Oakland, CA – Brandon Moss hit a three-run home run to lead the Oakland Athletics past the Boston Red Sox, 6-1, in the opener of a three- game series.
Josh Reddick also homered and knocked in two runs for Oakland, which won its second straight game.
Jarrod Parker (5-3) allowed one run on six hits and three walks over 6 2/3 innings for the win. He has now allowed one run or fewer in seven of his last eight starts.
"Parker was able to throw his offspeed stuff when he was behind in the count and he used both sides of the plate with his fastball," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "The couple times we had a threat going, he snuffed it out pretty quickly."
Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-3) was touched for five runs on four hits and two walks over just one-plus innings. It was the shortest outing of his career, throwing a mere 28 pitches.
Boston quickly took the lead when Daniel Nava led off the game with a double and came home on Dustin Pedroia's base hit to right.
But Reddick answered with a shot into the right-field bleachers in the bottom of the frame to make it a 1-1 game.
Oakland then went on top in the second with Moss' three-run blast over the wall in right field. Seth Smith doubled and Derek Norris walked prior to Moss' ninth home run of the season.
"To increase the lead like that early in the game, it kind of takes the wind out of them," said Moss. "They put a run on [Parker] early, so to take the wind out of their sails a little bit definitely felt good."
Brandon Inge followed with a base hit before Cliff Pennington was issued a walk, resulting in Matsuzaka being pulled in favor of Clayton Mortenson, who immediately walked Coco Crisp to load the bases.
Mortenson, though, limited the damage to just a Reddick sacrifice fly to center field to keep the score 5-1.
After the Red Sox stranded a runner on third in the fourth inning, the A's added to their lead in the sixth when Norris singled, stole second, advanced to third on Moss' base hit and came home on an Inge sacrifice fly to center field.
Parker was replaced by Sean Doolittle with two outs and runners on first and second in the seventh inning, and the reliever needed just three pitches to fan Nava and end the threat.
Doolittle stayed in the game and retired the next six batters to seal the win for Oakland.
Game Notes
The Athletics have now hit at least one home run in 13 straight games. It is their longest such streak since April 27-May 12, 2004, when they did it in 14 straight games...Matsuzaka fell to 4-2 in eight starts against the A's...Oakland did not commit an error for the first time in six games...A's designated hitter Yoenis Cespedes went 0-for-4 to snap his career-high six- game hit streak...Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez went 1-for-4 to extend his hit streak to 13 games.
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