After an 11-2 drubbing by the hands of the first-place Orioles on Friday evening, the Red Sox as soon as once more hoped {that a} change of costumery would make the distinction on Saturday night.
Clad of their yellow and blue City Connect uniforms, Boston labored by means of a ferocious 9-inning tug-of-war with Baltimore, gathering 12 runs on 23 hits and battling to inside one run twice, solely to lose 13-12.
Before Saturday, the Yellow Sox have been 11-2 this season, and the Red Sox had by no means misplaced a 9-inning recreation by which they collected no less than 21 hits.
What an exhausting technique to discover out the uniforms aren’t a cure-all.
The American League East rivals mixed for a whopping 37 hits, together with 5 Orioles residence runs and one for Justin Turner. Unfortunately, although the Red Sox out-hit their guests 23-14, in addition they left 14 males on base, losing likelihood after likelihood to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
It began out nicely sufficient. The mellow yellows labored their magic on Chris Sale within the first inning. He seemed like his previous self, needing 14 pitches to get the Orioles 1-2-3 together with back-to-back strikeouts to the second and third batter.
When the guests scored their first run within the prime of the second, it was unearned. A uncommon error by Trevor Story extended the body, and Sale was at 41 pitches by the point he walked off the mound.
But by the third, the carriage had turned again right into a pumpkin. Sale walked the primary two batters within the third, struck out Ryan Mountcastle for the second time, then gave up a game-tying RBI double to Anthony Santander. A fielder’s alternative yielded the second out, however the worst was but to come back. With two runners on, Aaron Hicks despatched certainly one of Sale’s sliders hovering 381 toes into the Plymouth Rock signal atop the Monster.
Hicks hadn’t homered in precisely two months, however he’s at all times dealt with Sale nicely. In 33 profession plate appearances previous to Saturday, he’d hit .323 towards the lefty.
Suddenly, the Red Sox have been wanting up on the Orioles 5-2. Their uphill battle turned even steeper within the prime of the fourth, when Sale gave up a leadoff double to Jordan Westburg and a first-pitch 2-run homer to James McCann. For the third time this season, the Red Sox starter had allowed a number of residence runs in a begin.
Sale’s night was finished after 4 innings, and he exited charged with six hits, seven runs, six earned runs, two walks, and 5 strikeouts. Velocity had been inconsistent and down at instances, command faltered, and the harm was finished.
The veteran southpaw is painfully conscious that he isn’t the identical pitcher who used to demolish the Orioles, although in equity, they’re not the identical workforce that used to lose 100+ video games a yr, both.
“We can dissect this any which way,” Sale mentioned. “I’m just not getting it done.”
“It’s like, you see flashes of it, and then it kind of disappears for a little bit,” he defined. “Pitch to pitch, inning to inning, it’s like, it’s in there, it’s simply you’re form of scrounging across the backside of the barrel looking for it.
“It’s just tough, you know? No other way to put it,” he added. “We were a starting pitcher away from winning this game. I mean, we scored 12 f***ing runs. I mean, what is going on? What? Just frustrating, very disappointing.”
Jack Flaherty’s night was no stroll within the ballpark, both; Alex Cora welcomed the Orioles’ commerce deadline acquisition to Fenway with a lineup stuffed with left-handed hitters.
“He struggles against lefties,” the Red Sox supervisor mentioned to clarify the agency majority within the beginning 9. Indeed, left-handed hitters have whalloped Flaherty this season, hitting .300 with a .873 OPS towards him (coming into Saturday).
Over the course of the primary two innings, the O’s starter confronted all 9 Red Sox hitters and gave up 5 hits, together with three to lefties Rafael Devers, Masataka Yoshida, and Wilyer Abreu. By the tip of his 3 ⅓ innings on the mound, Boston’s lefty batters accounted for 5 of the eight hits. But the primary runs on the board have been courtesy of righty Justin Turner, who despatched certainly one of Flaherty’s low pitches hovering into the Green Monster seats for a 2-0 lead.
With 23 HR and 94 RBI, 38-year-old Turner would’ve been the primary of his type in his former franchise’s historical past; no Los Angeles Dodgers hitter his age or older has ever put up such spectacular numbers. In Boston, the veteran slugger is certainly one of three, becoming a member of David Ortiz and Tony Pérez within the “Age Is Just a Number” chapter.
Throughout, the Boston bats have been relentless; by the underside of the fifth, Story’s leadoff single put them into the double digits within the hit column. Devers went 4-for-6 with two runs, a double, and an RBI, his first 4-hit recreation in almost a yr, and the ever-reliable Turner went 2-for-5 with the workforce’s solely residence run of the evening. Yoshida went 3-for-6 with two runs scored; he leads the workforce and all MLB rookies with 142 hits.
But the brightest star on Saturday night was one of many latest faces. Playing his twelfth profession recreation within the Majors, Abreu reached base six instances, going 5-for-5 with two runs, a double, three RBI, a stroll, and a stolen base. Since 1901, he’s solely the thirteenth participant in MLB historical past and first Red Sox participant ever to report a number of 4+ hit video games within the first 12 video games of their big-league profession.
Unfortunately, going 8-for-21 with runners in scoring place and leaving 14 males on base doesn’t lower it when the bullpen is overworked and the opponent is their very own model of relentless. The Orioles hit 5 homers amongst their 13 runs. Newcomer Zack Weiss gave up back-to-back solo residence runs within the sixth, and Gunnar Henderson’s 3-run homer off Mauricio Llovera put Baltimore up 12-6 within the seventh.
The Red Sox answered again as soon as once more. All 9 batters got here to the plate within the backside of the seventh, and although they scored three runs to convey themselves inside three, Triston Casas flew out to go away the bases loaded.
Another likelihood got here and went within the backside of the eighth, when Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez knocked back-to-back 2-out singles, solely to have Connor Wong strike out swinging to strand them.
Finally, within the backside of the ninth, the Orioles despatched of their nearer, Yennier Cano, to slam the door. But first, the Red Sox got here nearly all the best way again. Devers and Ceddanne Rafaela – within the recreation for Turner – collected Boston’s twentieth and twenty first hits of the evening, and Casas joined them on the bases with a stroll.
Story’s 2-RBI double to the right-field nook was their twenty second hit, and lower the Orioles’ result in two. Abreu’s fifth hit of the evening plated one final run.
With runners on first and third in what was a 1-run recreation but once more, Enmanuel Valdez flew out to finish it. After a 92-minute rain delay and three:40 recreation, the Red Sox had misplaced by one run.
“Kept playing,” Alex Cora mentioned moments after the gorgeous defeat. “That’s the most important thing.”
“Love the effort, love the at-bats. Not enough, obviously,” he added.
An ethical victory maybe, and a particular signal that the Red Sox have some unimaginable younger expertise on their roster for future seasons, however on the finish of this very lengthy Saturday, that is one more recreation within the loss column.
Source: www.bostonherald.com