The Oakland Athletics were hoping to pick up their seventh straight win on Friday night as they returned home to kick off a three-game series against the struggling Boston Red Sox. The A's spent nine innings more or less demolishing the Sox and won by a final score of 20-2.
Oakland picked up four quick runs in the bottom of the second inning, on an RBI double from Brandon Moss, an RBI single from Jonny Gomes and a home run by the suddenly red-hot Josh Donaldson. Moss and Gomes added RBI hits in the third inning to make it 6-0 A's.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to finally get the Red Sox on the board, but Moss countered with a two-run shot of his own in the fifth. George Kottaras hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth that made it 9-1 Oakland.
The Red Sox were able to scratch out a run with an RBI groundout in the top of the seventh, but the bottom of the inning was where the A's absolutely ran wild.
Oakland plated an astounding nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Donaldson got things started as he reached on a force attempt and a run came in. Kottaras then hit a two-run single and Cliff Pennington followed up with an RBI double. Stephen Drew drove in a run with a single that loaded the bases and Josh Reddick cleaned up with a grand slam. The slam was the 28th home run of the year for Reddick, who is beginning to heat up again.
Kottaras put the exclamation point on things in the bottom of the eighth, as he hit a two-run home run -- his second homer of the game -- to make it an even 20-2
The A's will try to stretch their winning streak to eight games on Saturday and can clinch a series win in the process.
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