G46: Red Sox 6, Orioles 3

Orioles  - 001 002 000 - 3  6  1
Red Sox  - 000 130 20x - 6  6  0

Andrew Benintendi drove in three runs, one on a home run in the fifth (when he went back-to-back with Mookie Betts) and two on a one-out single in the seventh to give the Red Sox its margin of victory on a cold, windy, rainy night.

Rick Porcello (6-6-3-3-9, 107) battled to keep the lowly Orioles at bay. Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes, and Craig Kimbrel each pitched a perfect inning of relief.

Baltimore led 1-0, but Rafael Devers's opposite-field home run tied the game in the fourth. Here is NESN's replay of that shot, which tells the whole story:

In the fifth, Sandy Leon doubled. One out later, Betts hit his 15th home run and Benintendi followed with his 4th.

The Orioles closed the gap, but in the seventh, Tanner Scott walked both Leon and Jackie Bradley. Betts's fly ball allowed both runners to move up one base and Benintendi brought them both home with a single to center.

Dylan Bundy / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, 1B
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Devers, 3B
Nunez, 2B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF

Alex Reimer of WEEI takes a quick look at what J.D. Martinez and Giancarlo Stanton have done this year and concludes (albeit a bit early) that the Red Sox "got the better slugger for potentially $133 million less".

Martinez   .344/.394/.656  OPS: 1.050
Stanton    .255/.344/.516  OPS:  .860

David Schoenfield, ESPN:

[Mookie Betts] went 3-for-4 with a walk, three stolen bases and two runs scored [on Thursday]. He's now hitting .364 and slugging .734, and he's on pace for 48 homers, 59 doubles, 41 stolen bases and 169 runs scored. ... [T]hat's a career for some players.

Earlier in the day, we ran a terrific story from Sam Miller on Mike Trout. The headline: "Mike Trout is on pace for the greatest season in MLB history." Sam does a great job of explaining why that's the case, as Trout's 3.5 WAR through the Angels' first 40 games put him on pace for 14.2 WAR, which would break Babe Ruth's single-season record of 14.1 in 1923. ...

[But] if the AL MVP vote were held today, I think Betts beats out the guy on pace for the greatest season ever. He leads Trout in home runs, runs, RBIs and has a big lead in batting average (.364 to .290) and slugging percentage (.734 to .600) and Betts' slight edge in FanGraphs WAR helps cancel out Trout's lead in Baseball-Reference WAR.

Hey, Buck! Remember May 8? That's the day Dylan Bundy became the first pitcher in the history of the universe to allow four home runs in a game without recording an out?

That's ancient history! The Orioles have a one-game winning streak! You'll be hearing our footsteps soon, Red Sox!