The Oakland Athletics dropped their sixth straight game losing 6-3 Sunday to the Boston Red Sox. The victory gave Boston a series sweep and dropped Oakland to seven games out of first place. Although the A’s have found a little bit of life on offense, the pitching has started to struggle leaving the A’s in trouble.
The game got off to a rough start as Carl Crawford hit a three-run homer off Anderson in the second inning. Crawford has been incredibly hot lately and completed the series with eight RBIs. Things got a little dicey later as Crawford was hit by a high and tight Anderson pitch. Home plate umpire Larry Vanover issued warnings to both teams. Ray Fosse thought it was a little over the top, but given Crawford’s strong performance this series, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if Anderson was trying to brush him back.
The A’s got on the board in the third with a Kouzmanoff home run. They followed that up with a run in the fourth. Kurt Suzuki got things going when he was hit by a pitch with two outs. It’s interesting to note Vanover didn’t eject Lackey, although given that it was a 1-2 pitch with two outs, Vanover would have been hard pressed to assume it was a purpose pitch.
Suzuki then stole second base and was driven in on an RBI single by Daric Barton. Two innings later Barton would hit a second two-out RBI double and appears to be settling in fairly nicely as the six hitter. It will be interesting to see if Geren keeps him in the six spot.
The A’s were unable to take further advantage as Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run bomb in the bottom of the fourth. The Red Sox added another run in the sixth on a Dustin Pedroia single to secure the 6-3 lead. The Red Sox bullpen took care of business over the final 3 1/3 innings with Daniel Bard getting the save.