OAKLAND, Calif. — Pablo Sandoval led off the top of the 11th inning with a home run to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 5-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics Monday night.
Sandoval just cleared the fence in right on an 0-2 pitch from Angel Castro (0-1) for his fourth homer of the year and second in two days, helping Boston win consecutive games for the first time since April 20-21.
Sandoval, who spent his first seven seasons with San Francisco before signing a $95 million, five-year deal with Boston in November, received his latest World Series ring from Giants manager Bruce Bochy on Sunday night at the Red Sox team hotel.
“It’s exciting and emotional getting the ring and hitting the homer to win the game,” Sandoval said. “It was a big day for me.”
Matt Barnes (1-0) pitched two innings for the win. He allowed Mark Canha’s leadoff walk in the bottom of the 10th before recovering.
Sandoval’s longball was his only hit in five at-bats. He grounded into an inning-ending double play in the second with many in the crowd of 19,743 booing him.
Mookie Betts hit a tying single in the seventh as Boston got three straight base hits against Evan Scribner and the Red Sox went ahead on Dustin Pedroia’s forceout. Melvin then went to Fernando Abad to face David Ortiz, who hit a sharp liner to first that Max Muncy stopped with a diving catch.
Oakland lost its season-high sixth straight and fell to a majors-worst 0-6 in extra innings this season. The A’s are 1-11 in one-run games and four of their last five losses are by one run and seven of the past nine.
The A’s have their longest skid since dropping nine in a row from May 22-June 1, 2012.
“You really have to persevere to keep your fight the way things have been going in these type of games for us,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s the same story here. It’s getting tough to explain. It seems like we’ve played this game so many times this year that it’s a little bit surreal. But we have to come out tomorrow and try to break through.”
Stephen Vogt tied the back-and-forth game at four with a sacrifice fly in the seventh against Craig Breslow, but no lead was safe in a game that took 3 hours, 57 minutes and featured 13 pitchers. Vogt also hit an earlier RBI double.
“We just need to be positive,” pitcher Scott Kazmir said. “It can be to where we just make it bigger than what it is. I don’t think we’re concerned about it. We have a lot of young guys that can’t be rattled.”
Kazmir didn’t allow a hit until Ortiz’s RBI single in the fourth. He then picked off Ortiz at second after his leadoff double in the sixth, and the Red Sox challenged the call. It was upheld in 1 minute, 43 seconds.
Kazmir’s winless stretch reached five straight starts since a victory at Houston on April 13.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: RHP Justin Masterson (2-1) is 2-7 with a 6.61 ERA in 14 career appearances with 10 starts against the A’s.
Athletics: LHP Drew Pomeranz (1-3) is 0-3 over his last five starts heading into his seventh outing of the year.
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