Tony Kemp hit a walk-off sacrifice fly as the host Oakland Athletics erased a two-run deficit in the 12th inning to snap the Boston Red Sox’s eight-game winning streak with a 7-6 victory on Saturday night.
Seth Brown (3-for-5) singled off Red Sox reliever Matt Andriese (2-3) for his third RBI of the night with no outs in the home 12th to make it 6-5. Jed Lowrie doubled to plate the tying run before Sean Murphy scored from third on Kemp’s fly out to center.
Marwin Gonzalez hit a go-ahead RBI single in the visiting 12th and Kike Hernandez added an RBI single to give Boston a 6-4 lead. Oakland reliever J.P. Wendelken (1-0) earned the win despite giving up two runs on three hits in the inning.
Athletics starter Cole Irvin lasted seven innings, allowing four runs — two earned — on five hits, with two walks and five strikeouts. Frank Schwindel and Elvis Andrus each had an RBI for Oakland, which avenged a 3-2 loss to Boston in 10 innings in the series opener Friday.
Hernandez also hit a solo homer, and both Hunter Renfroe and J.D. Martinez drove in a run for the Red Sox. Boston starter Garrett Richards allowed a pair of runs on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts over five innings.
With two outs in the second inning, Murphy singled and came around to score on Brown’s triple to put Oakland ahead 1-0.
Boston tied it in the fourth when Murphy’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt at first base sailed into right field, allowing Xander Bogaerts to score from second. Renfroe’s ensuing sacrifice fly gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
Martinez made it 3-1 for Boston on his RBI single in the fifth. Schwindel’s double in the sixth got a run back for Oakland, but Hernandez’s 10th homer of the year restored the Red Sox’s two-run lead one inning later.
Oakland scored twice in the eighth to tie it at 4-4. Brown doubled to plate Murphy after his one-out single and Andrus later knocked a two-out single to bring home the tying run.
–Field Level Media