Closer Steve Farr was saddled with his 4th blown save of the season, as the Oakland Athletics scored 3 times in the bottom of the 9th to walk off with a 5-4 win against the Red Sox. The 9th inning meltdown wasted a strong start by Dana Kiecker who allowed 2 runs on 5 hits in 6.2 innings. With the tying run at 2nd base and 2 outs in the 9th inning, Boston manager Jim Fregosi elected to walk Rickey Henderson to face Mark McGwire who has struggled mightily this season. He came through with an RBI single to tie the game, and Stan Javier followed with a single to win it. Tim Naehring went 2-for-3 with his 7th home run for Boston in the losing effort. Moises Alou had the biggest hit of his brief career so far, coming through with a 2 run single to break at 2-2 tie in the 6th inning.
It was a 5th straight disappointing loss for the Red Sox today in Oakland. Jim Fregosi will no doubt have questions to answer after this one. Boston got 5 strong innings from Pedro Borbon in his first career start, but he was sent back out for the 6th inning with a 6-2 lead and a low pitch count. He was left in to face 5 hitters in the inning and was unable to retire any, as things unraveled. Oakland ended up scoring 5 times to take the lead en route to a 8-6 win. Boston hit 3 home runs in the game, including a 3 run shot by Matt Nokes as part of his 3-for-4 effort. Oakland starter Nolan Ryan struggled in his 4th start of the season, allowing 10 hits and being unable to get out of the 5th inning.
Another day, another loss for the Red Sox. Starter Jimmy Key pitched well for Boston, but he was taken deep twice by Scott Brosius. He left after 6 innings of work, trailing 3-1. After getting to within 1 run in the 8th inning, Jeff Bagwell was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Stan Javier which ended the threat. Bagwell had 3 hits for the Red Sox in the losing effort. Brosius and Terry Steinbach had 3 hits apiece for the A's as part of their 10 hit attack. Former Red Sox pitcher Oil Can Boyd earned the win Oakland with 7 strong innings.