MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

When the Athletics started this series, it was the expected outcome for them to lose 3-of-4 to Boston and the team didn’t disappoint. Well, they “DID” disappoint but the surprising outcome was that the A’s were competitive in every game. The way the Athletics are built, they just don’t have the ponies to make it across the prairie.

(Red Sox: 4-2)
Tyler Soderstrom opened the series up right for the A’s when he hit a solo-shot in the bottom of the first inning giving the home team a 1-0 lead.

Athletics starter Jack Perkins last won a game on April 18th vs the White Sox (22 starts) and for 5 2/3 innings he did everything he could to change that.

Perkins (L 2-6, 6.45) held Boston hitless until Conner Wong doubled to open the sixth and was pulled by Athletics pitching coach Dan Hubbs.
Jose Suarez relieved him, loaded the bases by walking Wilyer Abreu, and Cedanne Rafaela hit a soul-crushing grand-slam and a 4-1 lead.
Jonah Heim added a solo-home run in the bottom half of the inning but that was it for the A’s.

(Athletics: 4-3)
Gage Jump continued the solid pitching for the Athletics rotation by pitching six scoreless innings, scattering three hits and four walks. Jump (W 4-6. 4.00) struck out seven and navigated repeated foot-traffic well in the victory.

Tommy White had his second 4-for-4 game, within the first ten games of his career and Henry Bolte reached base three times; starting the scoring off with an RBI-single in the second inning.

Backup catcher Brian Serven added his first home run in about four years, a two-run shot that also scored Bolte, who had walked earlier in the inning.

White singled in the eighth and scores on pinch-hit RBI-double by Lawrence Butler to give the Athletics a much needed 4-1 lead and that is because reliever Hogan Harris made it interesting.

Conner Wong homered off Harris in the ninth inning but Boston was unable to tie the score.

(Red Sox: 4-2 -10)
On Wednesday the Athletics started the game trading solo-home runs with Boston, yet the starting pitching was good for both teams. Catcher Jonah Heim hit a solo home run to open up the scoring for the A’s in the bottom of the second inning, and Boston’s Jamai Jones tied the game at 1-1 when he opened the fifth with a solo shot of his own.

The quality starting pitching for the Athletics in this series continued with Jacob Lopez, who went 5 1/3 innings, allowed just one earned run on a Jahmai Jones solo home run to open the fifth inning.

Lawrence Butler continued his hot series by going yard, 422 feet, and the Athletics were back on top 2-1. Nick Sogard’s RBI-single off A’s reliever Hayden Juenger, tied the game at 2-2, and both teams traded opportunities to score without success going into extra-innings.

In the 10th Athletics reliever Jose Suarez forgot the “fast” in fastball, clocking a belt-high FB at 91 MPH which Andruw Monasterio deposited 428-feet into left-center field, for a two-run bomb and the eventual winning runs.

Heim went 3-for-5 with a home run while Butler went 2-for-3 with a double, and a homer of his own, for the Athletics.

(Red Sox: 5-4)
The A’s scored first, for the fourth game in a row, on a Wilson RBI-single in the third inning, yet couldn’t bring a win home.

The A’s added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, when Heim scored on a Butler RBI-double, and Donovan Walton’s RBI-single made the score 3-0.

Mason Barnett allowed three runs of his own for the Athletics, but lasted five innings before turning it over to the pen.

Later in the sixth inning, a rare successful RBI-sacrifice fly scored Butler and gave the A’s a 4-3 lead. However, the A’s bullpen would ruin the day when Luis Medina gave up back-to-back homers in the top of the eighth inning and the A’s were unable to recover.

Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras put on the power display and ended a shot at a series split for the hometown A’s faithful.

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