Coco Crisp’s villain status is on the rise in Boston.
Crisp, whose eighth-inning knock was the difference in Friday’s game, lifted the Oakland Athletics past the Boston Red Sox 2-1 on Saturday with a walk-off, RBI single off Koji Uehara in the bottom of the 10th inning at O.co Coliseum. The Red Sox have dropped three straight to the A’s to fall to seven games below .500 (34-41).
The Red Sox knotted things up in the eighth inning Saturday when Dustin Pedroia aggressively raced home from third base on a wild pitch by Luke Gregerson that bounced only a few feet away from catcher Stephen Vogt.
Pedroia’s game-tying hustle play was made possible by home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott blowing a call earlier in the inning. Mike Napoli foul tipped a 2-2 pitch into Vogt’s mitt yet was given a second chance because Wolcott ruled that the ball hit the dirt. Pedroia scored on the next pitch.
Edward Mujica started the bottom of the 10th inning for Boston and issued a leadoff walk to Alberto Callaspo. Nick Punto then dropped down a sacrifice bunt, at which point Red Sox manager John Farrell called upon Uehara. Crisp wasted no time in ripping Uehara’s first pitch into right field for the game-winning hit.
