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Masterson Hit Hard In Red Sox 9-2 Loss To Athletics

Boston Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson, walks back to the mound after giving up a home run to Oakland Athletics' Josh Reddick on May 12, 2015. (Ben Margot/AP)
Boston Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson, walks back to the mound after giving up a home run to Oakland Athletics' Josh Reddick on May 12, 2015. (Ben Margot/AP)

Justin Masterson would rather blame the stadium than his health for his latest bad start.

Masterson allowed six runs and failed to make it out of the third inning in another rough outing in Oakland as the Boston Red Sox fell 9-2 to the Athletics on Tuesday night.

"Other than not pitching good, I'm fine," Masterson said. "Part of me wants to put it on the voodoo of the Coliseum. I never got close to getting comfortable."

The Coliseum has been a personal house of horrors for Masterson (2-2). He allowed six runs and six hits in 2 1-3 innings and fell to 0-6 with a 7.26 ERA in eight appearances at the Coliseum.

That followed up a loss last week to Tampa Bay when Masterson walked six in 4 1-3 innings and has the Red Sox concerned about whether he has something physically wrong.

"His last two outings are not anywhere close to what he's shown this year," manager John Farrell said. "He's clearly not right."

Josh Reddick had four hits with a homer and three RBIs, Stephen Vogt and Marcus Semien homered and Eric Sogard drove in three runs to help the A's snap a six-game losing streak.

Drew Pomeranz (2-3) took advantage of sterling defense to face the minimum 15 batters through five innings as the A's put together all facets of the game to get back on the winning track.

"We all believe that's who we are," Pomeranz said. "We've just kind of been in a little funk in a little stretch there this season. This is who we are. This is how we played last year. We just build from here now."

Pomeranz allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings to win for the first time since his opening start of the season, April 10 against Seattle.

The A's struck early against Masterson with Semien hitting a triple in the first and scoring on Reddick's single. Vogt's career-high tying ninth homer made it 3-0.

Sogard added an RBI double in the second and Reddick homered to lead off the third. Masterson was replaced by Steven Wright after walking Vogt with one out in the third.

"Today was the biggest disappointment," Masterson said. "I was laboring too much to get to 80 to 86 miles per hour. It just wasn't comfortable as far as mechanics."

Sogard added a two-run single that inning and Semien led off the fourth against Wright with his sixth homer to make it 8-0.

Pomeranz got plenty of help from his defense, including a sharp play by himself on a comebacker. Coco Crisp started it when he threw out Dustin Pedroia from left field trying to stretch a single into a double in the first inning. Crisp also made a twisting, acrobatic catch to rob Mike Napoli of an extra-base hit in the second and Vogt and center fielder Sam Fuld also had diving catches.

Semien did make a throwing error in the seventh. That marked Oakland's 10th straight game with an error and the team's major league worst 35th on the season.

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