Boston Red Sox vs Oakland Athletics Match Player Stats On Jul 18, 2023

Ryan Noda and JJ Bleday hit early home runs, Luis Medina combined with four relievers on a five-hitter and the host Oakland Athletics snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.

Sam Long, Shintaro Fujinami, Sam Moll and Trevor May also contributed to Oakland's second shutout of the season, which allowed the A's to beat the Red Sox for the first time in five meetings this month.

The hosts did all their scoring in the second inning against Red Sox opener Joe Jacques (1-1). Noda led off with his 11th homer of the season and, after Aledmys Diaz reached on an infield single, Bleday launched his sixth homer to make it 3-0.

The power display came one inning after Oakland appeared to take a 1-0 lead when Tony Kemp, who had led off with a triple, gracefully avoided Jorge Alfaro's tag at the plate after a pitch had gotten away from the Red Sox catcher.

But plate umpire Adam Hamari deemed that Kemp had gone out of the baseline when he veered left as Alfaro was diving at him, ruling him out and prompting an argument from Oakland manager Mark Kotsay, who was ejected.

Jacques was pulled two batters after Bleday's homer, charged with all three Oakland runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings.

Medina (3-7) limited the Red Sox to three hits and one walk in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six.

Medina was pulled with one aboard and two out in the sixth, handing the ball to Long, who got Masataka Yoshida to ground into a forceout to retain the shutout.

Fujinami worked a one-hit seventh and Moll a 1-2-3 eighth before May pitched around a Rob Refsnyder single in the ninth for his seventh save.

Noda complemented his home run with a double for the A's, who outhit the visitors 7-5.

Three Boston relievers combined to hold Oakland scoreless on three hits over the final 6 2/3 innings. Bulk-innings reliever Chris Murphy got the ball rolling with 4 2/3 innings in which he allowed just two hits while striking out six.

--Field Level Media