G22: Red Sox 11, Athletics 6

Athletics - 010 000 500 -  6 11  2
Red Sox   - 042 050 00x - 11 11  1

David Ortiz hit two home runs and scored three times, Darnell McDonald went 3-for-4 (falling a triple short of the cycle) with three runs scored, and Clay Buchholz (6.2-7-6-5-5, 99) pitched six solid innings before faltering in the seventh. The Red Sox bullpen withstood two Oakland rallies in the late innings to get the team back to .500 (11-11).

[In getting back to 11-11, Boston had a RHE line of 11-11-1.]

Trailing 11-1, Oakland sent 11 men to the plate in the seventh, scoring five runs in the span of five pitches, when Coco Crisp singled in two and Josh Reddick homered into the visiting bullpen for three more. The A's then loaded the bases against Junichi Tazawa - giving more than a few fans flashbacks to the Red Sox's last home game - but Vicente Padilla struck out Daric Barton to end the threat.

Buchholz should have been out of the seventh with no damage at all if an interference call had been made on Barton on a grounder hit by Cliff Pennington. I guess umpires call that only if the runner really nails the fielder. Then it looked like Buchholz had struck out Jemile Weeks on a 2-2 pitch - Clay took 3-4 steps towards the dugout - but it was called a ball. None of this gets Buchholz off the hook for the single and the dong - and it doesn't absolve Bobby Valentine from being too slow to get the bullpen up - but there was some element of bad luck in that inning. So it was heartening to hear the crowd give Buchholz a nice hand as he came out of the game.

In the eighth, Scott Atchison allowed two singles and a walk to reload the bases with no one out. Atchison fanned Crisp, and then, with Franklin Morales pitching and Yoenis Cespedes looming on deck, Dustin Pedroia turned a magnificent 4U-3 double play on Reddick to end the inning.

Through the first six innings, Oakland left four men on base; they left a total of five in the seventh and eighth.

In the ninth, Alfredo Aceves allowed a harmless two-out double; he wisely dialed his fastball down a few mph to 94-95, and struck out Cespedes on a curve and Seth Smith on a changeup.

In addition to Ortiz (who is now hitting .448 (13-for-29) against lefties) and McDonald, Mike Aviles also went deep (and drove in four runs). Marlon Byrd went 2-for-4, with a double, 2 runs scored, and 2 RBI. ... It was Ortiz's 36th multi-home run game for the Red Sox, one behind Ted Williams's team record of 37.

Tommy Milone / Clay Buchholz

Aviles, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Youkilis, 3B
Ortiz, DH
Ross, RF
Shoppach, C
McDonald, LF
Byrd, CF

Buchholz (8.87 ERA) has allowed 7, 5, 5, and 5 runs in his starts this year. Opponents are battering him to the tune of a .991 OPS (.340/.404/.588). Lefties are batting .368 against him. Buchholz felt better about his last start than any of the others, but he still had trouble locating his cutter and his superior changeup remains a stranger.

Milone, a lefty, makes his 10th career start. He has pitched eight innings in two of his four starts, including an excellent outing against the White Sox last Tuesday (8-3-0-0-5, 98).

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