Oakland A's 5 Boston Red Sox 4 (May 1, 2007)
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0 commentsA's Defeat Papelbon, Sox in 10
Jonathan Papelbon is fantastically good. He has never blown a save in April in his career, going a perfect 18-18 the past two years. He blew one today, however, and the Boston Red Sox (16-9, 1st in AL East) lost to the Oakland A's (13-13, 2nd in AL West) 5-4 in extras.
| W: | Justin Duchscherer | (2-1, 4.63) |
| L: | Brendan Donnelly | (0-1, 1.29) |
| S: | Huston Street | (7, 2.57) |
The Red Sox led behind another strong outing from starter Curt Schilling and first inning RBIs from Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell. Schilling pitched 7 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits while striking out seven and walking none. However, for one of the few times this season, the bullpen was unable to pick up where the starters left off.
Hideki Okajima continued his string of stellar performances, turning in a perfect 8th inning. Usually, games are all but over when number 58 comes in for the 9th, but today it was not to be. Papelbon gave up a game-tying two-run home run to A's reserve outfielder Travis Buck, blowing his first save and allowing his first runs of the year all in one fell swoop.
Dan Johnson had an RBI double in the 10th off of Brendan Donnelly (L, 0-1) to put the A's ahead for good, and Huston Street (S, 7) shut down the comeback-hopeful Sox bats to end it. Johnson also had a home run in the fourth off of Schilling. The newly acquired Ryan Langerhans (traded from Atlanta for a PTBNL and cash) went 0-2, both strikeouts, in his A's debut. Starter Joe Blanton pitched fairly well, allowing four runs on six hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking two.
Notes: A's reliever Alan Embree pitched a scoreless 8th against his former team... The Red Sox stole three bases in the game (Kevin Youkilis, Coco Crisp, Mike Lowell)... A's manager Bob Geren was ejected in the 5th inning.
Coming Up Next: Game two of this two game series is tomorrow, with Chad Gaudin (1-1, 2.54) becoming the latest to try and stop Josh Beckett (5-0, 2.48), tied for the major league lead in wins with former teammate Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins.
Date
May 1, 2007
