Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Payton Tolle pitches to the Sacramento A’s line up in the top of the first inning at Fenway Park in Boston on Fri Aug 7, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

The Sacramento Athletics needed something to interrupt an eight-game losing streak, but Payton Tolle gave them almost nothing to work with. Boston’s left-hander struck out 14 over six innings, while the Red Sox piled up 15 hits in a 13-1 rout. The loss stretched the A’s skid to nine games and dropped them to 45-71. It was another hard turn in a stretch that already had the Athletics at 4-24 over their previous 28 games and riding a run of 12 consecutive series losses.

Tolle set the tone immediately. He retired all 12 Athletics hitters he faced through four innings, with nine of those outs coming by strikeouts. Henry Bolte and Jonah Heim struck out in the first, Tolle struck out the side in the second, and he did it again in the fourth against Bolte, Jacob Wilson and Heim. The A’s could not produce a baserunner until the fifth.

Boston had already built a five-run advantage by then. Andruw Monasterio drew a one-out walk in the second before Jarren Duran sent a two-run homer to left-center. Anthony Seigler followed with a double, and Jake Rogers doubled him home. Nick Sogard then drew a walk before Wilyer Abreu doubled in Rogers and Sogard for a 5-0 lead. Jack Perkins survived the third without further damage, but his outing ended after three innings with five runs allowed on five hits, three walks and three strikeouts.

The game moved further away from the Athletics in the fourth after Hayden Juenger replaced Perkins. Rogers opened with a double and Sogard singled him to third. A throwing error by Juenger on a pickoff attempt allowed Rogers to score, then Abreu singled home Sogard. Masataka Yoshida added an RBI double, and Monasterio singled home Yoshida before being thrown out trying for second. Boston had four more runs and a 9-0 lead. It was another difficult inning for an A’s bullpen that began the game with a 5.59 ERA, the highest in the majors.

Tyler Soderstrom finally broke through against Tolle to start the fifth, driving a solo home run to right-center for his 18th homer of the season. The blast ended Tolle’s perfect-game bid and accounted for the Athletics’ only run. Soderstrom had entered the game with 17 homers. Max Muncy added an infield single in the sixth, but that was the A’s only other hit. Tolle completed six innings with two hits allowed, no walks and 14 strikeouts, and Boston pitching finished with 16 strikeouts overall.

The Red Sox kept adding. Ceddanne Rafaela singled to begin the sixth, and a throwing error by Jonathan Ornelas helped put two runners in scoring position. Caleb Durbin and Yoshida each delivered sacrifice flies to make it 11-1. In the seventh, Rafaela singled home Rogers and Durbin doubled home Rafaela, pushing the margin to 13-1.

There were at least two small defensive footnotes for the Athletics. Wilson played six innings at shortstop without an error, extending his errorless streak to 109 games, one shy of Mike Bordick’s major-league record of 110. Carlos Cortes then took the mound for the eighth and retired Monasterio, Duran and Seigler in order. It was Cortes’ eighth pitching appearance of the season, extending the Athletics record he already held for the most pitching appearances by a position player in one year.

The A’s get another chance against Boston in Game 2, with left-hander Gage Jump (4-7, 4.59 ERA, 73 K) facing fellow lefty Jake Bennett (7-4, 2.90 ERA, 50 K) at 1:10 p.m. Pacific, and Jump will be looking to summon the form that produced six scoreless innings against the Red Sox in his previous start against them.

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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