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A's rally to overcome Red Sox

May 2, 2007 - 4:33 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Jonathan Papelbon hardly figured to suffer his first blown save against the Oakland Athletics.

Rookie Travis Buck hit a tying two-run homer off Papelbon in the ninth inning and Dan Johnson doubled home the winning run in the 10th as the Athletics rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in the first of a two-game series.

Oakland extended its winning streak to five games after Papelbon coughed up his first lead in nine chances. Boston had the second-best ERA (2.18) in the majors and had been the only team in baseball without a blown save.

"We all got used to him being almost perfect," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Papelbon. "When he's not ... it's you're going to give up runs sometimes and when you do it in the ninth in the closer's role it obviously affects the whole game, but he's about as perfect as you can get - just wasn't tonight."

The light-hitting A's, who entered with a major league-worst .230 batting average, were shut down by Boston starter Curt Schilling, who went seven strong innings and left with a 4-2 lead in his bid for a fourth straight victory.

Armed with a 4-2 lead, Papelbon yielded a leadoff single to Bobby Crosby and a long homer to right by Buck, who started the night batting .190 with 21 strikeouts in 63 at-bats.

"Fortunately enough he missed his spot and luckily enough I did not have to see that splitter," Buck said. "When I hit it I kind of saw (right fielder Eric) Hinske scaling that wall, and I was like no way that is all I got and fortunately I had enough to get it out of here."

The hard-throwing righthander put two more runners on base before getting out of the inning, throwing a season-high 35 pitches.

In the 10th, Mike Piazza led off with a double to left off Brendan Donnelly (0-1) and Johnson followed with another double down the right field line to plate Piazza for a 5-4 lead.

"I had a pretty decent pitch to hit," Johnson said. "I think it was a 2-0 pitch and that is a ball that I would normally be looking for but his (Donnelly) ball is moving all over the place and I was really trying to get the head out there and it was fortunate enough to stay fair."

Huston Street pitched a 1-2-3 10th for his 10th save to preserve the victory for Justin Duchscherer (2-1), who pitched a scoreless ninth.

"What a great win for our team to go against Curt Schilling and beat Papelbon late in the game is a real big boost for us," A's manager Bob Geren said. "We obviously have been struggling a lot in April with our hitting and to get runs off pitchers of that caliber is a big boost for us."

Schilling allowed two runs - both earned - and eight hits while striking out a season-high seven and walking none.

Lefthander Hideki Okajima retired the side in order in the eighth for his 12th consecutive scoreless appearance before Papelbon's meltdown in the ninth.

"We had the best record in the big leagues in April and I don't think we have any complete games," Schilling said. "Our bullpen has been phenomenal, no matter how well you line it up, this is the big leagues and it doesn't always work out the way you want it to."

Following his rocky season-opening 7-1 drubbing to Kansas City in which he lasted only four innings, Schilling has pitched at least seven innings for the fifth consecutive start.

The Red Sox gave their ace three runs to work with in their first at-bat with some uncharacteristic small ball against A's starter Joe Blanton, who entered 2-0 lifetime against Boston.

Coco Crisp, elevated to second in the batting order, reached on an infield single, stole second and moved to third on David Ortiz's bloop single into left field.

After Manny Ramirez delivered Crisp with a sacrifice fly, Kevin Youkilis singled and stole second to put runners at the corners. Youkilis was batting fifth because right fielder J.D. Drew was sidelined due to a viral illness.

Mike Lowell then plated both runners on an infield single behind second base. Youkilis never stopped running on the play and scored as A's shortstop Crosby inexplicably threw to third base for a 3-0 advantage.

Boston added a run in the third, sparked by a leadoff walk to Crisp. Crisp moved to third on Ramirez's single to center and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Youkilis to make it 4-0.

Blanton settled down from there, allowing just one hit over his final four innings. He allowed four runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking two.

"After giving up three in the first you are just trying to go out and stay as long at you can in the game and hope luck or whatever it may be might turn around for you and keep it right there and give us a chance," Blanton said. "A lot of times if you keep the game right there, your team will come back and score some runs."

Ramirez added a single in the eighth, giving him 1,000 hits in his seventh season with Boston. He has 2,086 for his career and became the 14th player in history to have at least 1,000 hits with two different teams (Cleveland).

Oakland got a run back in the top of the fourth on a long homer to right by Johnson, his first of the season. They added a run in the seven on pinch hitter Todd Walker's sacrifice fly, on which Crisp made a brilliant diving catch.

"It was a big team win tonight and hopefully we can get some momentum," Piazza said.