Kalish led off the game with a deep lead-off hit to centerfield that was out of the park. Almost. Coco Crisp made a web gem worthy home run stealin' grab of a ball that was (almost) out of the park. It was all downhill from there for the Red Sox offense.
Craig Breslow and Jeremy Hermida are on the A's roster these days. Coco did the most damage of the night. After that phenominal grab, he hit a 1st pitch fastball to lead-off for the A's that was just barely glanced off of SS Lowrie's glove and into left field. From there it was all downhill for Buchholz. That single was followed by a walk, a double, a walk, single, a GIDP that plated a run, and mercifully a strike out to end the inning. His 2nd inning was worse. He gave up 2 walks and 2 singles before getting the hook from Tito, a rare event this season for Buchholz. Richardson, Bowden, Coello, and Manuel combined to shut out the A's for the remainder of the game. Though they put up goose eggs, it wasn't all that easy at times- they allowed 3 hits and issued 4 free passes. Since Coello's debut earlier this week, he has lowered his ERA from 81.00 all the way down to 8.10.
A's starter Trevor Cahill was totally in charge after being staked to leads of 3-0 and 5-0, 3 hits and 2 walks. That is all he gave up. Breslow registered a scoreless inning.
Kalish, Lowrie, Reddick and (Lahs) Anderson were all part of the starting line-up that just could not handle a hot Cahill (except for Kalish's stolen home run), who now has numbers very comparable to the leading Cy Young candidate on the Sox staff:
Cahill: 16-6, 2.61 ERA
Buchholz: 15-7, 2.53 ERA
Besides his stolen homer, Kalish fired a bullet from centerfield to Beltre at 3rd base to get Coco out who was trying to get there after tagging up.
Speaking of Coco, he stole 3 bases tonight, in addition to stealing 4 bases from Kalish. Martinez was working the dish tonight. (Hmmm... Do you think that might just figure into his contract negotiations?)
Other highlights outside of the rookies throwing 6 shutout innings, Kalish's bullet and near home run, was getting there early enough to catch the Sox batting practice. Matt and I were above the 1B dugout, watching BP, Peter Abraham and Amalie Benjamin doing their pre-game spots right in front of us, and Tito signing balls for some young fans. 'Tek was working home plate warming up the pitchers before Martinez came out in between innings.
Who knows how this game would have turned out had Coco not caught that lead-off (almost) home run...
Photo from Boston.com
Sox 0 A's 5 BOX SCORE
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