Athletics, Manaea beat Red Sox again
Oakland’s starting pitcher has much better showing against the Boston Red Sox on Monday night as Khris Davis hit one of three solo homers by the Athletics in a 6-5 victory.
BOSTON — Even after pitching a no-hitter against the Red Sox last month, Sean Manaea was worried about facing them again.
This outing would be at Fenway Park, where he was terrible in two career starts.
Manaea stayed calm and beat the Red Sox again Monday night as Khris Davis hit one of three solo homers by the Oakland Athletics in a 6-5 victory.
In his previous two outings at Fenway, the 26-year-old lefty gave up 15 earned runs in 6⅓ innings.
“That was kind of in the back of my head coming into tonight,” Manaea said. “That was just one of the things I had to overcome and not shy away — just tackling those fears head-on.”
Matt Joyce and Matt Olson also went deep for the A’s, who had lost five of six to the Astros and Yankees. Davis connected for his team-leading 12th home run as Oakland handed Rick Porcello his first loss of the season.
Manaea (5-4) allowed four runs — three earned — and eight hits in six-plus innings,
snapping his two-game skid. He threw the seventh no-hitter in Oakland history at home against the Red Sox on April 21.
“He was good, a pretty tough place to pitch,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. “You’re not going to go out there and throw a no-hitter against them. Overall, left with the lead in this ballpark — a pretty good job.”
The Red Sox knew they had to
try something different against Manaea.
“We talked about [not] expanding down in the zone,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “Overall, we did a good job of it. His stuff is still good.”
Blake Treinen got three outs for his seventh save.
J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each hit a solo shot for the Red Sox. Boston opened a seven-game homestand after a 6-4 trip.
Porcello (5-1) gave up five runs and nine hits over six innings, striking out five without issuing a walk.
“They strung together a lot of hits, but I really felt halfway decent out there,” he said.
Trailing 2-1 in the fourth, the Athletics grabbed the lead with three runs. Jonathan Lucroy had a two-run double into the left-field corner before Dustin Fowler tripled off the Green Monster.
The Red Sox sliced it to 4-3 in the fifth on Hanley Ramirez’s run-scoring grounder before Olson restored the two-run lead with a homer over Boston’s bullpen in the sixth.
Martinez led off the eighth with his drive into Boston’s bullpen.
Joyce homered deep into the right-field seats before Boston moved ahead on consecutive RBI singles by Andrew Benintendi and Ramirez.
STILL PERFECT
Oakland improved to 14-0 when leading after seven innings. Manaea is 15-0 in 22 career starts when he gets at least four runs of support.