Streaking Sox post 7-3 win, their fifth victory in the last seven games.
BOSTON -- There was a baseball team mired in a losing streak and marooned on the opposite coast. There was indifferent starting pitching. There were two outfielders who converged on a catchable fly ball and stopped, allowing it to fall softly to the green grass.
These were the Red Sox a month ago at Oakland Coliseum. These were the Athletics on Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Boston’s first home sweep of the season came in relatively easy fashion. The streaking Red Sox and skidding Athletics have traded places since their previous series, and the 7-3 result served as the final reminder.
Oakland followed up its sweep at Toronto with another lost portion of its three-city road trip. The Athletics have now dropped six straight, floundering like Boston was during a four-game losing streak from March 30 to April 2. The Red Sox are suddenly percolating a bit, winners in five of their last seven and eight of their last 12.
Mike Fiers became the third straight Oakland pitcher who failed to work in the sixth inning. He outlasted Frankie Montas and Aaron Brooks by two outs, completing five frames but still meeting the same fate by suffering the loss. Boston’s starters sported an ugly earned-run average north of 9.00 through the first two weeks, but Hector Velazquez and a host of relievers kept the Athletics in check yet again.
The clinching rally for the Red Sox came courtesy of a misplay involving two typically standout defenders. This time it wasn’t Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. staring helplessly at one another. Andrew Benintendi’s flare to left center froze Robbie Grossman and Ramon Laureano, padding what was a 4-1 lead.
This is a long-winded way of suggesting the tables might be turning for Boston. The Red Sox are three games under the .500 mark for the first time since they beat Oakland to improve to 2-5. The road back to contention always promised to be a difficult one, but it might not be as long as fellow American league hopefuls would like.
Laureano’s RBI single to right gave the Athletics a 1-0 lead in the second, but it was all downhill from there for the visitors. Mitch Moreland’s sacrifice fly to deep left in the bottom half of the inning tied the game, and he sent a solo shot to the Monster Seats in the fourth to give Boston a 2-1 edge.
Betts lifted a sacrifice fly to center in the fifth before the Red Sox put it away in the sixth. Tzu-Wei Lin’s infield single to the right side drove in a run and set the stage for Benintendi, who lofted a soft liner toward left center. The ball dropped in for a generous two-run single, and Boston had doubled its lead through the three-run rally to 6-1.
Christian Vazquez drilled a solo homer to left in the eighth, the last of the support for a pitching staff that didn’t require all that much. Marcus Walden followed Velazquez with three sharp innings, requiring just 31 pitches and allowing a lone single while improving to 4-0. Red Sox relievers allowed just two hits through their first six innings before Tyler Thornburg was cuffed for three doubles and a pair of runs in the ninth.