Orioles - 040 101 000 - 6 11 0 Red Sox - 001 110 001 - 4 8 0Joe Kelly lasted only 3.2 innings on Tuesday night, with a four-run Orioles second inning - highlighted by #9-hitter David Lough's three-run homer - was Kelly's (3.2-8-5-2-2, 87) undoing. Kelly gave up three singles to begin the inning and a sac fly and Lough's HR accounted for the runs.
Boston tried to cut into Baltimore's lead, but had little success. Twice they scored a run, only to have the Orioles immediately match it.
In the third, Sandy Leon singled and Mookie Betts doubled. Second and third, no outs - how many runs would the Red Sox score? It turned out that even getting the two baserunners home was too much to ask. Brock Holt's groundout scored Leon, but Dustin Pedroia struck out and David Ortiz flied to center.
Hanley Ramirez began the fourth with a single to right and took second on a wild pitch. He scored on Pablo Sandoval's liner to left, but Mike Napoli and Leon were both retire to end the inning.
With two down in the fifth, Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez (5-6-3-3-8, 100), leading 5-2, walked both Pedroia and Ortiz. Ramirez followed with an RBI single to left, but Xander Bogaerts struck out.
Boston had a potential sixth-inning rally cut short by some atrocious umpiring behind the plate. Sandoval (3-for-4) singled and watched as Napoli (0-for-4, 4 strikeouts) fanned and Leon popped out. Betts walked. Reliever Brad Brach's first pitch to Holt was outside and home plate umpire Tim Timmons called it a strike. After a foul and a ball, Brach went even further outside - and Timmons called that strike three, ending the inning. Manager John Farrell was quickly ejected by Timmons - who made numerous ball/strike calls against Boston throughout the night, including the first two Boston batters following the ejection (which frankly seemed like retaliation).
The Red Sox made some noise in the ninth. Facing Darren O'Day, Betts walked with one out. After Holt grounded back to the mound, Pedroia doubled to right-center, scoring Betts and cutting the lead to 6-4. However, Ortiz lined out to third to end the game.
Betts, CFThe Red Sox will play teams from the AL East for the next 13 games, hosting the Orioles and hitting the road against the Rays and Blue Jays. After that, an eight-game homestand against the Astros, Marlins, and Yankees leads into the All-Star break.
Holt, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Ramirez, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Sandoval, 3B
Napoli, 1B
Leon, C
Peter Abraham of the Globe notes that, in June, the Red Sox have begun to hit and score runs like we all expected at the beginning of the season:
The Red Sox hit .241 with a .684 OPS in the first two months of the season and averaged 3.8 runs. Through 20 games in June, they are hitting .294 with an .809 OPS and averaging 4.7 runs.Mookie Betts (named AL Player of the Week) has a nine-game hitting streak (20-for-36, .556), with nine extra-base hits, nine runs scored, and eight RBIs. ... . Brock Holt is batting .387 (24-for-62) over his last 16 games, with 11 extra-base hits and 11 walks.
David Ortiz's home run on Sunday was the 476th of his career, putting him ahead of Willie Stargell and Stan Musial on baseball's all-time list. Ortiz is now 29th in career home runs. Above him are Lou Gehrig and Fred McGriff, tied for 27th place with 493.
The Red Sox claimed catcher Erik Kratz off waivers on Sunday. Kratz is a six-year veteran with a .217/.270/.400 batting line. (With Christian Vazquez out for the season, Ryan Hanigan on the 60-day disabled list, and Blake Swihart nursing a sprained left foot, Boston is currently using its 4th-string catcher, Sandy Leon.)
Edes:
ReplyDeleteThis is what passes for bragging rights at Fenway Park these days.
"At 31-40 (.437)," the pregame notes informed the media Tuesday night, "Boston has a better record than MLB's 5 other last-place teams."
"which frankly seemed like retaliation"
ReplyDeleteThe depressing thing is, if it was retaliation, it seems most people are fine with this. "Hey, you can't be disrespecting the ump! You can't show up the ump!" There have even been games when Remy/Orsillo have given such warnings.
The other day in the game recap on Over the Monster, after Ortiz got ejected, this seemed to be the general sentiment. They weren't even talking about Ortiz's ejection. They were talking about how the ump had screwed him on the pitches leading up to it. And the sentiment was that Ortiz has "no one to blame but himself" for the umps hating him.
You see, by complaining so much to umps over the years, it's perfectly reasonable for him to get a "reputation." It's perfectly reasonable for the umps to not like Ortiz. And thus, it's perfectly reasonable for them to intentionally make bad calls against him in retaliation for him being so unlikable. That's the very definition of corrupt officiating, but people seemed to not recognize that.