Carl Crawford’s broken bat two-run single with two outs in the seventh inning lifted the Boston Red Sox to an 8-6 win over the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park on Friday night.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia provided insurance with a solo home run in the eighth inning as Boston snapped a four-game losing streak.
Oakland got to Boston starter Clay Buchholz for four runs in the top of the first inning in the see-saw affair. The Athletics had five singles in the frame, capped by a two-run hit by Mark Ellis.
Boston clawed its way back to take a 5-4 lead after three innings, but Oakland scored single runs in the fourth and fifth to reclaim a 6-5 lead.
Bobby Jenks (2-2) got the win in relief for Boston and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth for his 11th save of the season. Adrian Gonzalez collected three hits and David Ortiz had two hits and two RBIs.
Oakland used six pitchers with Joey Devine (0-1) taking the loss as the A’s dropped their fourth straight game. Josh Willingham had three of Oakland’s 11 hits in the game.
Oakland | Boston | |
Josh Outman | Player | Clay Buchholz |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
2.2 | IP | 4.2 |
2 | Strikeouts | 5 |
5 | Hits | 8 |
13.50 | ERA | 9.64 |
Oakland | Boston | |
Josh Willingham | Player | Adrian Gonzalez |
3 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 4 |
.600 | Avg | .600 |