All-Star Houck tames the A’s bats
The Oakland Athletics once again faced off against the Boston Red Sox this afternoon at historic Fenway Park in Boston. In game two of the series, Luis Medina, who came into the game 2-3 with a 4.37 ERA in seven 2024 starts faced Tanner Houck, for the Red Sox.
The Red Sox got on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Jarren Duran walked and then moved to third on a David Hamilton double. Conner Wong walked with two outs to load the bases. Masataka Yoshida doubled, scoring Hamilton and Duran. Then Wilyer Abreau doubled to score Wong. Medina retired Dominic Smith, but the damage was done, and the Red Sox jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
What looked like a quick second inning for Medina got a bit complicated when he got off the mound slowly and lost the footrace to first with David Hamilton on a grounder to Seth Brown. But Hamilton took off a beat too early and Medina threw to first trapping Hamilton in a rundown for the final out of the inning.
With two down in the bottom of the third, Connor Wong homered over the green monster and completely out of the ballpark, making the score 4-0.
On the second pitch of the bottom of the fourth inning, Wilyer Abreau took a center cut changeup and drove it out of the park in straight-away center field. Medina struck out the side in the fifth inning but ended the inning with ninety-two pitches through five. Houck, in the meantime continued to cruise through the A’s lineup. But after walks to Schuemann and Rooker, Cora went to the mound to remove Houck and he convinced him to stay in. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, but Butler could only manage a ground out and the inning ended with two runners stranded in scoring position.
Kyle Mueller replaced Medina after a leadoff single by Connor Wong. But then Masataka Yoshida homered to right field to bring the score to 7-0, Red Sox.
Michel Otañez entered to pitch the bottom of the eighth for the A’s. He gave up just one hit and struck out two. Chase Anderson replaced Houck in the seventh inning and pitched all the final three innings holding the A’s at bay in route to the Sox 7-0 victory and series win.
