Tag: Boston Red Sox

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.

Oakland Athletics Ryan Noda flips the ball back to pitcher Paul Blackburn against the Boston Red Sox at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon Jul 17, 2023 (AP News photo)

Boston (51-44). 110 004 001. – 7. 10. 0

Oakland (25-71) 000.000 000. – 0. 1. 0

Time: 2:37

Attendance: 9,987

Monday, July 17, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Red Sox are having pitching trouble this season. Injuries have reduced their starting rotation to three, with two out of every five games featuring an opener. The team they fielded this evening had a respectable 50-44 won-lost record but nonetheless was in last place in the American League East, nine games behind the division leading Rays.

The Sox went the bullpen route again today, choosing as their opener Brennan Bernardino, who had shut out the A’s over two innings in his opener role ten days ago in Fenway. The young southpaw was followed by Nick Pivettta after Bernardino had completed his fourth consecutive scoreless frame against Oakland.

Pivetta was the real story of the night. He pitched six innings of no hit relief, walking two, and striking out 13 of the 20 batters he faced. He threw 87 pitches, 58 for strikes. He got credit for the Red Sox’ 7-0 win, his sixth against five defeats, and lowered his ERA to 4.44.

The A’s also started the evening in last place in their division, but east is east, and west is west. The former is the Lake Woebegone Division, where all teams are above average. The AL West, like the AL Central, is the dwelling place for a team that threatens to end the season with the lowest winning percentage in major league history, and that team is your for the nonce Oakland Athletics. The A’s often play bullpen games, but they’re usually not planned as such; they just occur as the natural outgrowth of poor starts by the regular rotation..

Blackburn, who didn’t come off the injured list until May 28 was 1-1, 4,86 at game time. He struggled in his first time through the lineup but rallied to hold Boston hitless in the third, fourth, and fifth innings before his troubles began resumed in the sixth. He ended up throwing 5-2/3 innings and allowing six runs, all earned, on nine hits, and two walks. He struck out two batters. 64 of his 97 deliveries counted as strikes. He took the loss, and now has a record of 1-2, 5.48)

The Bosox defied The Curse of the Leadoff (Leg) Double when Jarren Duran advanced to third on Alex Verdgo executed a productive ground out and Justin Turner hit a sacrifice fly to Seth Brown in right to start the game.

They defied The Curse again in the second when Seth Brown couldn’t get to Adam Duvalls’ fly in left, perhaps because of the way the shadows were falling on the grass before the lights had taken any effect. Triston Casas drove him in with a clean single to left, and the bay starters had a 2-0 jump on their hosts.

Boston had to wait an out before hitting its third inning two bagger. Verdugo hit it and died on second. They got another to lead off the sixth. It came from Turner’s bat, and it overcame The Curse, putting Boston ahead and ending Blackburn’s work for the evening. Masataka Yoshida followed Turner’s blow with a single that moved him to third.

Adam Duvall’s sac fly to right brought him home. Triston Casas walked. Christian Arroyo walked, and Connor Wong singled, and Yu Cheng hit a run producing ground out to third. That’s when Sam Moll took over for Blackburn and got the final out with Duran’s fly to left..

Moll retired the side in order in the seventh and then yielded to Angel Felipe, who did the same in the eighth. Boston loaded the bases against him in the ninth on a single and two walks On one of them, the third ball hit home plate umpire Emil Jiménez, who earlier had ejected Noda. The injury caused a delay, but Jiménez stayed in the game, and Turner hit into a force out at third that upped the visitors’ advantage to 7-0.

Chris Martin closed the book on the A’s in the ninth, walking one and striking out three.

Kansas City lost to Detroit 3-2. The Royals now are 27-68, .284, still a few steps behind the A’s and their 23-71, .245 in the race to the historical bottom.

The 1899 Cleveland Spiders split their July 17 double header at Baltimore before a gathering of 1,561 fans and finished the day at 13-63., 1.71.

The 1962 Mets were idle on the 17th and treaded water at 29-64, .312.

The A’s and Red Sox will have another go at each other tomorrow, Tuesday, evening at 6:40. Bryan Bello (7-5, 3.14) will face Oakland’s Ken Waldichuk (2-6, 6.66).

The Boston Red Sox Yu Chang connects for a two run single in the bottom of the second inning against the Oakland A’s at Fenway Park in Boston on Fri Jul 7, 2023 (AP News photo)

#1 The Oakland A’s (25-65) on Friday saw the Boston Red Sox (46-43) start of the game with a five run second inning that later handed the A’s a 7-3 loss at Fenway Park.

#2 The Sox Yu Chang got a base loaded hit in the second for the Sox to drive in two runs. Chang’s contribution proved valuable to help get the Sox get a lead on the A’s early off A’s starter Sammy Long and reliever Luis Medina.

#3 What was remarkable Chang missed over three months of play due to a left broken hand. Chang didn’t waste anytime driving in the first two runs of the game.

#4 Medina who came into relieve for Long ended up giving up seven hits, four earned runs, one walk and nine strikeouts in six innings of work. A’s manager Mark Kotsay said that he brought Medina in a tough situaton.

#5 The A’s will start right hander Paul Blackburn (1-1 ERA 4.50) he’ll be opposed Red Sox starter left hander James Paxton (4-1 ERA 2.70) for a 10:10 AM PT first pitch.

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