After being no-hit by Sean Manaea on Saturday night, the Boston Red Sox’s bats continued to scuffle Sunday in their series finale with the Oakland Athletics.
The Red Sox were held in check by A’s starter Daniel Mengden, as their scoreless innings streak reached 18 innings before they broke through with a run in the seventh inning.
The game remained tied at one until the bottom of the eighth inning when A’s designated hitter Khris Davis launched a go-ahead, three-run home run to left field off David Price to give the A’s a 4-1 lead they would not relinquish.
With the loss, the Red Sox fall to 17-4, while the Athletics improved to 11-11.
Here’s how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Sour.
The Red Sox opened their road trip with four straight wins, but only have scored one run over the last two games against the A’s as they head to Toronto on a two-game losing streak.
ON THE BUMP
— The A’s took an early 1-0 lead on Price. Marcus Semien led off the first inning with a double and scored on a two-out single by Davis. Price dazzled for the next six innings, scattering four hits and keeping the game knotted at one.
But the lefty was unable to get through the eighth inning unscathed. Semien laced a one-out single to right and Stephen Piscotty followed with an infield single of his own to put runners on first and second. Price bounced back by striking out Major League Baseball’s RBI leader Jed Lowrie for the second out of the frame, but he couldn’t finish his outing on a high note, as Davis crushed a towering three-run home run to give Oakland the lead and send Price to the showers.
The southpaw tossed 7 2/3 innings, allowing four runs on nine hits while striking out six and walking one.
— Carson Smith got the final out of the eighth inning.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Red Sox threatened in the first inning when Jackie Bradley Jr. led off the game with a single and moved to second on a two-out single by Mitch Moreland. But the Sox were unable to scratch across a run, as Mengden struck out Rafael Devers to end the frame.
— Boston finally broke through in the seventh inning when Brock Holt ripped an RBI double down the right-field line to score Devers and tie the game at one. Holt’s double put runners on second and third with one out for Christian Vazquez and ended the day for Mengden.
Yusmeiro Petit came on for Oakland and was able to wiggle out of the inning without any further damage, getting Vazquez to foul out and striking out Tzu-Wei Lin to keep the game tied at one.
— Moreland was the only member of the lineup to record multiple hits, going 2-for-4 on the day.
— Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez, Blake Swihart and Lin all went hitless.
TWEET OF THE GAME
*Shrugs*
UP NEXT
The Red Sox head to Toronto next to take on the Blue Jays on Tuesday. Rick Porcello will get the ball in Game 1 of the series, while the Jays will counter with J.A. Happ. First pitch from Rogers Centre is set for 7:07 p.m ET.
