Boston @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Jul 21, 2010 ) Boston 4, Oakland 6
A matchup of two 15-game winners is first up on the menu as the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics open up a three-game series in Oakland on Friday night.
Boston’s Clay Buchholz and Oakland’s Trevor Cahill have identical 15-6 records and both pitchers rank among the top three in the American League in earned-run average.
Buchholz leads the AL with a 2.25 ERA and has given up just three earned runs in 33 1/3 innings over his last five starts. He had won five straight decisions before losing to the Chicago White Sox in his last outing, when he gave up two runs and six hits in five innings.
Cahill is third in the AL with a 2.72 ERA and has been spectacular at home, sporting a 9-2 mark and 1.71 ERA. Cahill hasn’t allowed an earned run in five of his last eight starts.
The Oakland right-hander, though, has struggled over his last two outings. The New York Yankees torched him for eight runs in four innings on Aug. 30 and Cahill was shaky while blanking the Los Angeles Angels in his last outing, giving up four hits and issuing a career-high six walks in six innings.
Cahill hasn’t pitched against Boston this season but went 0-2 against the Red Sox as a rookie in 2009. He gave up 10 runs and 14 hits in 10 1/3 innings.
Buchholtz has never beaten Oakland, going 0-1 with a 6.52 ERA in two career starts. The Athletics defeated Buchholtz earlier this season when he gave up five runs in four innings in July. That start was Buchholtz’s first in 25 days due to a hamstring injury that sent him to the disabled list.
Both the Red Sox and A’s are close to playing out the string. Boston is nine games behind the Yankees in the AL East and 6 ½ games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the wild-card race. Oakland is in second place in the AL West but a distant 7 ½ games behind the Texas Rangers.
Neither team played Thursday. The Red Sox banged out five homers Wednesday while beating Tampa Bay. Shortstop Mario Scutaro went deep twice with David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre and Victor Martinez hitting the others.
Beltre’s two-run homer boosted him over 1,000 career RBIs. The third baseman enters Friday with 1,001 for his career. He’s batting .323 with 27 homers and 95 RBIs this season.
Oakland defeated Seattle on Wednesday behind Coco Crisp’s homer and three RBIs. Crisp has been successful on 16 consecutive steal attempts and is 24-for-26 on the season.
Athletics third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff has been sidelined since Sept. 5 with back issues and might miss the series. He leads the A’s in homers (14) and RBIs (69).