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		A’s lose to Red Sox, 5-3 By George Devine, Sr. April 20, 2011

	After the previous night’s 5-0 shutout of the visitors behind Brett Anderson, the A’s again took on the Boston Red Sox, this time with southpaw Gio Gonzalez (2-0, 0.47) facing RHP Clay Buchholz (0-2, 7.20). As the game began at 12:37 p.m., so did the showers that had been expected to arrive at some point late in the day. They did not dampen the spirits of Coco Crisp, who sent the first pitch he saw to the top of the right field fence to put the A’s on the board. In the second inning, Kevin Youkilis skipped a base hit along the moist right field turf and was ready to make for second when Jed Lowrie shot one to the right field foul pole, only to have it speared by David DeJesus. Former Athletic Marco Scutaro also singled to right, advancing Youkilis to second. Carl Crawford then singled to left, plating Youkilis and moving Scutaro to third. The Boston rally ended when Jason Varitek struckout swinging and Landon Powell fired a strike to Mark Ellis to catch Crawford at second. The 1-1 tie was broken by Youkilis’ solo homer to left center in the fourth. In the bottom of the frame, with one out, Mark Ellis hit his 200th career double down the left field line, but Landon Powell and Kevin Kouzmanoff both flied out to right, so he did not score. In the sixth, the rain returned in earnest, and after Adrian Gonzalez singled to left, Jed Lowrie homered to left to make the score 4-1 in favor of Boston. Half an inning later, Ryan Sweeney doubled to left and Landon Powell walked, at which point Conor Jackson came in to pinch hit for Kouzmanoff. Jackson also drew a walk to load the bags, ushering in Boston reliever Daniel Bard to strike out Cliff Pennington and induce Crisp to pop out to left. In the eighth, with one out and Bobby Jenks pitching for Boston, Powell walked, LaRoche and Pennington singled, as did Crisp who drove in Powell. After Daric Barton struck out swinging, the bases remained loaded with two out and Jonathan Papelbon took the mound to strike out DeJesus. It was yet another opportunity on which Oakland could not capitalize. In the home ninth, Matsui singled, Ellis was hit by a pitch and Landon Powell singled – also to center – scoring Matsui. Josh Willingham pinch hit for LaRoche and popped out to first, leaving it up to Pennington who popped up to short. Papelbon got his third save. The A’s left 15 on base and the Red Sox 4. The winner is Buchholz (5.1 ip, 6 h, 1er, 4 w, 2 k, 1 hr, now 1-2) and the loser Gonzalez (6 ip, 8 h, 4 er, 1 w, 9 k, 2 hr; 2-1). The A’s next play at Seattle on Thursday, April 21 at 7:10 p.m. with lefthander Brandon McCarthy (1-0, 2.45) facing RHP Felix Hernandez (1-2, 4.43).