Three homers back Sean Manaea in 6-5 victory at Boston

BOSTON - Even after pitching a no-hitter against the Red Sox last month, Sean Manaea was worried about facing them again.

This outing would be at Fenway Park, where he was terrible in two career starts.

Manaea stayed calm and beat the Red Sox again Monday night as Khris Davis hit one of three solo homers by the Oakland Athletics in a 6-5 victory.

In his previous two outings at Fenway, the 26-year-old lefty gave up 15 earned runs in 61/3 innings.

“That was kind of in the back of my head coming into tonight,” Manaea said. “That was just one of the things I had to overcome and not shy away - just tackling those fears head-on.”

Matt Joyce and Matt Olson also went deep for the A’s, who had lost five of six to the Astros and Yankees. Davis connected for his team-leading 12th home run as Oakland handed Rick Porcello his first loss of the season.

Manaea (5-4) allowed four runs - three earned - and eight hits in six-plus innings, snapping his two-game skid. He threw the seventh no-hitter in Oakland history at home against the Red Sox on April 21.

“He was good, a pretty tough place to pitch,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. “You’re not going to go out there and throw a no-hitter against them. Overall, left with the lead in this ballpark - a pretty good job.”

The Red Sox knew they had to try something different against Manaea.

“We talked about (not) expanding down in the zone,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “Overall, we did a good job of it. His stuff is still good.”

Blake Treinen got three outs for his seventh save.

J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers each hit a solo shot for the Red Sox. Boston opened a seven-game homestand after a 6-4 trip.

Porcello (5-1) gave up five runs and nine hits over six innings, striking out five without issuing a walk.

“They strung together a lot of hits, but I really felt halfway decent out there,” he said.

Trailing 2-1 in the fourth, the Athletics grabbed the lead with three runs. Jonathan Lucroy had a two-run double into the left-field corner before Dustin Fowler tripled off the Green Monster.

The Red Sox sliced it to 4-3 in the fifth on Hanley Ramirez’s run-scoring grounder before Olson restored the two-run lead with a homer over Boston’s bullpen in the sixth.

Martinez led off the eighth with his drive into the bullpen.

Joyce homered deep into the right-field seats before Boston moved ahead on consecutive RBI singles by Andrew Benintendi and Ramirez.

A couple of nice escape jobs by Manaea kept him from letting things get out of hand. After the A’s took the lead back with thee runs in the fourth, Manaea allowed the first two runners to reach base in the bottom half and bounced back with by getting Blake Swihart to ground into a double play and Rafael Devers to ground out to first, ending the Boston’s threat with a shutdown inning.

NOTES

Athletics right-hander Trevor Cahill (right elbow impingement) is eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday.

A’s outfielder Stephen Piscotty is expected to return from the bereavement list Tuesday. He left the team after his mother, Gretchen, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, recovering from offseason left knee surgery, started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Pawtucket. He singled and scored a run in three at-bats while playing five innings at second base.

Oakland improved to 14-0 when leading after seven innings. Manaea is 15-0 in 22 career starts when he gets at least four runs of support.

The game started a stretch of 19 of 26 at Fenway Park for the Red Sox. Boston entered the night having played just 15 home games. “Now we’re going to be home for a while,” Cora said. “Seems like we’ve been on the road forever.”

Athletics right-hander Daniel Mengden, scheduled to start tonight, He is 0-1 with an 8.00 ERA in two career starts against the Red Sox.

Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (3-0, 4.58) looks to follow up his rain-shortened solid start last Thursday against the Yankees when he allowed only one hit in five shutout innings but got a no-decision.