Tag: Boston Red Sox

Photo credit: @RedSox

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s lost the finale of the three-game series to the Boston Red Sox 6-4 Wednesday night at Fenway Park. The A’s hit three home runs while Boston sent two into the stands. However, Boston’s two produced five runs while the A’s three were good for just four.

A’s pitcher Trevor Cahill, making his first start since coming off the 10-day DL, went five innings and allowed five hits and three runs. Cahill was charged with the loss and is now 1-2 for the season.

Red Sox ace Chris Sale also pitched five innings, and he allowed just two hits and two runs. Sale’s record improved to 4-1.

The Red Sox scored three times in the bottom of the first inning. Mookie Betts led off the inning with a single to left field. Betts advanced to second when Chad Pinder misplayed the ball. Betts went to third when Andrew Benintendi singled to right field. Boston’s designated hitter Hanley Ramirez grounded out, and Betts scored the first run of the game. The next hitter, J.D. Martinez blasted his 12th homer of the season 422 feet over the wall in centerfield. The Red Sox lead 3-0.

Sale did not allow a run in the first four innings of work. Sale, who is a strikeout pitcher, had a high pitch count as he started the fifth inning. He walked the leadoff hitter, Chad Pinder. A’s shortstop Marcus Semien homered into the Monster seats in left field to make it a one-run game 3-2.

A’s manager Bob Melvin brought in reliever Ryan Dull to start the sixth inning. Dull was greeted by a single off the bat of Hanley Ramirez. He walked J.D.Martinez to put men on at first and second with no out. Xander Bogaerts made Dull walk the plank as he blasted his fifth dinger of the year to put the Red Sox ahead 6-2.

The A’s Matt Joyce hit a solo homer off Heath Hembree in the seventh, and Matt Olson hit a high fly ball that barely cleared the top of the wall in left field for his sixth of the year in the top of the ninth off Boston’s closer Craig Kimbrel. Kimbrel recovered to close out the game for Boston. The Red Sox win 6-4.

Game Notes and Stats: With the loss, the A’s drop to 21-22. If the A’s were in the AL Central, they would be in a dogfight for first place with the Cleveland Indians. However, the A’s are in the AL Central and are in fourth place, looking up at the Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros, and Seattle Mariners.

The A’s won the series two games to one and won the season’s series from Boston four games to two. The Red Sox were very happy to say goodbye to the A’s as they had their hands full with them this season.

The A’s are on their way to Toronto to start a four-game series with the Blue Jays beginning Thursday evening. Andrew Triggs (3-1, ERA 5.31) will go for Oakland. Triggs was pounded for six runs and six hits and did not make it out of the fifth inning last Saturday against the Yankees.

The Blue Jays will send Aaron Sanchez to the hill and Sanchez is 2-3 with an ERA of 4.08. Sanchez has been inconsistent and the A’s hope that Sanchez will not be able to shut down their offense.

Up Next: Game time will be at 4 pm PST.

Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Boston Red Sox must be asking themselves this question: “Who are these guys?” Well, these guys are the Oakland A’s and by defeating Boston 5-3 Tuesday night, they have won four of the five games played between these two teams so far this season.

A’s Daniel Mengden won his first game ever against Boston, and Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez absorbed his first loss.

The A’s scored two in the first and one in the second to take an early 3-0 lead. In the first inning, Marcus Semien and Chad Pinder singled to start the game. Rodriguez retired the next two hitters but could not get past A’s third baseman Matt Chapman. Chapman drove in Semien and Pinder with a double to deep right center field. In the second inning, right fielder Stephen Piscotty–in his first game since coming off the bereavement list–homered to left. The A’s lead 3-0 after two innings of play.

The Red Sox picked up a run in the bottom of the fourth. The run was unearned as Matt Chapman made a fielding error that allowed J.D.Martinez to get to second. Xander Bogaerts singled to send Martinez to third. Bogaerts was retired at second when Moreland reached on a fielder’s choice. Martinez scored on the play. In the bottom of the fifth, Andrew Benintendi hot a solo home run to make it a 3-2 game.

The A’s added two insurance runs in the top of the eighth. Khris Davis and Matt Chapman singled to start the rally. With two out, Mark Canha doubled to drive in Davis and Chapman to ice the win for Oakland.

Game Notes and Stats: With the win, the A’s evened their season record at 21-21 and are 3-2 on the road trip so far. The Red Sox dropped to 28-14.

Daniel Mengden went six innings and allowed eight hits and two runs, one of which was unearned. Mengden earned his third win of the campaign.

Lou Trivino pitched the seventh and eighth and held the Red Sox off the board. Blake Treinen picked up his eighth save, even though he gave up a run.

The A’s announced that Trevor Cahill will start the final game of the three-game series on Wednesday. To make room for Cahill, the A’s sent Kendall Graveman back to Triple-A Nashville.

Like I’ve mentioned earlier, Stephen Piscotty returned to action after being on the bereavement list due to the death of his mother.

Cahill will pitch for Oakland, and he will be opposed by Boston’s ace, Chris Sale.

Up Next: Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday at 4:00 pm PST.

Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s Sean Manaea continued his mastery over the Boston Red Sox as he beat them for the second time this season. Manaea didn’t pitch a no-hitter, but he pitched well enough to earn his fifth win against four losses. Manaea bested Boston’s Rick Porcello, who suffered his first loss of the year. The A’s hitters came through with three solo home runs and catcher Jonathan Lucroy’s double with two outs in the fourth drove in two big runs.

Oakland put a run on the board in the top of the third. With one out, Matt Joyce hit fourth big fly of the campaign off Porcello to give the A’s an early 1-0 lead. The Red Sox tallied twice in their half of the third. With two out, Mookie Betts singled. Betts stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Andrew Benintendi reached on a throwing error by Matt Chapman that allowed Betts to score and Benintendi was able to go to second when the ball got by Matt Olson. Hanley Ramirez’s singled to drive in Benintendi with Boston’s second run. The Red Sox lead 2-1.

The A’s regained the lead in the fourth. With one out, the Matts, Olson, and Chapman, singled. Lucroy followed with a double to drive them in, and Lucroy scored on Dustin Fowler’s first career triple. Oakland has a 4-2 lead after four.

The Red Sox crept closer in the bottom of the fifth. Red Sox catcher Sandy Leon singled, and Betts doubled to put men on at second and third with no out. Benintendi flew out, but Leon could not tag and score. Ramirez hit into a fielder’s choice that drove in Leon. Betts was thrown out a third and Manaea retired J.D.Martinez for the third out.

Matt Olson homered to right-center-field to make it a 5-3 game in the top of the sixth. The Red Sox got the run back in the seventh when Rafael Devers led off the inning with his seventh. In the eighth, Khris Davis homered for Oakland, and J.D.Martinez blasted his 11th to make it a 6-5. The A’s closer Blake Treinen earned his seventh save as he was able to get the final three outs of the game.

Game Notes and Stats: With the win, The A’s improve to 20-21 and Boston drops to 28-13 and are now in second place in the AL East just a half game behind the idle New York Yankees. The A’s are now 2-2 on the 10-game road trip and have beaten Boston three out of four.

Sean Manaea went six-plus innings and allowed eight hits, four runs, one of which was unearned, four strikeouts, one walk, and one home run, and improved to 5-4.

Yusmeiro Petit pitched two innings and Treinen pitched one. Rick Porcello took the loss and is now 5-1. Porcello went six innings and allowed nine hits, and five runs, and two homers.

Trevor Cahill, who has been on the 10-day DL, is eligible to return to action on Wednesday. Outfielder Stephen Piscotty, who lost his mother to ALS last week, is expected to return from bereavement leave Tuesday night.

Up Next: Daniel Mengden (2-4, 4.06 ERA) will pitch for Oakland Tuesday. Mengden is 0-1 with an ERA of 8.00 in two career starts against Boston. He will be opposed by lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (3-0, 4.58 ERA). Game time will be at 4:10 pm PT.

 

By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–Things don’t always work out for the Boston Red Sox when they come to the Oakland Coliseum.

The last 52 games in Oakland have resulted in 35 Red Sox’s defeats–in a period spanning more than a decade, and two of the three most recent Boston World Series titles (2004, 2007, 2013). That’s a tough run for a club with a loaded roster and a fanbase that routinely snaps up a bunch of tickets when their team descends in the East Bay.

During that same period the A’s have been up and more often down, but somehow successful at home against Red Sox nation. In Boston’s defense, they’ve been extremely tough on the A’s at Fenway Park during this same period, most recently taking two of three at Fenway in September 2017.

But this time, the A’s grew that roadblock placed in front of the Bosox to the dimensions of a Great Wall by shutting down the team with the hottest start to a season in the last 30 years on consecutive days. After Friday’s 7-3 win, the Red Sox were winners of nine straight, and 17-2 on the season. After Sunday’s 4-1 loss, the Red Sox had been no-hit, gone 18 innings without scoring a run, and lost two straight for the first time all season.

The 18 innings without scoring a run might be the biggest surprise, as Boston had scored 123 runs coming in, and hit five grand slams in a period of just 13 games, which concluded Friday night.

But everything changed when Sean Manaea no-hit the Sox on Saturday, and Daniel Mengden was nearly as stellar on Sunday in a 4-1 win.

“We’ve just got to ride the wave out as long as we can,” said Khris Davis, who hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the eighth inning on Sunday. “The pitching has been fantastic. Anytime the pitching is on, we want to be putting up runs.”

After losing four of five, the A’s have won six of seven to even their record (11-11) for the first time since they were 1-1. The timing of their improved play couldn’t be any better with a big, three-city, AL West road trip starting Tuesday in Arlington, Texas. After playing a AL-high 14 home games, the improving A’s have to show they can get it done on the road too.

“5-1 is a nice homestand,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We didn’t have a great homestand to (open the season), and we’ve got a lot of road games.”

This early–with a roster this unproven–how you win is important. And the A’s have opened some eyes this week, starting with a rout of the White Sox on Tuesday in front of a full house, then gutting out a six-hour marathon Wednesday to sweep Chicago. The last two days, they’ve defeated perenial All-Star pitchers Chris Sale, and now David Price.

“It starts with us holding them down. If you look at their numbers, they’re basically first in the league in everything (offensively) so it’s holding them down and giving yourself a chance to score some runs because you know you’re not going to score too many off those two guys,” Melvin said.

After Sean Manaea stood up to Sale, who was hardly off his game, striking out 10, and walking one, on Saturday, starter Daniel Mengden outworked Price, who’s bounced back nicely from his disappointing 2017 season. Mengden pitched into the seventh, by either recording quick outs, or surviving at-bats that looked like mini-versions of Brandon Belt’s 21-pitch opus in Anaheim. To wit: Mengden started 15 of the 25 batters he faced with strikes, but expended 102 pitches to record 19 outs, despite the fact he didn’t walk anyone. A whopping 27 pitches–more than 25 percent of the total–were fouled off by the dialed in, discerning Sox, even with AL batting leader Mookie Betts getting a day off.

Despite all the rigmarole, Mengden put up zeros in the first six frames, and didn’t allow a run until the final pitch of his afternoon, an RBI double of Brock Holt’s bat in the seventh.

“What Sean did last night was remarkable. I tried to follow up as best I could,” said Mengden.

The A’s will have Trevor Cahill on the mound in Tuesday’s opener against the Rangers. Former Giant Matt Moore will start for Texas, looking to improve on his 1-3 record, and 5.59 ERA.