Final, A’s 4-2: With Oakland’s regular closer Sean Doolittle unavailable, Dan Otero closed things out. It worked for the A’s, much to the dismay of Boston, who looked as though they might get a rally going.
Pedroia roped a one-out double to the left field corner, but there would be no late-inning heroics.
Napoli hit a soft liner to first, which was an easy catch for Moss, and Pierzynski flied out to center.
Boston got off to a rough start and eventually settled down, but it was too late. Peavy pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and three earned runs with four strikeouts and three walks.
It was a better effort from Peavy, but Kazmir and the Oakland bullpen were just too much for the Sox, who were only able to produce on a two-run home run from Dustin Pedroia.
The Sox will play three more in Oakland. Felix Doubront — who hasn’t pitched since May 20 — will square off against Brad Mills — who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2012.
End 8th, A’s 4-2: Unsurprisingly, the Sox replaced Capuano after he gave up a run. But things got scary with Edward Mujica as the setup man.
Cespedes knocked a single into center to start things off, and Moss followed up with another single into right.
Donaldson grounded into a double play, but that left the fleet-footed Cespedes at third.
Mujica got out of the jam by striking out Lowrie.
The Sox have just three outs to try to keep this game going.
Mid 8th, A’s 4-2: Oakland turned to their bullpen, and it was as just effective as Kazmir.
Right-hander Luke Gregerson came in for relief.
Daniel Nava and David Ortiz, who pinch hit for Ross and Bradley respectively, both struck out swinging.
Holt grounded out to second.
End 7th, A’s 4-2: Peavy’s outing came to an end, and Chris Capuano struggled as his replacement, giving up a run.
Peavy dealt a one-out walk to Vogt, and that was the end of his night. Capuano entered having given up runs in three straight outings.
Callaspo hit a one-hopper to Pedroia, who nabbed pinch runner Craig Gentry at second, but the throw to first was late.
Capuano walked Crisp after getting behind in the count. Jaso singled, scoring pinch runner Eric Sogard from second.
Luckily, Bradley’s rocket arm caught Crisp at third and stopped the scoring at one.
Mid 7th, A’s 3-2: Boston couldn’t get a runner on in the seventh.
Pierzynski grounded out to first, and Gomes got his second strikeout of the night and Kazmir’s eighth.
Drew put up a valiant effort in a nine-pitch at-bat, but he ultimately grounded out to first.
No one is warming in the ‘pen, so it looks like Peavy is coming back for more.
End 6th, A’s 3-2: Peavy has completely turned his night around. He enjoyed another 1-2-3 inning and has retired seven in a row.
Moss flied out to center, Donaldson flied out to Bogaerts in foul territory and Lowrie struck out.
Mid 6th, A’s 3-2: The Red Sox trail by only a run now, thanks to one Dustin Pedroia.
Holt got his first hit with a one-out bloop single, and Pedroia brought him in on a two-out, two-run home run that just missed the glove of Cespedes.
Bogaerts and Napoli helped Kazmir bring his strikeout count up to seven.
End 5th, A’s 3-0: Peavy got his first 1-2-3 inning of the night.
Crisp hit a hard grounder to Napoli, and Peavy was able to handle the out at first.
Peavy struck out Jaso for out No. 2.
Cespedes kept Peavy working but ultimately grounded out to Bogaerts, who made a nice barehanded play to first.
Mid 5th, A’s 3-0: Same story, different inning.
It was another 1-2-3 inning for Kazmir.
Gomes went down by way of the backwards K, Drew lined out to Callaspo at second and Ross grounded out to second.
Peavy will face the top of the Oakland order.
End 4th, A’s 3-0: Peavy couldn’t seem to find his groove, and the A’s got another run on the board.
Lowrie hit a one-out double over the head of Jonny Gomes that one-hopped off the wall in left-center.
Norris struck out swinging for the fences, but Vogt hit a bloop single to center that scored Lowrie from second.
Vogt advanced on a wild pitch, but Callaspo grounded out to end the threat.
Mid 4th, A’s 2-0: Kazmir is dealing, and the defense behind him is performing just as well.
Pedroia started things off with a hard grounder to third, but Donaldson backhanded it and made a nice throw to first.
Napoli struck out, and Pierzynski grounded out to Kazmir to end the half-inning.
End 3rd, A’s 2-0: It looked like Peavy was starting to settle down, until it didn’t.
Crisp and Jaso both grounded out for two easy outs, and it looked like smooth sailing.
Then, Cespedes smacked a fastball over the wall in left-center field for a solo home run.
Peavy ended the inning with a strikeout to Moss.
Mid 3rd, A’s 1-0: The Sox had a runner 90 feet from home plate, but they couldn’t capitalize on it.
Bradley Jr. hit a one-out, stand-up double over the head of Crisp, and he advanced to third when Holt grounded out to second. Bogaerts flied out to right, leaving the Sox so close, yet so far away.
End 2nd, A’s 1-0: Oakland got on the board thanks to a strange decision by Peavy.
Josh Donaldson nearly hit a home run on what ended up being a very long single, and Jed Lowrie walked to start things off.
Derek Norris then hit a grounder back to Peavy, but Peavy went for the out at third for some reason. Xander Bogaerts, who was clearly caught off guard, overthrew the ball to first and the runners advanced.
Lowrie scored a Vogt groundout, but Alberto Callaspo flied out to shallow left to end any attempt at a rally.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: The Sox put a runner on but had as much luck as the A’s in the last half inning.
Pierzynski knocked a one-out single to the right-center field gap. It could have been a double, but Vogt kept him at first with a nice throw from right.
Jonny Gomes flied out to right, and Stephen Drew hit a soft groundout to second to kill any scoring chances.
End 1st, 0-0: The A’s put runners on, but Peavy held it down thanks to some good defense.
Coco Crisp started things off with a bunt single. Peavy had no play on it as Crisp was off and running on contact.
The speedy Crisp stole second easily on the next pitch, but John Jaso worked an 11-pitch walk in the next at-bat anyway.
Yoenis Cespedes flied out to Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field, and Brandon Moss smacked a line drive right to Stephen Drew at shortstop, who made the out at second.
Mid 1st, 0-0: The Red Sox couldn’t get anything done in the first thanks to Scott Kazmir and some good defense from Oakland.
Right fielder Stephen Vogt made a nice sliding catch in foul territory on a Xander Bogaerts popup. Vogt’s play was sandwiched by strikeouts to Brock Holt and Dustin Pedroia.
10:07 p.m.: Scott Kazmir delivers a first-pitch strike right down the middle to Brock Holt, and we’re underway at O.co Coliseum.
9:36 p.m.: Let’s hope the Red Sox aren’t tired tonight.
The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham reported that mechanical issues delayed the team’s flight to San Francisco by three hours, and they didn’t get in until 1 a.m. PT. Hopefully they all slept in a little this morning to get their eight hours for tonight’s game.
First pitch is at 10:05 ET.
7:50 p.m.: The Boston Red Sox begin a seven-game West Coast road trip Thursday, and they start by taking on the Oakland Athletics. It’s not going to be easy.
Oakland is arguably the hottest team in baseball right now, and the Red Sox have just started to get their act back together. They just finished out a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins and have been swinging their bats a little better. However, they’ve still been stranding runners, and they only outscored Minnesota 5-2 during the series.
Getting runs across the plate has been particularly hard with Jake Peavy on the mound, so Boston will be looking to change that when he gets the start Thursday. He has the second-lowest run support in the American League at 3.19 runs per game, and the A’s will be trying to capitalize on that with their stellar offense. They’ll also have help from starting pitcher Scott Kazmir, who’s coming off two straight starts without giving up an earned run.
Check out what both teams will be dealing with in the lineups below.
Boston Red Sox (34-38)
Brock Holt, RF
Xander Bogaerts, 3B
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Mike Napoli, 1B
A.J. Pierzynski, DH
Jonny Gomes, LF
Stephen Drew, SS
David Ross, C
Jackie Bradley Jr., CF
Jake Peavy, RHP (1-4, 4.53 ERA)
Oakland Athletics (44-28)
Coco Crisp, CF
John Jaso, DH
Yoenis Cespedes, LF
Brandon Moss, 1B
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Jed Lowrie, SS
Derek Norris, C
Stephen Vogt, RF
Alberto Callaspo, 2B
Scott Kazmir, LHP (8-2, 2.05 ERA)
