Boston Red Sox vs Oakland Athletics Box Score on Jul 04, 2021

Right-hander Nick Pivetta was part of combined shutout for the second time this season and Alex Verdugo scored the day's only run after a leadoff double in the sixth inning as the visiting Boston Red Sox held off the Oakland Athletics 1-0 on Sunday in the finale of a tightly contested three-game series.

After the teams had traded one-run, extra-inning wins on Friday and Saturday, Pivetta (7-3) limited the A's to two singles in seven innings. He walked two and struck out a season-best 10.

Boston completed its 16th one-run win of the year and third shutout when Garrett Whitlock worked a scoreless eighth before closer Matt Barnes wriggled out of a two-on, one-out jam in the ninth for his 19th save.

Whitlock and Barnes also combined with Pivetta on a 1-0 shutout of the New York Mets in April. Pivetta went five innings in that one and got additional help from Adam Ottavino, who threw the eighth that day in between Whitlock and Barnes.

Oakland's only hits off Pivetta were a two-out single by Matt Chapman in the first and a one-out single by Tony Kemp in the sixth. In between, the 28-year-old Canadian retired 14 consecutive batters en route to the A's eighth shutout loss of the season.

Oakland righty James Kaprielian (4-3) matched Pivetta pitch for pitch for five scoreless innings before Verdugo, who also had doubled in the third inning, went to deep left for his second two-bagger of the day in the sixth.

J.D. Martinez advanced Verdugo to third with a single, from where the game's lone run scored on Rafael Devers' double-play grounder.

Kaprielian also worked seven innings and struck out a career-high 10. He allowed five hits and one walk.

The doubles by Verdugo and a third by Devers were the game's only extra-base hits. Boston out-hit Oakland 6-4.

The playoff hopefuls completed a 3-3 season-series split. Kaprielian had one of the wins when the A's took two of three in Boston in May.

--Field Level Media