G133: Red Sox 9, Orioles 6

Red Sox - 110 010 600 - 9 11  0
Orioles - 410 000 010 - 6 10  0

Home runs from Marco Scutaro and Adrian Beltre keyed a six-run seventh and Lester (6-8-5-2-10, 120) settled down after being completely at sea in the first 1.2 innings.

Lester gave up six hits, one walk, one HBP, and five runs to the first 13 Orioles -- but then retired 11 in a row, striking out five of six batters at one point. He loaded the bases in the sixth, but escaped.

Meanwhile, the Sox chipped away. Ryan Kalish capped an 11-pitch at-bat with an RBI double in the second. J.D. Drew hit a solo dong in the fifth. In the seventh, Darnell McDonald singled and, one out later, Scutaro hit a two-run shot down the left field line to tie the game at 5-5. Drew walked and scored on Victor Martinez's double to give Boston a 6-5 lead. After David Ortiz was intentionally walked, Beltre's three-run bomb made it 9-5.

Boston kept pace with New York and Tampa Bay. The Yankees beat the A's 4-3 and the Rays beat the Blue Jays 2-1. The Red Sox are 7 GB the Rays in the WC, with 29 games to play.

Jon Lester / Jack Arrieta

Scutaro, SS
Drew, RF
Martinez, C
Ortiz, DH
Beltre, 3B
Lowrie, 2B
Lowell, 1B
Nava, LF
Kalish, CF

Arrieta made his debut on June 10 against the Yankees. In 15 starts, the 24-year-old right-hander has a 5.10 ERA. In 83 innings, he has allowed 88 hits and 46 walks, for an unsightly 1.614 WHIP. (Which means he'll throw a complete-game, five-hitter tonight.)

Marco Scutaro's rotator cuff in his right shoulder hurts so much that he is unable to practice. "He can't throw", according to coach Tim Bogar, so any infield work Scutaro gets is during games. Mike Lowell says Scutaro

needs to be commended as opposed to criticized. ... [H]e's giving everything he's got and I think that's pretty good.

In August, Scutaro batted .237/.273/.298 -- batting either leadoff (22 times) or second (5 times). And he can't throw properly. That's not "pretty good". That's shit. And at this point, there's no reason to keep running him out there every night, a la Mark Loretta in 2006 (.193/.274/.252 in 33 games after August 27).

September 1:

1906 - Philadelphia's Jack Coombs and Boston's Joe Harris each pitch 24 innings in what will be the longest AL game until May 8, 1984. The A's win 4-1 in 4:47. Coombs faces 89 batters -- going through the Boston lineup nearly 10 times. The innings-pitched record is second only to Joe Oeschger and Leon Cadore, who each went 26 innings on May 1, 1920.

2007 - Clay Buchholz pitches a 10-0 no-hitter over the Orioles in his second career start. (Dustin Pedroia liked it.)