David Ortiz homered and Daisuke Matsuzaka recovered from a shaky first inning to lead the Boston Red Sox to a come-from-behind 6-4 win over the Oakland Athletics Wednesday night.
Matsuzaka (4-2) surrendered three Oakland runs in the first inning before settling down. He finished with seven strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings and allowed the three runs on 10 hits and no walks.
Jonathan Papelbon allowed a solo home run to Kevin Kouzmanoff in the ninth on the way to his 13th save of the season.
Boston, which has won four straight, scored twice in the bottom of the first on a two-run single by Kevin Youkilis off loser Ben Sheets (2-4).
The Red Sox took a 4-3 lead in the fifth on a two-run homer by Ortiz with two outs, scoring Darnell McDonald who had led off the inning with a double.
Dustin Pedroia had an RBI double in the seventh to make it 5-3 and Marco Scutaro drove in the sixth run with an RBI single in the eighth.
Oakland | Boston | |
Ben Sheets | Player | Daisuke Matsuzaka |
Loss | W/L | Win |
6.0 | IP | 6.2 |
1 | Strikeouts | 7 |
7 | Hits | 10 |
6.00 | ERA | 4.05 |
Oakland | Boston | |
Kurt Suzuki | Player | Marco Scutaro |
2 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 4 |
.500 | Avg | .600 |