A’s 5, Red Sox 3:
Stephen Piscotty homers in his first at-bat during an emotional return.
BOSTON — With his hand on his heart, Stephen Piscotty trotted toward home plate Tuesday, and when he got there, he patted his chest and looked upward.
It was yet another poignant moment from the A’s right fielder, who, in his first at-bat after coming off the bereavement list, parked a homer over the Green Monster at storied Fenway Park to help the A’s beat the Red Sox 5-3 on Tuesday.
“It was pure joy,” Piscotty said. “It’s been an emotional week. I’ve been a little cried out so I didn’t tear up or anything. It felt real good knowing family was watching and my mom was watching. Yeah, just pure joy.”
Piscotty lost his mother, Gretchen, to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) on May 6, and her celebration of life was held in Livermore on Monday. He was in an Uber at 3:45 a.m. Tuesday and spent the day traveling; manager Bob Melvin gave him the option of sitting out, but he had no intention of doing so.
“I don’t even know what to say about that,” Melvin said of Piscotty’s homer. “We thought the first hit he got at home was dramatic, based on what he was going through, but to hit a home run in his first at-bat like that, there’s something in the air — probably Gretchen.”
Against the Astros on May 8, Piscotty had singled in his first at-bat following Gretchen’s death. “The hand over my heart, that’s something my mom would do when she wasn’t able to speak,” Piscotty said the next day. “This was just, ‘I love you and thank you.’ ”
So he did the same Tuesday. “Coming around third, I just immediately started thinking of my mom, and I put my hand over my chest like she would do,” Piscotty said. “That’s kind of going to be my thing, I think, going forward.”
Piscotty’s second-inning homer off lefty Eduardo Rodriguez was his third of the season, and there were hugs aplenty for him in the dugout.
“It was like a walkoff,” Melvin said. “The guys just embraced him . ... To be able to do what he did tells you a little something about him.”
Daniel Mengden started for Oakland and turned in an outstanding performance, particularly considering that Boston is averaging 6.7 runs per game at home and hitting .288, both major-league bests. Mengden gave up one earned run in six innings, a solo homer by Andrew Benintendi. He has allowed no more than two runs in any of his past three outings and no more than three in seven of his nine starts.
Lou Trivino worked a scoreless seventh and eighth; Melvin called the rookie’s outing “terrific.” In the ninth, A’s closer Blake Treinen gave up his first run in May on an RBI groundout by Mookie Betts before earning his eighth save of the season.
The start of Tuesday’s game was delayed an hour and 42 minutes by a brief but nasty storm that included high winds, pounding rain and thunder and lightning. But the A’s came out ready to go: Marcus Semien and Chad Pinder opened the game with base hits and with two outs, Matt Chapman doubled them in.
Chapman is starting to pick up the pace after going through a funk much of the past month. He entered the game batting .152 over his previous 26 games, but he is 4-for-7 with a walk in the Boston series and 5 for his past 11 overall.
Oakland has won four in a row over the Red Sox and has won the season series for the second year in a row. The last time the A’s won back-to-back season series against Boston was 1987-88.