Wilyer Abreu, Willson Contreras lead Red Sox past Athletics with back-to-back late homers
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Back-to-back home runs from Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras in the eighth inning Thursday lifted the Red Sox past the Athletics, 5-4, in an unusually emotional win.
Read more Trump is taking his Friday Cabinet meeting on the road to Camp David
It continued the Sox’ all-around strong run — three wins in four games against the Athletics, 20 in 24 this month — and provided another in a series of occasions of Contreras, the club’s emotional and statistical leader, doing both again.
His go-ahead blast off reliever Luis Medina was a no-doubter, 414-feet blast skied to left-center field, off the building that houses the visitors’ clubhouse at Sutter Health Park.
After watching the ball fly the whole way, Contreras turned to the dugout once it was gone and popped the “Boston” on his jersey — an outward show of emotion in line with his usual such celebrations, more interesting in the context of this game.
In the sixth inning, with the score tied, Contreras was on third base with one out and Jarren Duran batting. Duran lifted a 245-foot fly ball — not deep — to left field, where Tyler Soderstrom made the routine catch. Contreras, who is not fast, faked toward home but then stopped, with little chance of scoring.
Duran appeared frustrated by that decision, raising his right arm three times and seeming to say “run” on his way back to the dugout. Upon getting there, Duran raised both arms, twice, and shouted again.
A night after the bullpen carried a heavy load — with the Red Sox using all of their high-leverage relievers to eke out a 10-inning win — Greg Weissert handled the eighth and Aroldis Chapman the ninth. It was Weissert’s first hold since June 25.
Chapman gave up a one-out double to Alika Williams, off the wall in left-center, but then struck out Colby Thomas and Nick Kurtz to escape.
Righthander Sonny Gray, making a return to his home ballpark from 2013, when he was an Athletics prospect with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, gave up four runs in seven innings.
Read more Follow live updates on the Trump administration
It was an improvement over his previous outing, when the Blue Jays rocked him for five runs in five innings. But it represented the first time since April — when he was injured on a Patriots Day start — that he had non-quality starts in consecutive outings.
The Athletics struck for a run in the third inning, on Jacob Wilson’s RBI single, and two more in the fourth, on doubles from Jonah Haim and Lawrence Butler plus Donovan Walton’s two-out single. Gray got Wilson to pop out to the infield to strand the bases loaded.
The Red Sox managed just one hit through four innings but broke through against starter Mason Barnett in the fifth, rallying for three to tie it in Barnett’s final frame.
Caleb Durbin was hit by a pitch, moved to second on Duran’s groundout, and scored on Andruw Monasterio’s single grounded up the middle for the first run.
Anthony Seigler’s two-out single off second baseman Jeff McNeil extended the inning long enough for Ceddanne Rafaela to sneak a two-run double by third baseman Tommy White and into the left-field corner.
Seigler, the trailing runner and tying run, could have been thrown out at the plate. But shortstop Donovan Walton’s throw went off a diving Seigler for an error.
The sequence salvaged for the Sox what had started as another quiet night against one of the worst pitching staffs in the majors.
Entering the series, the Athletics’ rotation had a 5.26 ERA, ahead of only the Rockies. In four games against the Red Sox, Athletics starters had a 2.45 ERA — with three of the six runs allowed coming in the last inning.
Post Comment