G38: Red Sox 2, Orioles 1 (12)

Red Sox - 001 000 000 001 - 2  8  0
Orioles - 000 001 000 000 - 1  5  1

Chris Sale (8-3-1-0-14, 108) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and he struck out the side on nine pitches in the seventh, Matt Barnes escaped a nasty ninth-inning jam that had the winning run on third with only one out, Jackie Bradley reached over the wall in left-center and pulled back what would have been a game-winning home run in the eleventh, Andrew Benintendi's solo shot gave the Red Sox a lead in the top of the twelfth, and Heath Hembree struck out the side in the bottom half for the first save of his career.

NOT TODAY. pic.twitter.com/bBLMdrAaou

— MLB (@MLB) May 9, 2019

The Red Sox head home for an eight-game homestand with a 19-19 record, five games behind the Rays and three games behind the second-place Yankees. Both Tampa Bay and New York lost on Wednesday, the Rays losing 3-2 to the Diamondbacks in 13 innings and the Yankees getting clobbered by the Mariners 10-1. The Red Sox will have tomorrow off, play three games against the Mariners, have a day off, play two games against the Rockies, have a day off, and play three games against the Astros.

Sale set down the first six Orioles on only 20 pitches. Mookie Betts's home run gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the third. Sale hit the first batter in the third, then struck out the next three. He also plunked the leadoff batter in the fourth and retired the next three, striking out two. Sale's K: 203 220 32.

It's the eighth game of Sale's career with 14+ strikeouts and the second game in a Boston uniform. Sale tied a career-best with 15 strikeouts on May 11, 2018, but the Red Sox lost in 12 innings to the Blue Jays.

Red Sox pitchers struck out 22 Orioles. There have been only three games since 1908 in which Boston pitchers struck out more opposing hitters: 23 on September 25, 2016 (10 innings) and September 5, 2017 (19 innings) and 24 on September 15, 2017 (15 innings).

Joey Rickard got Baltimore's first hit with a liner to center with two outs in the sixth. Trey Mancini followed with a double and the game was tied 1-1.

Mancini led off the bottom of the ninth with another double, this one off Barnes. Renato Nunez grounded to third and Mancini remained at second. Rio Ruiz reached on an infield single and the Orioles had the winning run at third. Dwight Smith grounded a little dribbler along the first baseline. Barnes raced over, checked the runner, grabbed the ball and threw Wright out. He then fired a 2-2 fastball down the middle at 97 and Stevie Wilkerson swung and missed to send the game into extras.

Mancini came up empty in the eleventh as well, as his drive to left-center was interrupted on its journey to Home Runland by Bradley's glove. Instead of a walkoff win for the Orioles, that long fly ball was merely the second out of the inning.

Benintendi homered to right-center off Yefry Ramirez with two down in the twelfth. Hembree came in and struck out Ruiz and Smith swinging and Wilkerson looking.

Chris Sale / Andrew Cashner

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

Since April 1, Jackie Bradley is hitting .129 and slugging .153. This season, pitchers are slugging .164.

A win tonight will give the Red Sox a .500 record (19-19), eight wins in their last 10 games, a 5-2 road trip, and place them five games out of first - with 124 games to play. (The Rays lost to Arizona 3-2 in 13 this afternoon.)