Oakland A’s catcher Shea Langeliers (23) puts the tag on the Boston Red Sox Jamie Westbrook at the plate in the bottom of the fifth at Fenway Park in Boston on Wed Jul 10, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Wednesday the Oakland A’s (35-59) beat up on the Boston Red Sox 5-2 (50-41) winning the series. JP Sears had a terrific outing going 5 2/3 innings allowing four hits and one earned run. Mason Miller was up to his usual excellence closing out the game earning a rubber match.

Wednesday evening the A’s and the Red Sox met in game two of their three game series. The two teams met under cloudy skies, but unlike yesterday there was no rain in the forecast but conditions did get very windy in this game. Oakland evened up this series against a very tough opponent with a 5-2 win. JP Sears took the mound for the A’s and went 5.2 innings allowed four hits and one run and for the Red Sox Nick Pivetta went 6.2 innings, allowed six hits and two earned runs.

Game recap: There would be no scoring through the first two innings of this game. As in Tuesday’s game the A’s on Wednesday night got the first lead of the game in the third inning. Langeliers scored the first run of the game with the bases loaded and Oakland had the early 1-0 lead. The A’s would add to their lead in the third when Lawrence Butler doubled and Miguel Andujar and Brent Rooker scored for a 3-0 lead.

The Red Sox did not answer in the third, in fact, they would not score until the sixth inning. JP Sears had some great innings in this game going three up and three down in the second, third and fourth innings.

He threw a pitch in the sixth inning that Rob Refsnyder connected with for a solo home run. With two outs, Austin Adams relieved Sears to try and get out of the inning. Adams was perfect and the only damage in the sixth inning was the single run. Sears had gone 5 2/3 innings allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run. He had a terrific outing.

Oakland extended their lead in the seventh inning when the long overdue JJ Bleday connected for a double bringing Max Schuemann home and giving the A’s a 4-1 lead. T.J. McFarland relieved Adams in the bottom of the seventh inning.

When Adams allowed two runners on base, Lucas Erceg came in to relieve. It was not his finest hour as he walked the first at-bat he faced loading the bases. With two outs the Red Sox scored one run but Oakland got out of the inning still leading 4-2. It was a shaky seventh for the A’s but the damage was minimal and the insurance run the A’s scored in the seventh really came into play.

In the top of the eighth inning the A’s had loaded em up with no outs and Oakland had another great opportunity to add to their lead. Tyler Nevin hit a sacrifice fly and Brent Rooker scored for a 5-2 Oakland lead.

Oakland took the 5-2 lead into the ninth inning, three outs away from tying up this series. It’s always so much fun to say “it’s Miller time” as the reaper got warmed up. All-Star pitcher Mason Miller took the mound in the ninth to finish off the Red Sox and he did so with ease, as we have seen so often. The A’s tied up this series winning the game 5-2 and there would be a rubber match played Thursday.

Game three of this series will be played Thursday evening with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 PM. Probable pitchers for game three will be Luis Medina (2-3, 4.37) for Oakland and for Boston Tanner Houck (7-6, ERA 2.68).