The Athletics evened things up in the second inning, but their tie did not last long, as the Sox struck right back in the bottom half of the frame.
Oakland’s lone run came on a leadoff homer from Brandon Allen, who went with an outside cutter from Jon Lester, taking advantage of the proximity of the Monster in left to get the A’s on the board.
Lester would keep the next three batters, retiring them in order and giving the Sox a chance to retake the lead with just one run in the bottom of the second. Instead they scored three. With two outs, Josh Reddick fell behind 0-2, but fought back to draw the walk, bringing Jason Varitek to the plate. Moscoso’s fourth pitch to him caught too much of the plate, and the ball quickly found itself in the bullpen, putting the Sox up 3-1.
The Sox weren’t quite done, however. Mike Aviles followed up the Captain with an infield single off of first baseman Brandon Allen’s glove, and Jacoby Ellsbury, after being incorrectly rung up on strike two by Marv Hudson, planted a double off the very top of the wall to bring him home all the way from first.