Red Sox shut down by Athletics rookie, wasting Jake Bennett's latest gem

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jul 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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He had them from the jump.

Coming into Tuesday night’s outing Athletics rookie Gage Jump’s numbers didn’t exactly leap off the page. The 23-year-old left-hander had an unremarkable 4.42 ERA over his first 11 big league starts and gave up six runs in his last outing, but the former second-round pick was in complete control on Tuesday, pouncing on the Red Sox and vaulting his team past the visitors 4-3.

The Red Sox offense, which was without Curtis Mead after the newly acquired infielder flew home to have his fractured wrist checked out by a hand specialist, went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, wasting rookie starter Jake Bennett’s latest gem.

Connor Wong hit a two-run home run with two outs in the top of the ninth to make things interesting, but Anthony Seigler’s deep fly ball to center field just barely stayed in the yard, ending Boston’s late comeback bid.

The Athletics struck first in the bottom of the second inning, taking a 1-0 lead on a two-out RBI single by Henry Bolte. The A’s scratched that run across after a softly hit single by Tommy White and a sacrifice bunt, but otherwise the A’s couldn’t do much against Bennett.

The Red Sox left-hander was brilliant, shutting the Athletics down over the next four innings and largely limiting the A’s to weak contact within the infield. But in the bottom of the seventh the Athletics finally broke through again, with Bolte drawing a leadoff walk and No. 9 hitter Brian Serven hitting a two-run home run to end Bennett’s day.

Even with that home run Bennett still finished with his sixth quality start of the season. His final line: three runs allowed over 6 1/3 innings with six hits, two walks and four strikeouts.

But good as Bennett was, Jump was better.

The Red Sox had their chances early but grounded into a pair of double plays in the first and third innings that cut short potential rallies. After that baserunners became hard to come by, and one of the few who did reach — Jarren Duran on a leadoff single to start the fifth — was promptly erased after getting picked off and thrown out at second.

Jump finished with six shutout innings with three hits, four walks and seven strikeouts. He retired nine of the last 11 Red Sox batters he faced.

The Red Sox finally had a chance to try their luck against the Athletics bullpen in the top of the seventh when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a leadoff single against right-hander Luis Medina and advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Caleb Durbin. But Duran and Andruw Monasterio couldn’t get him home, and Serven’s home run in the bottom of the inning made the Red Sox’s task that much taller.

But Medina came back out again in the eighth and quickly got himself in trouble.

Masataka Yoshida pinch hit for Carlos Narvaez and hit a leadoff single, and Anthony Seigler pinch hit for Jahmai Jones next batter up and walked to put two on with nobody out. Romy Gonzalez grounded into Boston’s third double play of the day, but Willson Contreras walked to chase Medina from the game and bring the tying run to the plate.

Left-hander Hogan Harris came on next and had an interesting at bat against Wilyer Abreu. With the count 3-1 Abreu appeared to draw a walk, but Harris challenged the pitch — something pitchers have rarely done since the introduction of the ABS challenge system — and got the call overturned, making it 3-2. The victory was short-lived, however, as Abreu went on to hit an RBI single, scoring Yoshida from third and ensuring the Red Sox wouldn’t be shut out.

Harris came back to strike out Rafaela to end the inning, stranding runners at the corners and keeping it a 3-1 A’s lead.

Lawrence Butler finished the scoring for the A’s with an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth, and that insurance run loomed large when Connor Wong hit a two-run home run with two outs in the top of the ninth. That cut the deficit to 4-3, but Harris drew a deep flyout from Seigler to the center field warning track to end the game.

With the loss the Red Sox fall to 55-51 and are now 3-2 since the club’s historic 15-game winning streak ended last Wednesday. Boston has two more games against the A’s in Sacramento, and Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 3.21) will be up next against Athletics lefty Jacob Lopez (5-4, 6.12). First pitch is set for 9:40 p.m. ET.