Nick Pivetta pitched eight innings while J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers both homered as the Boston Red Sox cruised to a 6-1 win over the visiting Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.
Boston has won three of its last four games overall, while improving to 18-6 against AL West opponents this season.
Rob Refsnyder led Boston’s offense by going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run, while Devers hit a three-run home run to blow the game open in the fourth inning.
Xander Bogaerts was a perfect 2-for-2, drove in a run and walked.
Pivetta (6-5) struck out three and allowed just one run — Stephen Vogt’s solo homer in the eighth inning — on three hits and two walks to earn his sixth win in his last seven starts.
The right-hander had thrown seven scoreless innings in each of the first two outings of his career against Oakland, including one on June 4 during Boston’s recently completed 10-game road trip.
The A’s were limited to just four hits after Boston pitched a combined one-hitter on Sunday in Seattle.
The Sox wasted no time scoring against rookie Jared Koenig (0-2). After Refsnyder singled and Martinez walked in the bottom of the first, Bogaerts sent a soft line-drive RBI single into right with one out.
In the second, Refsnyder scored Christian Vazquez on a sacrifice fly to center. Vazquez had hit a one-out single to restart the Boston offense.
Martinez made it a 3-0 game on a solo homer to straightaway center. He has now homered in three of the last four games.
Devers doubled the Boston lead on one swing of the bat in the fourth inning, depositing a three-run homer over the bullpen in right-center field. It was the third baseman’s third long ball in as many games and his 15th of the season.
Koenig allowed six runs on nine hits in four innings as the losing pitcher for Oakland. He walked two and struck out three.
–Field Level Media
