Sox’ streak no-no more
OAKLAND, Calif. — Entering last night, Oakland southpaw Sean Manaea had not had much success against the Red Sox, with a 13.50 ERA against them punctuated by a pair of disastrous outings at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox entered last night with the best offense in baseball, riding an eight-game win streak, and had ace Chris Sale on the mound. So it was a good bet the hottest team in baseball would push its winning streak to nine.
But some things about this season just don’t make sense.
At long last, the Sox bats cooled on a hot Oakland night as Manaea delivered a no-hitter in a 3-0 A’s victory at the Coliseum.
It was the first time the Red Sox had been no-hit since April 22, 1993, when the Mariners’ Chris Bosio achieved the feat in a 7-0 win.
From the start, Manaea was dealing, keeping the Sox’ hitters off-balance and guessing. He fooled them into five swings-andmisses in the first inning, which included back-toback strikeouts by Hanley Ramirez and J.D. Martinez.
After Andrew Benintendi reached on a fielder’s choice in the first inning, Manaea retired 20 of his next 21 batters. He finished with 10 strikeouts, two more than he had in his previous three starts against the Red Sox combined.
It appeared the Red Sox had finally got a hit in the sixth inning. With two outs, Benintendi hit a dribbler down the first-base line. A’s first baseman Matt Olson scooped it and dove to try to tag Benintendi, but Benintendi evaded the tag as he stepped slightly out of the base path.
It was initially ruled an infield single. But then the umpires met together on the mound and, after a few minutes of deliberating, ruled that Benintendi was out. Benintendi was clearly displeased with the call, and manager Alex Cora came out to dispute it, but to no avail. The play also could not be challenged by video review.
The other close call came in the fifth, when catcher Sandy Leon blooped one to short center. A’s shortstop Marcus Semien dropped the fly ball, though, and it was ruled an error.
Despite 10 strikeouts, Sale was far from his dominant self. Jed Lowrie doubled off him in the first to score Semien. In the third, Stephen Piscotty doubled to score Semien, and then Semien teed off for a solo homer to left in the fifth to make it 3-0.