BOSTON – A five-run second inning gave the surging Red Sox all the offense they needed en route to a 7-3 win over the visiting Oakland Athletics on Friday night.
Jarren Duran, Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo all went 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Boston, while recently activated SS Yu Chang drove in two runs.
Boston’s Nick Pivetta (5-5) allowed two earned runs in five innings to earn the win following a strong starting effort of opener Brennan Bernardino.
Seth Brown homered and scored twice for Oakland in the losing effort.
The Red Sox offense rallied for its second big inning in as many nights, scoring five runs while batting around in the bottom of the second.
After Verdugo and Enrique Hernandez singled and Triston Casas walked to load the bases, A’s opener Sam Long (0-1) was pulled in favor of Luis Medina, who allowed three straight one-out singles that produced the opening runs.
Chang hit a ground ball single into center field to bring in the first two runs. After Medina uncorked a wild pitch, Duran and Turner laced back-to-back base hits to increase the Boston lead to 4-0. Rafael Devers finished the scoring in the inning with an RBI fielder’s choice.
Oakland got on the board with Tony Kemp’s two-out single in the fifth. Kemp was able to advance on a subsequent throwing error by Devers, but Pivetta got out of the jam with a popup.
Brown added to the Oakland offense with a one-out homer to right-center following Shea Langeliers’ double in the seventh