Game #54: Boston wins opening game in the Bay

Boston sports teams are having a good couple days in the Bay Area.

The Oakland A’s welcomed the Red Sox to the Coliseum for a three-game series this weekend but lost the opener by a 7-2 margin on Friday.

*** Click here to revisit tonight’s Game Thread! ***

For fans who also follow basketball, this was a double-whammy. The Golden State Warriors are playing the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, and Game 1 of that series took place Thursday night at Chase Center in San Francisco, with the Celtics notching a comeback victory that shocked the home crowd. The very next night, Boston’s baseball team came to town and thumped the A’s.

Friday’s action wasn’t quite as thrilling, though. Oakland didn’t score until the 8th inning, while the Sox piled up plenty of runs to take an early lead and hold onto it the rest of the way.

A’s starter James Kaprielian made it through the first three innings unscathed, but Boston struck in the 4th for a pair of runs on a solo homer and an RBI double. They kept pushing in the 6th, knocking out Kaprielian with a couple runners on base and then driving them home against the bullpen.

• Kaprielian: 5⅓ ip, 4 runs, 1 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 87 pitches

The relievers settled down for a while after that, with recent arrivals Parker Markel, Austin Pruitt, and Sam Selman combining to record eight outs.

Unfortunately, Oakland’s lineup wasn’t able to keep pace. They didn’t find the plate for the first seven innings, despite several chances with runners in scoring position, falling behind 4-0 in the process. They finally broke through in the 8th, with a pair of walks and a two-run double by Jed Lowrie, but it was too little too late.

That was Lowrie’s second double of the game, tying him with Mark Ellis for eighth in Oakland history with 204 two-baggers. Next up are Terry Steinbach with 205, and Sal Bando with 208. Rickey Henderson leads the list with 289 doubles, followed by Chavez, Giambi, Jackson, and Rudi.

Those runs cut the deficit in half, but the Red Sox responded with another rally in the 9th to put the game away. Reliever Domingo Acevedo set the table with a couple free passes, and Sam Moll was blasted for a pair of doubles, resulting in three runs. It was an uncharacteristic beating for Moll’s slider, which has been a dominant pitch so far this year.

The A’s have now lost seven of the first eight games on this homestand, with two more to go. Tonight was more of the same from one of the least productive lineups in the majors, while the pitching had an off-day in both the rotation and the bullpen.

Go get ‘em tomorrow. The A’s play the Red Sox the next two afternoons, and the Warriors take on the Celtics again Sunday.