Red Sox 7, A’s 3: Boston, which lost three of four in Oakland, sweeps the series at Fenway, and the A’s fall to 0-6 on the trip.
BOSTON — At this point on a truly dreadful trip, the A’s need to take the positives where they can find them, and on Wednesday at Fenway Park, that was a handful of late hits and an OK outing by Mike Fiers.
Fiers allowed three runs in five innings, and Oakland’s bats, absent much of the trip, came alive late in a 7-3 loss. The Red Sox, who lost three of four at the Coliseum early in the season, swept the series at Fenway, and the A’s are 0-6 on the trip, falling a season-worst five games below .500 at 14-19. They’ve lost seven games in a row on the road and they’re 4-13 away from the Coliseum.
“To take a little something from the last inning, some guys had some good swings,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Hopefully, there’s some carryover there. But we’re going to have to play our way out of this; you can’t sit around and wait for it. They know it. Sometimes it looks like you’re dragging when you’re not scoring runs but they’re not.”
“We’re not playing the baseball we know how to play,” Fiers said, “but it will come. We’ve just got to stay at it.”
Among the damage against Fiers was Mitch Moreland’s blast to left-center in the fourth that was his second home run in two days against the A’s. The other two Boston runs against Fiers came on sacrifice flies. After he allowed six runs in three consecutive starts, Fiers has allowed five, total, over his past two.
“He’s pitching a lot better than he did during that stretch where he really struggled some,” Melvin said.
Melvin removed Fiers after just 64 pitches, figuring the bullpen might be the best bet to keep Boston off the board. “I just couldn’t give up another run there,” Melvin said. “It didn’t work out for us, but at that point in time, if I give up another run with my starter with a bullpen that’s full and ready to go ...”
Fiers, asked if he was surprised to come out given his pitch count, responded, “Yep,” and did not elaborate.
Fiers has allowed homers in each of his past five outings, giving up seven in all, but Moreland is no ordinary opponent when it comes to going deep against Oakland; he has hit 22 career homers against the A’s, including six in his past 16 games. Wednesday’s was his first against Fiers. “He’s a good hitter,” catcher Josh Phegley said, “and he’s been doing it a long time. We’ve unfortunately seen a lot of him.”
Offensively, the A’s remained in a fog. They had two men reach to open the second inning against Hector Velázquez, but Kendrys Morales and Chad Pinder struck out, and though Ramón Laureano drove in one run with a single, that’s all they got. Phegley fouled out to end the inning.
Oakland didn’t score again until Matt Chapman and Khris Davis opened the ninth with back-to-back doubles and Pinder added an RBI double with two outs.
The A’s have just two homers on the trip, and the team is 0-11 when going homerless. Oakland is batting .167 in the six games, with 15 runs scored.
“We’ve got to keep grinding,” Phegley said. “Teams run into stuff like this, but it’s still early and we’re not panicking at all.’
The bullpen and the defense didn’t fare too well, either. In the sixth, J.B. Wendelken allowed three hits and two walks, as No. 9 hitter Tzu-Wei Lin provided an RBI single on a slow roller to second, then Andrew Benintendi’s soft flyball fell between left fielder Robbie Grossman and Laureano, the center fielder. Each man appeared to back off slightly for the other. Two runs scored on the play. Christian Vázquez hit a solo homer off Ryan Dull in the eighth to complete Boston’s scoring.
After missing 10 days with a thumb injury, setup man Lou Trivino was back in action, facing two hitters in the sixth. “He obviously came out horns blazing, throwing 98-99 mph,” Melvin said.
Getting Matt Olson back soon should help the A’s both offensively and defensively. Olson, who began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas by going 0-for-3 with a walk Wednesday, is a Gold Glove first baseman and he hit 29 homers last year. He had surgery March 22 to remove a broken hamate bone from his right hand.