Sox Zoom into First

OAKLAND--The Boston Red Sox beat Oakland Sunday with a survival effort, winning despite four A's home runs.

"Thank God they all came with no one on base. That was the difference in the game," Red Sox Manager John McNamara said after the 6-5 victory over the A's.

Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, touched for three homers, gave up only one other hit in the seven innings he pitched and got the victory with relief help from Bob Stanley and Joe Sambito.

The A's had two runners on base when the game ended on pinch-hitter Dusty Baker's hard grounder back to Sambito on the mound.

"Solo homers don't beat you. That's what everybody has always told me," said Boyd, 3-3.

The Red Sox won their fifth straight game and also handed A's pitcher Moose Haas his first loss of the year. Haas, 6-1, brought a 1.65 earned run average into the game.

"We can't expect Moose to go out every time and hold a team to one or two runs. There are going to be days we have to win the five and six-run games, not just for Moose but for all our pitchers," said Carney Lansford, who homered off both Boyd and Stanley.

"I felt pretty good today," Haas said. "But with all those base hits (10) I was giving up, I knew something wasn't right."

He also walked six batters, matching his career high for a single game.

Rich Gedman had a 4-for-4 batting day against Haas.

Boston scored an unearned run in the third, when shortstop Alfredo Griffin made a pair of throwing errors, and added three runs in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Gedman singled with one out and Marty Barrett walked. Steve Lyons and Ed Romero followed with RBI singles and Dwight Evans drove in a run with a groundout.