Crawford Strikes Again, Helps Red Sox Beat Oakland Athletics 8-6
BOSTON (AP) -- Carl Crawford blooped a go-ahead, two-run single to center field in the seventh inning and the Boston Red Sox ended a four-game losing streak with an 8-6 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.
Boston rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the first and were trailing 6-5 when lefty Brian Fuentes came in to face lefty Crawford, who came through with a broken-bat hit just beyond second base. Joey Devine (0-1) loaded the bases in the seventh on a double by Adrian Gonzalez and then he hit Kevin Youkilis and walked David Ortiz.
Bobby Jenks (2-2) got the win and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth for his 11th save in 12 opportunities. Jarrod Saltalamacchia added a solo homer, his fifth of the year, for the Red Sox in the eighth.
The Red Sox ended their longest losing streak since they began the season 0-6. The A's dropped their fourth straight after winning four in a row.
Before his hit, Crawford was batting just .103 (7 for 68) against lefties this season. And of his 21 RBIs before Friday, only
six were at Fenway Park although two came from walkoff hits. The A's ripped Clay Buchholz for four runs and five hits in the first, but the Red Sox came back to take a 5-4 lead after the third. Oakland tied it with a run in the fourth before taking a 6-5 lead on Daric Barton's RBI single in the fifth.
David DeJesus started the first-inning rally with a single, took second on a single by Josh Willingham and scored when Hideki Matsui grounded into a fielder's choice for the second out. Then Buchholz have up three straight hits -- a single by Kurt Suzuki that sent Matsui to second, an RBI single by Barton and a two-run single by Mark Ellis.
The Red Sox began chipping away at the 4-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the first. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single, took second on his 20th stolen base of the season and third on a wild pitch then scored on Gonzalez's groundout. Youkilis followed with a double and scored on Ortiz's single.
Ellsbury's sacrifice fly made it 4-3 in the second and Boston took the lead in the third when Ortiz doubled in one run and Jed Lowrie singled in another off starter Josh Outman. After retiring the next batter, Outman was replaced by Guillermo Moscoso, who pitched 2 1-3 scoreless innings.
Oakland tied the score at 5 when Kevin Kouzmanoff singled, took second on a wild pickoff throw by Buchholz and third on a wild pitch before scoring on Coco Crisp's groundout.
Buchholz kept struggling in the fifth. Willingham led off with a double, moved up on a flyout by Matsui and scored on a single by Barton that drove Buchholz from the game.
Notes: The Red Sox transferred RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka from the 15- to the 60-day DL and placed LHP Rich Hill on the 15-day DL. Both are likely to have major surgery on their pitching elbows. ... The Athletics placed RHP Grant Balfour on paternity leave and recalled RHP Fautino De Los Santos from Triple-A Sacramento. ... In his other appearance this season against Oakland, Buchholz allowed one run in 5 1-3 innings in a 5-3 win on April 20. ... Tommy Hottovy, a 2004 draft choice by Boston, made his major league debut, retiring the only batter he faced to end the sixth. ... Fuentes was 0-4 with two saves in his previous seven appearances.
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