But Anthony Seigler flied out — to the wall in left-center field — as Athletics center fielder Henry Bolte made a running catch for the final out. It traveled an estimated 397 feet.
“I definitely thought it had a chance. Worst case, I thought it was gonna be a double,” Seigler said. “But I felt like I put a good barrel on it, and just ended up being an out. Unfortunate, but that’s how it is.”
Seigler’s was the longest game-ending out this year when the hitter had a chance to tie the score or put his team ahead.
“When he hit it, I thought he had the trajectory right,” Wong said. “When I hit mine, I felt like it was kind of low. So that’s just kind of the way it goes at times.”
The loss snapped a 10-game road win streak, the Red Sox’ longest since 1939. They had not dropped a game away from Boston since June 24 in Colorado.
Before the late excitement, the Sox’ only extra-base hit was from Jahmai Jones, who led off the first inning with a double.Their only run had come via Wilyer Abreu’s two-out RBI single in the eighth.
Perhaps the biggest moment of the game immediately followed. With two runners on, Ceddanne Rafaela, the hero in a series-opening win Monday, stepped up as the potential go-ahead run against lefthander Hogan Harris, the Athletics’ closer.
Harris threw three consecutive fastballs. Rafaela swung and missed at each, including a half-hearted attempt at the last one, which was at least level with — perhaps over — his head, in addition to outside.
“Those at-bats happen sometimes,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Guys throw some pitches and you take some swings sometimes.”
Rafaela met a better fate the night prior, when he lofted what he thought was an inning-ending popout to left field. It carried and carried until it ended up going over the wall for a grand slam, the only run-producing swing for the Sox.
Taken together, the past two games offer a reminder: For much of 2026, these Sox (55-51) have struggled to score. It is why they are considering supplementing the lineup in the leadup to the trade deadline Monday — maybe at shortstop, maybe at catcher, maybe at second base again now that Curtis Mead, acquired last weekend, broke his left wrist in his first game with the team.
The Athletics (45-62) entered Tuesday with a 6.49 ERA at extremely-hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park. That would be the seventh-highest home mark in major league history (and the highest non-Coors Field ERA since the 1930 Phillies had a 7.18 ERA).
“They’re pitching pretty good, I’ll tell you that,” said Tracy, whose club has lost just three of its past 21 games and five of its past 28. “You gotta tip your cap sometimes.”
In a matchup of rookie lefthanders, the Sox’ Jake Bennett and Athletics’ Gage Jump were about equal — most of the way.
Bennett lasted 6⅓ innings and wound up allowing three runs. Two came on his final pitch: No. 9 hitter Brian Serven’s home run to center.
It was Serven’s first long ball in the majors since 2022 (64 games).
“It’s definitely disappointing,” Bennett said. “Definitely one I wish I could have back, but sometimes that’s just baseball.”
Prior to that, Bennett had been very efficient — again — and worked around the Athletics’ five hits. He walked two batters, one in each of his last two innings, and struck out four.
Jump, who entered the year as a consensus top-60 prospect, tossed six scoreless innings, scattering three hits and four walks while striking out seven. He lowered his season ERA to 4.00 (12 starts) and his July ERA to 5.87 (five starts).
The Sox put seven men on base through five frames, including multiple runners in each of the first two. But none reached third base, and the Sox were hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
A big piece of that plight: a pair of inning-ending double-play grounders, off the bats of Abreu (with two runners on in the first inning) and Willson Contreras (one on in the third).
Jump settled in over the back half of his outing, retiring nine of his final 11 hitters.
“He’s just a thrower,” Contreras said. “He doesn’t have any command of the strike zone. Facing pitchers like that, it’s hard to pick up one [part of the] zone.”
Tracy said: “When you’re facing somebody with good stuff [who] can be effectively wild — he’s out of the zone, but he’s in the zone, his stuff is good — you’re going to swing and miss sometimes. So I’m not overly concerned about that.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
