Alex Cora Praises Red Sox Reliever After Outing Vs. Athletics

Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox pitching staff pieced together eight innings of work against the lowly Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night, and a major reason behind that was the performance of left-hander Chris Murphy.

Murphy was thrust into the second game in the three-game set after opener Joe Jacquez lasted 29 pitches in a 3-0 loss. Jaquez, who allowed three runs on four hits with a pair of home runs, was pulled after 1 1/3 innings with Murphy coming on in relief.

“He pitched well,” Cora told reporters of Murphy, who went 4 2/3 innings as he threw 42 of his 65 pitches for strikes, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

It marked Murphy’s longest appearance of the season. He now has a 1.69 ERA in 21 1/3 innings through seven games.

“Murph threw strikes. He was able to use his four-seamers up in the zone for chases and then he went with the breaking ball down,” Cora said. “A lot better than last week.”

The Red Sox combined to allow three runs on seven hits. It’s why Cora wasn’t left fretting Boston’s pitching performance.

“The pitching part of it, we did a good job — three runs over eight innings. It doesn’t matter how you get your eight innings or nine innings, it was only three runs,” Cora said. “Offensively we didn’t do much today.”

Joely Rodriguez pitched a hitless seventh inning, throwing six of his nine pitches for strikes before Richard Bleier came on for the eighth and struck out two of the three batters he faced to keep the game 3-0.

Boston’s offense mustered just five hits with one walk and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

The Red Sox will try to claim the series at Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 3:37 p.m. ET, and you can watch it live on NESN after an hour of pregame coverage.