A’s blasted by Red Sox, shut out by ace’s pitching performance

The Athletics’ offense that had been explosive since September began was nowhere to be found Monday night in the first game back from a road trip.

The A’s, who were averaging 7.2 runs per game while hitting .300 in September, were shut out by the Boston Red Sox and ace starting pitcher Garrett Crochet, 7-0. It was the seventh time the A’s went scoreless this season. They dropped to 66-79 while Boston came in with the best record in the American League over the second half of the season.

Crochet struck out 10 through seven innings while allowing just three hits. His outing ended with a standing ovation from visiting fans after striking out his last two hitters. The A’s had just one extra base on the night despite leading the Major Leagues with 184 extra-base hits since the All-Star break.

“He’s got elite stuff,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said of Crochet. “This is a front-line starter that we faced tonight and he showed why. We’ve had success against front-line guys, but tonight we just couldn’t figure them out.”

Darrell Hernaiz and Max Schuemann were the only hitters who didn’t strike out on the night. Tyler Soderstrom K’d three times and Colby Thomas twice. Hernaiz’ double in the fifth inning was the A’s only extra-base hit.

Many of the 10,079 in attendance were clad in Red Sox gear, while the occasional “Yankees suck!” chant rang through Sutter Health Park, despite Boston’s rivals being 3,000 miles away gearing up for a series against the Detroit Tigers. The Red Sox had 12 hits, including home runs from shortstop Trevor Story and catcher Carlos Narváez.

A’s 22-year-old right-hander Luis Morales had the worst of his six starts since getting added to the rotation Aug. 10. He had a 1.37 ERA over those starts, but allowed a season-high five runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He had just two strikeouts after logging 21 combined over his last three outings.

“The sweeper wasn’t really working great early in the game,” Kotsay said of Morales’ start. “He made some mistakes. ... Overall I think the stuff probably wasn’t sharp. Mistakes just got hit.”

The Red Sox opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Story turned on a 98-mile-per-hour fastball from Morales and took it 404 feet to left field. It was Story’s 24th of the season. They scored two more in the second with RBI singles from Nick Sogard and Jarren Duran.

The two teams will play in the second game of the series on Tuesday. The A’s will start left-hander Jeffrey Spring (10-10, 4.13 ERA) against Red Sox righty Dustin May (7-11, 4.96).

This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 10:48 PM.

Chris Biderman

The Sacramento Bee

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Chris Biderman covers sports and local news for The Sacramento Bee since joining in August 2018 to cover the San Francisco 49ers. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group, and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Athletic and on MLB.com. The Santa Rosa native graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.