BOSTON — A’s starting pitcher JP Sears took a no-hitter into the fifth inning on Sunday. However, Oakland, as the case has often been this season, still took home the loss.
Sears had allowed just an unearned run thanks to one of three A’s errors, but the Red Sox rallied against Oakland relievers, scoring the eventual game-winner in the eighth inning when Masataka Yoshida homered off reliever Ken Waldichuk (2-6) for a 4-3 win.
The loss was the A’s fourth straight as they were swept by the Red Sox, who have won eight of their last nine games. At the All-Star break, Oakland sits last in Major League Baseball with a 25-67 record and is on pace to finish 44-118, which would be the most losses since the Mets went 40-120 in 1962.
On Sunday, Boston trailed 3-1 in the middle of the sixth before Adam Duvall hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom half, then Yoshida singled, stole second, took third on a bad throw from catcher Manny Piña and scored on Christian Arroyo’s double to tie it.
Yoshida’s homer gave Boston its only lead.
Brent Rooker, Oakland’s lone All-Star, had three hits, including a 443-foot home run high off of the Green Monster light stanchion.
Chris Martin (3-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the Red Sox, and Kenley Jansen — the lone Boston All-Star — pitched the ninth for his 19th save.
Sears, who picked up his only victory of the season on June 11, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and had a chance to snap a three-game losing streak when he was spotted to a 3-1 lead.
Sears did allow an unearned run to score in the first when leadoff hitter Rob Refsnyder walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, took third on a fielding error and scored on a shallow sacrifice fly to right.
In all, Sears gave up one unearned run on one hit, three walks, two hit batters and a wild pitch. He struck out four in five innings.
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