The A's entered the game with 33 homers, the third-fewest in the majors, and hit more than two in a game for the first time this season. In their 15 previous games, they had just eight.
But they wasted little time clearing the fences in this game.
Suzuki homered in his first two at bats against Tim Wakefield (1-4), a solo shot in the second inning and a two-run homer in the fourth. Then, with Oakland leading 7-5 in the eighth, Jack Cust and Kevin Kouzmanoff hit homers on consecutive pitches by Manny Delcarmen, who began the day as the AL leader with a .128 batting average by opponents.
That made it 9-5 before Boston scored a run in the seventh on Bill Hall's RBI groundout and another in the eighth on Marco Scutaro's third homer of the year. Dustin Pedroia followed that with a walk and Victor Martinez singled.
Then Andrew Bailey came in and retired the next three batters, finishing by striking out David Ortiz, who had eight homers in his previous 17 games. Bailey allowed Hall's solo homer in the ninth but finished for his 12th save in 14 opportunities.
Vin Mazzaro (1-0) got the win after replacing starter Brett Anderson, who left with a sore left elbow, after two innings.
Oakland had 14 hits, seven for extra bases. Boston had 10 extra-base hits. Hall had four hits and Kevin Youkilis and Jeremy Hermida each had three for the Red Sox. But they had two runners thrown out at home plate.
Adrian Beltre's RBI single gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the first before Suzuki's homer tied it. The Red Sox made it 2-1 in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring groundout by Scutaro.
Then the A's scored four runs in the fourth for a 5-2 lead on a two-run double by Mark Ellis and the two-run homer by Suzuki, his seventh of the season.
Oakland added a run in the sixth on Gabe Gross' RBI single, but Boston cut the lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the inning on Hermida's fifth homer of the year, a two-run shot. The A's made it 7-5 in the seventh when Ellis walked, took second on Cliff Pennington's sacrifice and scored when third baseman Beltre fielded Rajai Davis' ground ball single and threw wildly past first base for an error.
Notes
With the Celtics facing the Lakers in Los Angeles in the opener of the NBA finals Thursday night, the crowd chanted "Beat L.A." several times during the game. … Anderson allowed two runs on five hits after holding teams scoreless in three of his previous five starts. … Lefties Ortiz and J.D. Drew, two of Boston's hottest hitters, did not start against lefty Anderson but pinch hit in the seventh. … Wakefield's six innings gave him 2,769 2/3 in his Red Sox career, second to Roger Clemens' 2,776.