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Pedroia's grand slam helps Red Sox top A's

May 3, 2014 - 6:29 AM Boston, MA (SportsNetwork.com) - Dustin Pedroia's 100th career home run -- a sixth-inning grand slam -- helped the Boston Red Sox snap their two-game losing skid with a 7-1 win over the Oakland Athletics in the opener of a three-game set from Fenway Park.

Dan Otero took the mound for Oakland in the sixth inning and recorded just one out before giving way to Ryan Cook with the bases loaded. Xander Bogaerts and A.J. Pierzynski both singled and Jackie Bradley Jr. drew a walk before Cook relieved Otero and served up Pedroia's grand slam with a pitcher-friendly 0-2 count.

Pedroia's homer, his first of the season, narrowly cleared the Green Monster in left field. A's manager Bob Melvin challenged to see if the ball was interfered with by a fan before clearing the wall, but the call was upheld.

"Usually one swing will break open a game like that," said Melvin. "That was the big key to the game."

Pedroia and Pierzynski both had two hits and scored twice for Boston, with Bogaerts contributing two hits and a run scored.

Clay Buchholz (2-2) allowed just a run on three hits over 6 1/3 frames to earn his second straight win.

"This is a good hitting team (Buchholz) was able to slow down with some off- speed pitches," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "A solid outing again tonight."

Boston struck first off Dan Straily (1-2), who allowed a pair of runs in a brief 4 1/3 inning start. Grady Sizemore got things going with a leadoff double to left-center in the second and Pierzynski slapped one off the glove of a diving Josh Donaldson and into the outfield two batters later to bring him home. After Will Middlebrooks struck out for the second out, Bradley doubled to center to make it 2-0.

John Jaso tripled to start the visiting half of the third. He was nearly stranded after Buchholz retired the next two batters, but the Boston right- hander uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Jaso to race home for a 2-1 margin.

Mike Napoli's eighth inning RBI single to center plated Pedroia and resulted in the final tally.

Game Notes

Oakland's road winning streak was halted at three games. The A's fell to 5-3 on their current 10-game road trip ... Oakland finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, while Boston hit 3-for-13 with RISP ... Jaso had two hits for Oakland ... Pedroia also walked twice and stole a base.






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