Two weeks are in the books for the 2022 Majors season.  Each team has completed five games out of the 14 game regular season.  Last week, the Athletics stepped forward with three wins over the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and the Red Sox, who had been unbeaten heading into the game.  The A’s jumped to second place in the standings with a 4-1 record. The White Sox also kept their winning ways going over the Orioles and Dodgers.

Atheltics vs. Red Sox:

The undefeated Red Sox took on the A’s on Nutile C on Friday night to wrap up the week in a back and forth contest that was not short on excitement.   This was the third contest for each team, with both teams posting wins against the Cardinals and Diamondbacks earlier in the week.

Tim Dean set the tone early for the Red Sox, retiring the A’s 1-2-3 to start the game; while the Red Sox potent offense managed to push across one run in the bottom of the inning, with Sam Pandolfo turning a two out walk into a run following a stolen base and a single from the dangerous Jack Silberhorn.  The A’s would answer though, pushing across two runs of its own in the top of the second.   Max Brown led the way with a leadoff single.  A walk to JD Souza would set the table for a two-RBI single from Christian Grimaldi to put the A’s up 2-1.

Damon Romanos toed the rubber for the A’s and he would wind up throwing 4 1/3 innings of solid pitching, limiting damage to the top half of the Red Sox lineup led by the dangerous trio of Masterpol, Pandolfo, and Silberhorn.   That trio put the Red Sox back up on top 4-2 in the bottom of the third with three consecutive two-out singles.   But the A’s responded in the top of the fourth, capitalizing on opening walks by Nate Rotondi and Grimaldi, who both scored following a fielders choice groundout by Wyatt Mauras and a clutch single by Dean Roberts.

Romanos worked efficiently to the bottom of the Red Sox order in the fourth, getting out of the inning with two Ks and a pop out to first base.   With the score knotted at 4, the A’s had the top of their order coming up in the fifth and pushed across two runs.  Damon Romanos started things with a leadoff single followed by another by BZ Dechristoforo.   Both players would come around to score but Jovic Stackelski would limit the damage to the two runs.

With a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, the A’s had to face the heart of the Red Sox lineup.   A lead off putout was followed by back to back singles from Masterpol and Pandolfo, with Pandolfo’s coming after a 10+ pitch battle between he and Romanos where Pandolfo fouled off four consecutive two strike pitches.   With two runners on, the dangerous Silberhorn came up and delivered for the Red Sox, delivering a liner to left center that made it’s way to the fence that cleared the bases.   When the relay throw bounced past the third baseman, the Red Sox would have a one run lead heading into the last inning.

But the A’s wouldn’t go down quietly.   Trailing 7-6, they took advantage of some shaky Red Sox pitching with three consecutive walks to Mauras, Roberts, and Daniel Lucid.   The dangerous veteran Romanos would come to the plate and deliver a blow with a hard hit single that scored two and the A’s would get two more following singles from DeChristoforo and Max Brown.   With a 10-7 lead going into the last inning, the A’s continued with DeChristoforo on the mound.  A leadoff single by Max Wilken was erased after a Harry Condon grounder to second turned into a runner’s interference call.  DeChristoforo would then get the next batter to strike out.   With the Red Sox down to their last out, and the dangerous heart of the order just one batter away, Will Bailey delivered a rocket to left field that scored Condon.  But the A’s defense turned in another spectacular relay from left field and threw out the speedy Bailey trying to stretch the hit to a triple.   The A’s had handed the Red Sox their first loss of the season.  Final score 10-8.

Posted in TWIB Notes 2022