G53: Orioles 7, Red Sox 5

Red Sox - 010 000 004 - 5  9  0
Orioles - 200 104 00x - 7 10  1

The Orioles hit four home runs off Eduardo Rodriguez (5.2-8-7-0-6, 94) and beat the Red Sox handily (despite the final score) in the first game of this four-game series.

Jackie Bradley hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning - punishing Buck Showalter for making a look-at-me pitching change with one out remaining in a five-run game - that made the final score respectable. However, JBJ's blast did not feel like the turning point of a possible rally; it merely felt like a huge tease.

The night started badly for the Red Sox as Adam Jones robbed leadoff batter Mookie Betts of an apparent home run by leaping at the wall in left center and catching Betts's fly ball. In the bottom half, Rodriguez set down the first two Orioles before Manny Machado snapped an 0-for-18 skid with a single and Mark Trumbo (0-for-14 against ER) homered to deep left.

Boston got a run in the second when Sam Travis reached on an infield single and took second on Chris Davis's throwing error. Christian Vazquez brought him in with a single to center. Bradley followed with a single, but Deven Marrero ended the inning with a grounder to short.

And from there, Wade Miley (7-5-1-1-3, 109) had very little difficulty with the Boston bats. He allowed a single in both the third and fourth and issued a leadoff walk in the seventh, but none of the three runners advanced past first.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez gave up a bomb to Davis in the fourth and a solo shot to Jones to start the sixth. Machado and Trumbo followed Jones's rally-killer with singles. After a strikeout and a force play, it seemed as if Rodriguez might escape with no further damage, but Jonathan Schoop homered on a high fly to left, scoring three more runs.

The Red Sox made some noise against Mike Wright in the ninth. Hanley Ramirez singled with one out and Josh Rutledge singled him to third with two outs. Vazquez's single scored Ramirez - and that was when Showalter went to the bullpen. Donnie Hart came in and Bradley crushed a 1-2 pitch to right-center. But (to me) that seemed to just prolong the inevitable. Which happened four pitches later when Pablo Sandoval, who had pinch-hit for Marrero in the eighth, grounded out to third.

Bradley, Vazquez, and Travis each had two hits; Travis also drew the Red Sox's only walk of the game.

NESN's Dave O'Brien made a huge deal about the fact that Rodriguez fell while warming up in the bullpen about ten minutes before the start of the game. I don't know if that accident had anything to do with Rodriguez's performance or if he simply allowed four dongs to a team that (as OB reminded us roughly 772 times during the evening) hits a lot of dongs. We've all seen pitchers slip on the mound during games and there is usually very little, if any, fallout. Anyone who listens to O'Brien for any length of time will know that he loves to create stories where none exist, so we'll have to wait until the post-game interviews are over.

UPDATE: Rodriguez said his bullpen tumble had absolutely nothing to do with his poor performance.

Eduardo Rodriguez / Wade Miley

Betts, RF
Young, LF
Bogaerts, SS
Ramirez, DH
Travis, 1B
Rutledge, 2B
Vazquez, C
Bradley, CF
Marrero, 3B

In his last seven starts - all of which were Quality Starts - Rodriguez has a 2.25 ERA.

(However, the bare minimum for a Quality Start is a 4.50 ERA (6 IP, 3 ER), which doesn't exactly scream "quality", so I don't get too pumped up about QS. But only two of Rodriguez's seven QS fit that definition.)

On the morning of May 21, the Orioles were 25-16, in first place. Since then, they have gone 2-8. Buck must have stopped taking his Genius Pills™.

The Yankees are at Toronto. The Blue Jays have won eight of their last nine games and have (maybe) crept back into the East race, sort of.

NYY  30-20  ---
BOS  29-23  2.0
BAL  27-24  3.5
TBR  29-27  4.0
TOR  26-27  5.5