WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Garrett Crochet struck out 10 in seven innings, Trevor Story and Carlos Narváez homered and the Boston Red Sox defeated the Athletics 7-0 on Monday night.
The Red Sox moved to three games behind idle Toronto for the AL East lead, and one game back of the idle New York Yankees in the race for the first AL wild-card spot.
The A’s have lost seven of their last 10 games.
Crochet (15-5), coming off a shaky start against Cleveland on Sept. 2, allowed less than four hits for the first time since Aug. 17. He did not walk a batter for the third straight game.
Story’s 24th homer of the season, a no-doubter to left-centre, gave the Red Sox an early lead. Boston improved to 54-20 when scoring first this season.
Jarren Duran had two hits, including an RBI single for the 500th hit of his career. Alex Bregman, Narváez, Story, and Masataka Yoshida also had two-hit games.
Narváez hit a 422-foot solo homer in the fifth to extend Boston’s lead, and Bregman added an RBI single two batters later.
For the A’s, Luis Morales (3-1) allowed seven hits and five earned runs, striking out two and walking one in his sixth career start. It was the first time in his MLB career that he gave up more than two runs.
Boston pulled ahead of the Athletics early, with Story’s first-inning homer and RBI singles from Duran and Nick Sogard to make it 3-0 after two innings.
Since the start of the 2022 season, the Red Sox are 15-4 against the Athletics and have outscored the A’s 319-187 in that span.
Boston RHP Dustin May (7-11, 4.96) faces Athletics LHP Jeffrey Springs (10-10, 4.13) Tuesday night in the second game of the three-game series.
