The Oakland Athletics shutout the Red Sox, sending them to their first loss in four games behind an incredible start from Brett Anderson.
In many ways, this was one that could be seen coming. Brett Anderson has, after all, has made the Red Sox look bad whenever he's seen them in the past. That he did the same on Tuesday should be of no great surprise. Even with Terry Francona stacking the lineup with as many right-handed hitters as possible, Brett Anderson was all-but-unhittable. Adrian Gonzalez' wall ball single in the first (likely one of the longer singles the game has seen) was the only hit they would pick up off Anderson for the first seven innings of the game.
The only other baserunner he allowed was Dustin Pedroia, who drew a walk and then was quickly picked off trying to steal second. Pedroia was adamant that Anderson had committed a balk, as was manager Terry Francona, who was quickly tossed from the game when he came out to argue. From there, it was all Anderson until the eighth.
For John Lackey, things did not start off nearly as positively, as a leadoff single from Coco Crisp put him in some early trouble. Crisp would steal second base, and then score on a pair of groundouts to give the A's the early 1-0 lead. As it would turn out, though, Lackey would settle down and pick up his first quality start of the year, allowing just four more baserunners in six innings of one-run ball.
Still, that would be enough for the A's, as a crazy eighth inning went against the Red Sox in every way. After David Ortiz led off the inning with just the second hit off of Brett Anderson, Jacoby Ellsbury came in to run the bases. He did just that on a 3-2 pitch to Mike Cameron, who struck out swinging. The throw went to second, and Ellsbury was called out, but not because of a tag. Instead, with Cameron having stepped in front of the catcher, interference was called. This proved all-too-costly for the Red Sox, as Carl Crawford and Jarrod Saltalamacchia would follow up with a pair of singles that together would have plated Ellsbury from second. But instead, they only had two men on, and Darnell McDonald's strikeout ended the threat.
And so it was without a lead or tie to protect, the Red Sox left Dan Wheeler in to start a second inning, resulting in a leadoff double, and then pulled him for the newly returned and still entirely ineffective Hideki Okajima. Thirty pitches later, and Okajima left behind a 5-0 Oakland lead. The Red Sox had no chance to come back in the ninth, and saw their winning streak abruptly ended.