Left-hander Gio Gonzalez allowed four runs in six innings on Wednesday, and that was a poor outing as far as the A's starters are concerned.

Not only that, Gonzalez's brilliant stretch of 18 scoreless innings, which had been the longest active streak in the majors, came to and end in the second inning.

In the previous five games, the Oakland rotation had allowed only one earned run in 33 2/3 innings.

Right-hander Trevor Cahill was the only starter to be scored upon in that stretch, and left-hander Brett Anderson reported that after his own eight scoreless innings against Boston on Tuesday, "Trevor shook his head and said, 'Damn Casper Wells.'"

Wells hit a home run against Cahill during the Detroit series.

Gonzalez struck out nine batters Wednesday, but he allowed a run in the second inning, when the Red Sox strung together three hits, and then Kevin Youkilis led off the fourth with a home run on a 3-and-2 pitch from Gonzalez.

In the sixth, Jed Lowrie added a two-run homer off Gonzalez.

The four runs were more than the A's had allowed in the three previous games combined.

Brandon McCarthy, Thursday night's starter, received no decision in his last outing, even though he did not allow a run in Oakland's 8-4 loss to the Tigers on Friday.

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