Athletics 7 - 14 Red Sox
Final
  for this game

Athletics-Red Sox Preview

May 9, 2016 - 4:51 AM Josh Reddick is on fire, but unfortunately for the Oakland Athletics, few others in their lineup are. Even worse, Sonny Gray is ice cold.

Gray takes the mound Monday night hoping to end his struggles while shaking the Athletics out of a funk when they visit the Boston Red Sox.

Oakland (14-18) ranks in the bottom third of MLB with 3.65 runs per game, and a 1-6 stretch is highlighted by some lowly offensive numbers. The Athletics totaled 19 runs in their six losses during that stretch, eight coming from one game.

However, Reddick found a way into the record books during this weekend's series loss in Baltimore. The right fielder had seven hits in a split doubleheader Saturday and went 3 for 3 with a walk in Sunday's 11-3 loss - his run of eight straight hits, which is still alive, matching the franchise mark.

"Look at all the players that have played in this uniform - Hall of Famers that have been there," Reddick said. "To be up there on the top is a really great honor."

Still, scoring runs remains a problem after the rest of the lineup combined for three singles and a double in the series finale.

A bigger issue might be the struggles of Gray (3-3, 4.84 ERA).

After opening the season with four quality starts, the right-hander has lost his last two while surrendering 13 hits and 11 runs in nine combined innings. He has coughed up three home runs while walking five and striking out eight.

Gray has only a loss to show for his two career starts against Boston (18-13), though he pitched well in both in 2014 and '15. He allowed just three earned runs in 13 innings while striking out a dozen.

Gray will face a red-hot David Ortiz, who homered twice in Sunday's 5-1 win at the New York Yankees to pass Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski for second place on Boston's career list with 512.

Ortiz has six home runs in his last nine games and eight RBIs in his last five for Boston - which has won four in a row and six of seven in this series. Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts also went deep Sunday to help the Red Sox salvage a game in a three-game set against the Yankees to close a 3-3 trip.

Boston's lineup had produced just four runs the previous two games, but it will try to build off the momentum to back Clay Buchholz.

Buchholz (1-3, 5.71) had surrendered five runs in four of his first five starts - the Red Sox losing all five - but finally pieced things together for Wednesday's 5-2 win over the league-leading Chicago White Sox.

The right-hander held them to three hits and two runs in seven innings - his longest outing yet.

"To go seven innings, that's what everyone on the staff wants to do," Buchholz told MLB's official website. "They want to get into the seventh and then hand it over to the guys who have their job to do as well. If you could paint a picture, I think tonight would be what everybody would want to do."

Buchholz holds a 3-2 record but a miserable 6.81 ERA and 2.06 WHIP in eight career starts against Oakland. Reddick (4 for 9) and Coco Crisp (4 for 16) have each homered in the matchup, while Mark Canha has hits in all three of his at-bats with a pair of doubles.






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