G77: Orioles 11, Red Sox 10

Red Sox - 220 500 100 - 10 16  0
Orioles - 001 000 55x - 11 16  1

That is not a typo.

Who could have guessed when the rain was falling in the middle of the fifth with Boston up 9-1 we should have wished the game would have been wiped out?

As surprising and annoying as this one was, it's still only one loss -- and we come right back with Josh Beckett tomorrow afternoon.

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Playing ball again after a 1:11 delay. Masterson in.

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Rain delay at 8:36 at end of top of fifth. Baltimore needs to finish the bottom half for the game to be official.

So far, the Red Sox bats have been raining down hurt on the Orioles:

Lugo: 2 hits, 2 runs
Pedroia: 2-run double
Yook: HR, double, single, 3 RBI, 2 runs
Ortiz: double, RBI single
Ellsbury: RBI single and solo HR (moon shot crushed to rcf)
Bailey: single, 2 runs

Smoltz: 4-3-1-1-2, 52.

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UPDATE: It turns out the Red Sox will not wait until Thursday before making a decision about Mike Lowell. The team put Lowell on the 15-day disabled list today (retroactive to June 28) and called up Jeff Bailey.

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John Smoltz (9.00, 51 ERA+) / Rich Hill (6.03, 75 ERA+)

Look for more fastballs tonight from John Smoltz. John Farrell:

It could have been that it was his first time back and he didn't know what to expect velocity-wise. I'd like to see the ability to pitch off his fastball more.

In addition to giving Mike Lowell an injection of Synvisc in his right hip*, the Red Sox medical staff drained 15 ccs of fluid from the area. Lowell could return to the lineup as soon as Friday, but, as Terry Francona said, "the worst-case scenario, he goes on the DL just to buy us a couple of weeks where he can get a second wind for the second part of the season."

(*: If Lowell could not play without getting this injection, wouldn't it qualify (broadly-speaking) as a performance-enhancing drug? Of course, this drug is legal and allowed by MLB. But it clearly helps the player better perform his job. And if Lowell's hitting and fielding are superior having had the injection, hasn't his performance been enhanced?) Am I totally off-base?

Lowell:

If I don't have a big improvement in mobility and flexibility and all of that I have to believe their going to think of something DL-wise, but if I feel really good I might play Friday. So Thursday is probably the day we chart what's going on.

Francona said that Jacoby Ellsbury could be back in the leadoff spot "in the future", but for now J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia "are our two best on-base guys and since Ellsbury's been hitting seventh, he's just been (doing great), and we've been playing great baseball."

Drew, on his eighth-inning at-bat last night:

There's not a player alive who wouldn't know he needed a double for the cycle in that situation. I was trying to hit a double. [And how do you do that?] I don't know ... I was just going to hit the ball and run straight to second.

Jonathan Papelbon recorded his 132nd save last night, tying Bob Stanley for the Red Sox's all-time mark. Bot again expressed his awe for Mariano Rivera and his latest milestone:

A (four)-out save for 500 is pretty neat. And an RBI. That's the icing on the cake. Just seeing what Mo did is absolutely incredible. ... He's "The Godfather" of our role ... You're talking about a guy who has 500 saves and has been through countless postseasons. When you're just aching day in and day out -- I don't know, man. ...

Steve Buckley notes that "when Rivera was Papelbon's age, he had 84 career saves". That was 11 years ago. Can Papelbon still be closing games in 2020, at age 39?

Jason Bay is 1-for-13 in his past three games.

Orioles starter Hill has been highly erratic this season and hasn't completed five innings in four of his last six starts.