Garrett Crochet struck out 10 over seven sharp innings while leading the Boston Red Sox to a 7-0 victory over the Athletics on Monday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Crochet (15-5) allowed three hits and didn’t issue a walk before leaving after 101 pitches. It was a strong bounce-back effort after he served up four homers and allowed a season-worst seven runs against the Cleveland Guardians in his last start.
Trevor Story and Carlos Narvaez each had a solo homer among two hits as Boston (80-65) won its second straight following three consecutive losses. The Red Sox are in second place in the American League wild-card race, one game behind the New York Yankees (80-63), and third in the AL East, three games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays (82-61).
Jarren Duran, Alex Bregman and Masataka Yoshida each added two hits and an RBI as the Red Sox cruised in the first meeting between the teams this season. The clubs play five more times this month, with the final meeting coming Sept. 18 in Boston.
Zack Kelly and Chris Murphy each worked perfect innings of relief to complete the three-hitter for the Red Sox.
Darell Hernaiz had a double and Max Schuemann and Jack Wilson had singles for the Athletics (66-79), who have dropped two straight games and seven of their past 10.
Luis Morales (3-1) gave up five runs and seven hits over 4 2/3 innings while taking his first major league loss. He struck out two and walked one.
As the third batter of the game, Story lined a full-count fastball from Morales over the wall in left to put Boston on top.
Nick Sogard and Duran each had an RBI single in the second as the Red Sox took a 3-0 lead.
Narvaez sent a 1-1 pitch high in the air to left-center with one out in the fifth. The 422-foot blast made it a four-run margin.
Duran followed with a double and stole third. With the infield drawn in, Bregman hit a ground single to the left of A’s shortstop Hernaiz to make it 5-0.
The Athletics’ infield was again pulled in with second and third and one out in the eighth when Romy Gonzalez hit a one-hop chopper over the head of third baseman Schuemann to score Bregman. Yoshida followed with a run-scoring single to center.
