Travis Buck barely beat out a bases loaded infield single that scored Rajai Davis to give the Oakland A’s a 6-5 walk-off win in 12 innings over the Boston Red Sox in front of a chilled crowd of 22,132 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Javier Lopez started the bottom of the 12th for the Red Sox (2-6) in relief of Jonathan Papelbon and walked the first batter he faced in Jason Giambi. Lopez then got Matt Holliday to ground out to short with Giambi advancing to second. Lopez then walked Jack Cust and Bobby Crosby to load up the bases for Kurt Suzuki.
Before the at-bat, Davis came into pinch-run for the Giambino and Lopez ended up striking out Suzuki. This set the stage for Buck who hit a chopper over the head of Lopez that Pedroia fielded but just missed getting Buck by a step and Davis crossed the plate to give the A’s (4-4) the walk-off win.
Daisuke Matsuzaka started for the Red Sox and was just downright awful. He ended up leaving the game after the 1st inning with what the Red Sox called arm fatigue. Dice-K gave up 5 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, throwing 43 pitches in the process.
Up until Lopez, the Red Sox bullpen was outstanding as Justin Masterson, Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez, Hideki Okajima and Papelbon combined to pitch 10 innings of shutout ball with 12 strikeouts. Masterson was the savior though as he was able to give the Red Sox 4 innings of work and had 6 strikeouts.
Dana Eveland started for the A’s and got roughed up. He went 4 2/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. Five A’s relievers combined to pitch 7 1/3 innings of no run, 4-hit ball and had just 2 walks while striking out 7.
J.D. Drew led the way for the Red Sox with a 3-for-6 showing which included an RBI. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Mike Lowell all had 2 hits each with Youkilis and Bay adding an RBI while Lowell chipped in with 2 of his own.
The Red Sox will try to head back to the east coast with a win on Wednesday afternoon at 3:35 PM EDT and they pin their hopes on the knuckleball of Tim Wakefield. He will be opposed by rookie Brett Anderson.
