Boston Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta throws against the Oakland A’s line up in the bottom of the sixth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Jun 4, 2022 (AP News photo)
By Jerry Feitelberg
OAKLAND–When the Boston Red Sox came calling sound that the Oakland A’s could only hear was the knock of the ball off their bats. The Red Sox in an 8-0 game also got great pitching from starter Nick Pivetta who shutout the A’s through seven innings giving up two hits.
The win for Pivetta who struck out seven A’s hitters kept the A’s line up off balance as Pivetta had only one Oakland runner to get past second base. Pivetta with A’s at the plate Seth Brown who lined out and Chad Pinder to fly out to get out of a jam.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Pivetta that Pivetta had to battle to get out of some innings of work, “It wasn’t as easy as it looked. It was 100 pitches and he had to grind, especially the last inning,” Cora said. “We had a feeling that he was going to have a good one. It’s a very comfortable place to pitch. He was able to attack.”
The Sox got some offense from Alex Verdugo who had three hits and two RBIs, Trevor Story made a great play with the glove in leftfield and hit doubles. Xander Bogaerts who set the record for a shortstop for most games at shortstop contributed with an infield single.
For the A’s Elvis Andrus and Ramon Laureano both doubled but it wasn’t enough as the A’s really need to pound Red Sox pitching if they were going to make a series of it. In the top of the eighth the Sox Verdurgo hit for a one run RBI double scoring Bogaerts and Franchy Codero chipped in with a two RBI single that contributed to the Red Sox four run inning.
The A’s and Red Sox return to the Coliseum for a Sunday afternoon match up at 1:05 pm PDT. Starting pitcher for the Red Sox Rich Hill (1-3, 4.83) for the A’s Frankie Montas (2-5, 3.20).
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