Reddick, Moss homer to lead A’s past Red Sox 6-1

OAKLAND, Calif. — Josh Reddick and Brandon Moss homered against their former team to send Daisuke Matsuzaka to an early exit and lead the Oakland Athletics to a 6-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.

Jarrod Parker (5-3) was the beneficiary of the home runs, allowing one run and six hits in 6 2-3 innings to get the win.

Parker allowed one run or fewer for the seventh time in his past eight starts and 10th time in 14 career starts. He is the first pitcher since Ferdie Schupp of the New York Giants to do that in his first 14 starts, although Schupp was a spot starter who pitched mostly in relief when he did it from 1913-17.

Parker allowed a double to Daniel Nava to start the game, followed by an RBI single by Dustin Pedroia.

The Red Sox didn’t threaten again until putting the first two runners on in the seventh. Parker got Mike Aviles to hit into a forceout and struck out Nick Punto. Sean Doolittle came in and struck out Nava to end the threat.

Matsuzaka (0-3) was chased before retiring a batter in the second inning and failed for the sixth time to join Hideo Nomo and Tomo Ohka as the only Japanese pitchers with 50 career wins. Matsuzaka has not won a game since May 8, 2011, against Minnesota.

This also marked the third time this season the Red Sox lost after reaching a season-high five games over .500.

Reddick, acquired last December in a trade for injured closer Andrew Bailey and outfielder Ryan Sweeney, hit his 19th homer with two outs in the first inning to tie the game at 1. Matsuzaka then failed to retire any of the five batters he faced in the second to match the shortest start of his career.

Seth Smith opened the four-run second with a drive to center field that hit off Ryan Kalish’s glove for a double. Derek Norris then walked and Moss hit the next pitch over the right-field fence for his ninth homer in 22 games with Oakland. Moss played 49 games with Boston in 2007-08 but has come into his own with the A’s in the past month.

Matsuzaka was replaced by Clayton Mortensen after Brandon Inge singled and Cliff Pennington walked. Reddick added a sacrifice fly that made it 5-1 and closed the line on Matsuzaka, who allowed five runs, four hits and two walks in one-plus inning.

The long balls gave the A’s home runs in 13 straight games, their longest streak since doing it in 14 consecutive games early in the 2004 season.

Mortensen helped save the Boston bullpen by pitching five innings, allowing only a sacrifice fly to Inge in the sixth inning.

NOTES: Boston 3B Will Middlebrooks will be out for at least a few days with an injured left hamstring. Manager Bobby Valentine said the team would likely bring up another position player on Tuesday and either place Middlebrooks on the DL or send down one of the 13 pitchers. ... Oakland LHP Dallas Braden threw off the mound for the first time since March as he works back from elbow ligament replacement surgery last May. All 20 pitches he threw were fastballs. “You talk about fired up for an appearance. That was like game day,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. ... RHP Bartolo Colon (6-7) is expected to come off a DL stint for a strained right oblique to make his first start since June 17 on Tuesday against Jon Lester (5-5).