Athletics - 000 020 101 - 4 5 1 Red Sox - 300 003 00x - 6 9 0J.D. Martinez's two-run homer highlighted a three-run first inning and Xander Bogaerts's three-run dong opened up a close game in the sixth.
Chris Sale (5-2-2-4-9, 102) walked four - the most in any of his 42 Boston starts. He worked fast, but his innings were not quick: he threw at least 22 pitches in three of his five innings: 22-16-18 24-22.
Oakland hoped to sweep a three-game series at Fenway Park for the first time since September 1990, but Trevor Cahill (5-5-3-1-1, 88) made that unlikely as Boston led 3-0 after four batters. Mookie Betts singled to left and took second on a fielding error by Chad Pinder and Andrew Benintendi singled to right. Hanley Ramirez grounded out, scoring Betts. Then Martinez hit his two-run homer to deep center. (He has reached base in 21 straight games, a career high.)
Cahill settled down right after that. After Benintendi singled to start the third, the A's starter retired the next nine batters. Cahill got only one out in the air in his five innings, and 11 outs on the ground.
Sale gave up a single to Marcus Semien on his first pitch of the game, but did not allow another hit until Semien pounded a two-run homer to left in the fifth. That closed the score to 3-2.
Ramirez singled to center off Ryan Dull in the fifth. Martinez walked and Bogaerts crushed a 1-1 pitch over everything in left. Boston's 3-2 lead ballooned to 6-3. Dull also gave up singles to Eduardo Nunez and Christian Vazquez, but escaped when Stephen Piscotty caught Betts's fly down the right field line and tumbled into the stands. Even with Red Sox fans in the area applauding the catch, manager Alex Cora challenged the inning-ending out - and it was upheld.
Oakland got two solo home runs - Matt Joyce off Heath Hembree in the seventh and Matt Olson off Craig Kimbrel in the ninth - but they were nothing to cause a Red Sox fan to worry.
The Red Sox are 12-12 since their torrid 17-2 start. They are 0.5 GB the Yankees, who had their game today in Washington postponed.
Tomorrow had been a scheduled off-day, but the Red Sox and Orioles will make up a postponed game from April 16. Boston and Baltimore will play a four-game series. After a 8-27 start, the Orioles have won five of their last seven games.
Betts, RFLast Friday in Toronto, Chris Sale became the third pitcher in Red Sox history to have a start with no walks and at least 15 strikeouts:
Benintendi, CF
Ramirez, DH
Martinez, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Moreland, 1B
Nunez, 2B
Devers, 3B
Vazquez, C
Roger Clemens August 21, 1984 0/15 vs Royals Roger Clemens April 29, 1986 0/20 vs Mariners Roger Clemens September 18, 1996 0/20 vs Tigers Pedro Martinez May 7, 1999 0/15 vs Angels Pedro Martinez September 10, 1999 0/17 vs Yankees Pedro Martinez May 12, 2000 0/15 vs Orioles Pedro Martinez July 23, 2000 0/15 vs White Sox Chris Sale May 11, 2018 0/15 vs Blue JaysSale's game is the only one on that list that the Red Sox lost.
Also: It was only the second 15+K game by a Red Sox pitcher since April 2001, when Pedro did it last. Jon Lester struck out 15 on May 3, 2014.
Here is a list of the 15+K games by Red Sox pitchers since 1908. There have been 21, with 16 of them from either Pedro (10) and Fat Billy (6).
Alex Reimer, WEEI:
ReplyDeleteJonny Gomes "unveiled a new statistic during the telecast that makes no mathematical sense whatsoever. ... While plus-minus is all the rage in the NBA and NHL, there's no equivalent stat in baseball. So Gomes created his own. You see, Gomes likes to add a player's RBI and runs together, and then measures that against how many games he's played. As Gomes explained, if a player has 23 runs and RBI in 15 games, that means he's plus-8. That sounds good, except for the fact it's completely random and based off an arbitrary formula."
The seldom-used Blake Swihart has asked to be traded.
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