Boston Red Sox defeat Oakland Athletics, 5-3

OAKLAND, Calif. — Pinch hitting is never easy, for a veteran or a rookie.

Coming up to bat with little time to warm up or prepare isn’t a recipe for success — especially if you’ve only done it a handful of times.

So it was that Ryan Kalish stepped to the plate with two outs in the sixth inning yesterday, with two runners on and the Red Sox trailing the A’s by a run, for his fourth-ever pinch-hit appearance in the majors.

The first pitch zipped in. One hundred miles p...

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Athletics announced a crowd of 19,139 for Friday night’s game against the Red Sox. They owe a debt of gratitude to the organizational skills of Diane Goettlicher.

The mother of Red Sox rookie first baseman Lars Anderson helped coordinate the seating arrangements for a large group of family and friends who sat behind the bullpen in right field at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

In all, 50 people came from the Sacramento area for the game and wer...