Clay Buchholz didn’t pitch well, but neither did he pitch badly enough to cost Boston the game. He took the A’s down in order in the 1st, but the hits started and kept coming in the 2nd, eventually adding up to 3 runs for Oakland by the time Clay stranded runners on first and second to end the inning.

The 3rd inning went fairly smoothly, but back-to-back doubles started the 4th, making it 4-0, Oakland. After a walk and an infield single, the A’s had the bases loaded with no outs. But Buchholz dug deep for two consecutive strikeouts on Marcus Semien and Stephen Vogt, and got Billy “Country Breakfast” Butler to ground out to semi-miraculously get out of the jam.

Clay’s night ended when, after retiring the first two batters of the fifth inning, he gave up an infield single and a double. His pitch count had climbed to 102 at this point anyway, so Farrell came out and called upon Steven Wright, who only hours earlier had officially moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen. Wright escaped from Buchholz’s jam to begin an impressive outing of long relief. He ultimately gave the Sox 3 and 1/3 innings of shutout pitching, only giving up a single and a walk, in a game in which the Sox couldn’t afford to fall further behind.

The Sox’ offense, facing off against Kendall Graveman, the 5th man in the Oakland rotation, struggled to get anything going for 7 innings. There were opportunities, of course, as there have usually been for Boston in 2015. A man on second with 2 outs in the 1st. Men on second and third with 2 outs in the 2nd. Men on first and second with no outs in the 3rd. But after each of these situations resulted in abject failure, Boston’s next 12 batters went 0 for 12 from the 4th to the 7th. Not inspiring stuff.

Things changed, thankfully, in the bottom of the eighth. Graveman, attempting to sit down his 14th consecutive batter in Rusney Castillo, made his first and last real mistake of the afternoon, giving up a full count solo home run into the Monster seats. Bob Melvin gave Graveman the quick hook after this, hoping to quell any momentum the Sox might’ve gotten out of Castillo’s bomb. He brought in Evan Scribner (who entered with a 2.01 ERA), but the reliever promptly gave up three consecutive singles and another run, shortening the deficit to 2. Melvin yanked Scribner after he failed to record an out, bringing in the lefty Drew Pomeranz to face Big Papi. Pomeranz did record an out, but it came in the form of a sacrifice fly, and the lead shrank to 1.

With the lead down to 1 with Hanley Ramirez on first and one out, Melvin finally bit the bullet and brought in his bespectabled closer, Tyler Clippard, who entered the game with a 2.25 ERA of his own. Clippard struck out Mike Napoli to record the second out of the inning, and it appeared for a moment as though the Red Sox would, yet again, fall short. But Pablo Sandoval kept the rally alive, swinging on the first pitch and sending a single off the bottom of the big green wall in left. And Xander Bogaerts, after falling behind in the count on 2 foul balls back to the netting behind home plate, rallied back in the count long enough to allow Mookie Betts, pinch running for Panda, to steal second, and to give himself the chance to line a double off the Monster, driving in the tying and go-ahead runs. X gonna give it to ya indeed.

Alejandro de Aza pinch hit for Sandy Leon and got in on the fun with an RBI single, advancing to second base in the process. And Rusney Castillo brought it full circle by knocking in de Aza to cap the inning (and game) total at 7. Overall, probably the most fun offensive inning for the Red Sox in a good long while.

Now with a save situation on his hands and Koji Uehara having worked on 3 consecutive days and 4 of the past 5, Farrell elected to bring in the lefty Tommy Layne for the save. Tommy did an admirable job, getting the A’s to go 1-2-3 with 2 strikeouts. Can’t do too much better than that.

I’ll just start this off with a note that baseball is completely unimportant compared to the reality of a woman receiving life-threatening injuries from a broken bat at Fenway Park yesterday [link contains graphic video and picture]. Our thoughts are with her.

Wade Miley got the start and took advantage of the opportunity, lowering his ERA to 4.67 by the end of the day. Respectable! In practice, his first three (perfect) innings took the form of nine consecutive outs, all of them either strikeouts or groundouts. The Red Sox’ offense, meanwhile, got to work immediately, offering a Pedroia single and a Brock Holt RBI double to start things off in the 1st.

Brock Holt Gets Stranded at Second Base, Part 1

Poor Brock. He was on second with no outs. He must’ve been thinking he’d at least get moved over to third, right? Not so. Hanley struck out on a ball right down the middle, Napoli struck out on a ball that literally bounced off home plate, and Bogaerts grounded out to end the inning. Very sad stuff. 5/5 Sad Brock Holts.

 

 

 

 

In the third, the Sox put together another run after back-to-back singles by Rusney Castillo and Pedroia to start things off. Holt avoided a double play by beating out the throw to first, so Ramirez was able to lift a sacrifice fly to right with men on the corners, scoring Castillo. Holt advanced to second on the errant throw home by Josh Reddick.

Brock Holt Gets Stranded at Second Base, Part 2

This one was probably a little less heartbreaking, because it came with 2 outs. But watching the same man fail to get you home twice must’ve been at least a little dispiriting. Napoli flied out to right. 3/5 Sad Brock Holts.

 

 

 

 

Miley gave up his first hit of the night to the leadoff man in the 4th, but got a double play and another groundout to end the inning. The offense kept manufacturing runs, taking advantage of a leadoff double by Xander Bogaerts by having Mookie Betts (batting in the 6-hole now) attempt to advance him on a bunt. Not only was it a good bunt, but Bret Lawrie’s throw was off the mark, and Bogaerts would come around to score. The Red Sox led 3-0 at this point.

But Oakland finally got to Miley in the 5th. Nothing too groundbreaking, but it’s just tough to keep a team scoreless in an inning when you give up three singles. To his credit, two of Miley’s six strikeouts on the day came in the 5th as he helped himself to get out of the jam. 3-1, Boston.

The Sox, though, came right back in the bottom half of the inning to erase the damage done, starting with a leadoff double by Pedroia. Brock Holt followed that up by knocking him in with a ground ball to the right side that bounced off the glove of second baseman Eric Sogard (a play that I have no doubt that Pedroia would have made). Hanley struck out immediately after that, so Holt decided to take matters into his own hands on the first pitch to Mike Napoli, stealing second base without a throw, as the catcher, Josh Phegley, had trouble getting a handle on the pitch from Scott Kazmir.

Brock Holt Gets Stranded at Second Base, Part 3 (3rd Base Edition)

Last chance, Nap. With a 3-2 count, he nubbed it to the left side of the mound, and Kazmir nearly threw it away, but Mark Canha made a really nice scoop for the out. Holt, though there were now two outs, had advanced to third, and he couldn’t be too disappointed in Napoli. But after a walk by Bogaerts and a pitching change (to Fernando Rodriguez), the pressure was on. And Mookie Betts couldn’t handle it, striking out swinging to end the inning. Maybe it wasn’t this particular chance that had Brock so down in the dumps – the guys had done a good job getting him over to third base. But a man can only take so much disappointment. 4/5 Sad Brock Holts.

 

 

 

 

What else happened in this one?

• Bret Lawrie hit a solo shot off Miley, who ended up going 7 1/3 and giving up 2 runs. Good stuff Wade!
• The switch-pitcher, Pat Venditte, came in for the A’s and went two scoreless innings, only giving up a single to Hanley Ramirez.

• Junichi Tazawa came in to get the last two outs of the 8th, solid as usual.
• Koji Uehara had a dicey outing, giving up an infield single and a two-out double. Mark Canha had a chance to drive in both runners, but flew out to left to end the game.

1/1 Happy Brock Holts!