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.