Boston now led 11-2 and Oakland was digging a huge hole with a lot of game still left to play. The Red Sox had an amazing second inning with a Ceddanne Rafaela triple, a Rafael Devers double, a Masataka Yoshida single and back to back home runs. Wilyer Abreu had a three run homer and Dominic Smith a solo home run.

Boston had dismantled both Joey Estes and Tyler Ferguson. As if things were not going bad enough for Oakland, rain began to fall over the ball park. This game had turned lopsided early.

Michel Otanez relieved Ferguson in the bottom of the fifth inning giving up no hits, no runs with two strikeouts.

Oakland made a bit of noise in the sixth inning. Going into the sixth the A’s had not yet hit a home run but Lawrence Butler turned that stat on it’s ear hitting a three run homer. Butler, Shea Langeliers and Zach Gelof scored on that long ball.

Otanez started to struggle in the bottom of the sixth inning with back to back walks and Boston had two runners on base with two outs. That was it for Otanez relieved by Scott Alexander. Alexander got Oakland out of the inning unscathed and the score remained 11-5 in favor of Boston going into the seventh inning.

With no outs, the A’s had runners on the corners, with Brent Rooker on third and Tyler Soderstrom on first. Zach Gelof sacrificed and Rooker scored and Oakland inched a bit closer 11-6. The A’s now had 11 hits through eight innings and had 15 runners on base leaving too many runners stranded.

Boston scored another run in the eighth inning extending their lead to 12-6. Wilyer Abreu sacrificed and Rafael Devers scored. Austin Adams had taken the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning for Oakland, walking Rafael Devers and hitting both Connor Wong and Masataka Yoshida to start the inning. Adams had gotten out of the inning with minimal damage.

Oakland went into the ninth three outs away from dropping game one to Boston. With two outs, the A’s had runners on the corners for the third time in the game. Zach Gelof came to the plate hitting home run #10, a three-run home run. Butler popped out for the third out and Boston had won game one 12-9. Both teams finished with 13 hits. It was the bottom of the second inning that turned this game around for Boston.

The A’s will be back at work in game two with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 PM with toasty temperatures getting up to 90 degrees and no rain predicted.

JP Sears will take the mound for Oakland with a 5-7 win-loss record and a 4.74 ERA. The Red Sox will start Nick Pivetta who has a 4-5 win-loss record and a 4.06 ERA.