Inside: Behind Bassitt’s 10 strikeouts, A’s edge Red Sox at Fenway Park,
Where the A’s will be playing in the relatively distant future is to be determined, but at present they’re still atop the American League West.
Chris Bassitt was dominant for seven innings Tuesday night and the A’s (23-15) got run-scoring singles from Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Elvis Andrus in a 3-2 win over the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox (22-15) at Fenway Park.
Bassitt (3-2) gave up three hits and two earned runs in seven innings with a season-high 10 strikeouts against Nate Eovaldi, who threw 103 pitches through six innings and turned the ball over to the bullpen in falling to 4-3.
Yusmeiro Petit pitched a scoreless eighth for the A’s, with Jake Diekman coming on in the ninth for his fourth save, stranding runners at first and third.
Rafael Devers homered for Boston in the seventh inning.
The Red Sox closed within 3-2 on Devers’ ninth home run this year, an opposite field fly ball that just made it over the Green Monster in left field.
With Eovaldi out of the game having exhausted his pitch count, the A’s struck for two runs against the Boston bullpen on runscoring singles from Chapman and Andrus for a 3-1 lead.
Darwinzon Hernandez, a left-hander, walked Matt Olson to open the inning, and Olson hustled to third on Jed Lowrie’s single to left as Franchy Cordero was a making a sliding stop.
Chapman then hit a solid single to left to put the A’s up 2-1. Mitch Moreland was retired, with Adam Ottavino replacing Hernandez and getting Sean Murphy to ground to third. Lowrie came home on a contact play but was tagged out for the second out.
Andrus, who only lately has begun to show signs of life at the plate, then punched a single to right against Ottavino to bring in Chapman.
Olson managed to find a hole wit a solid ground ball through the right side of the shifted Boston infield for a run-scoring single to tie the score 1-1 in the fourth inning.
The hit scored Seth Brown, who walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second on Ramon Laureano’s swinging bunt to Eovaldi for the first out.
Bassitt’s control issues cost him in the first inning as he threw wild pitches which advanced Alex Verdugo to second base and then third base, with J.D. Martinez delivering a sacrifice fly to give Boston a 1-0 lead.
Moreland, a key component of the Red Sox last World Series championship team in 2018, was given an ovation from the crowd as well as Boston players in his first plate appearance in the top of the second inning. Moreland grounded out to first.