BOSTON _ The A's managed to chase Red Sox ace Chris Sale out of the game earlier than usual, but Boston's bullpen was a riddle the A's could not solve.
After Sale departed the game after just five innings with 102 pitches, the A's combined for just three hits against Red Sox relievers as they fell 6-4 in Wednesday's series finale.
Returning from the disabled list for his first start since May 5, Trevor Cahill had a nightmarish first inning that saw him throw 35 pitches as he allowed three runs, including a two-run homer to J.D. Martinez. Combined with it being his first outing after dealing with a right elbow impingement, it looked like it would be a short night for the right-hander. But he recovered nicely.
Cahill completed five innings, allowing just two hits after the first to leave with the A's still in the game only down 3-2.
Although Cahill found a way to settle down a tough Red Sox lineup for a while, Ryan Dull seemed to wake up the beast in the sixth.
Allowing the first two runners of the inning to reach, Dull surrendered a three-run bomb to Xander Bogaerts that traveled over the green monster to give the Red Sox a commanding 6-2 lead and essentially end the game.
All of the A's runs came on homers, with Marcus Semien crushing a two-run shot off Sale in the fifth, and Matt Joyce and Matt Olson adding solo homers in the seventh and ninth. Olson's homer in the ninth of Craig Kimbrel cut Boston's lead to 6-4, but the closer recovered the record the final three outs and help the Red Sox avoid a sweep.
