Boston Red Sox lose to Oakland Athletics 2-3 despite Jon Lester’s heroics – MLB Update
Boston Red Sox lost to the Oakland Athletics 2-3 in a thrilling encounter at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California in the second game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Starting pitcher Jon Lester took a no hitter into the seventh inning without any rewards. With their loss against the A’s, Boston has now slipped to fourth place on the American League East Division standings table.
Manager Bobby Valentine has kept his players focused for most part of the season and we can expect the Red Sox to bounce back strongly in the series’ finale.
Red Sox offence had another disappointing outing as they failed to put up enough runs on the board. Only catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia managed to make an impression as he homered to right in the second inning and reached first base safely on a throwing error
in the fourth.
With his 16th home-run of the season on Tuesday evening, Saltalamacchia improved his average to .250. It will be interesting to see if the catcher can continue his excellent form over the next few months to earn a huge pay day at the end of this
season.
"It's nice," Crisp said. "I don't have that many home runs. I'm not Manny (Ramirez). So, really, there aren't that many opportunities. Chris Carter made a heck of a catch to dim that rally and give us some momentum.”
"He's the guy you want up in those situations," manager Bob Melvin said. "Every time he comes to the plate, we have a good feeling."
"I didn't get the bunt down," he further added. "It's simple fundamentals. I can't make those mistakes."
Centre-fielder Coco Crisp homered to left in the first inning to put the Athletics 1-0 ahead. Leading the score 2-1 in the eighth, it seemed the Red Sox will hold on to their slim advantage to level series 1-1 but pinch hitter Brandon Moss had other ideas.
Moss earned an RBI single to centre in the bottom of the ninth to add spice to the proceedings and right-fielder Chris Carter drove in a tie breaking run to wrap an impressive victory for Oakland.
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