SACRAMENTO – (Wire Service Report) – Lawrence Butler’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth gave the host Athletics a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday in Northern California.
The Athletics (67-80), who avoided a sweep in the three-game series, got homers from Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz and snapped a three-game losing streak. Brent Rooker was 3-for-5 with two doubles, his 39th and 40th.
The Red Sox (81-66) had their three-game winning streak halted. Nate Eaton was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. The club will fly home to Boston, have a travel day Thursday then open up a weekend series against AL East and Wild Card rival New York.
Boston tied the game 4-4 with two outs in the top of the ninth on Rob Refsnyder’s RBI double off Elvis Alvarado. It scored pinch runner Ceddanne Rafaela from first.
Butler’s game-winning single scored Langeliers, who had doubled, from third.
Both hits came off of loser Aroldis Chapman (4-3), who had not allowed a hit to his previous 50 batters.
Hogan Harris (2-1) got the win.
Kyle Soderstrom’s pinch-hit two-run double with the bases loaded in the fifth gave the Athletics a 4-3 lead. Butler, who was on first, also tried to score but was thrown out at the plate.
Athletics starter Mason Barnett allowed three runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings with a walk and four strikeouts.
Boston tied it 2-2 on Trevor Story’s run-scoring double in the third. Jerran Duran’s groundout gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the fourth.
Kurtz’s 30th homer, leading off the second, made it 2-1 Athletics. He drilled opener Payton Tolle’s pitch to the opposite field, down the left-field line and over the wall.
Eaton’s RBI double in the second tied the game 1-1 for Boston. It was a short popup down the right-field line, on which first baseman Nick Kurtz and second baseman Zack Gelof collided as they tried to catch it. The ball actually bounced off of Kurtz’s glove.
Langeliers’ one-out home run in the first gave the Athletics a 1-0 lead. His drive barely eluded a leaping Duran, who lost his glove over the fence, at the left-field wall. It was Langeliers’ 30th homer.
–Field Level Media