Red Sox ride Brandon Workman’s gem to 1-0 victory
By Conor Duffy
Jun 10, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Brandon Workman (67) throws in the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
The Red Sox dealt with two rain delays on a wet night in Baltimore, one of 15 minutes and another of 78 minutes. However, the Red Sox fought through that rain to win one of the best pitching duels of the young season.
Entering the night, a pitching duel certainly didn’t appear to be on the horizon. The matchup of rookie Brandon Workman (0-0, 3.74 ERA) and struggling Chris Tillman (5-2, 5.20 ERA) seemed to lend itself to an offensive showdown. However, with both offenses fighting through the rain drops in the early going, each starting pitcher was able to work themselves into nice grooves which lasted throughout the ballgame.
While Brandon Workman dominated from the get-go, however, the Red Sox were able to pounce on a few of Tillman’s early mistakes. After loading the bases but failing to score in the second inning, Brock Holt led off the third with a single. After two quick outs, David Ortiz was able to work a walk and put two runners on base with two outs for Mike Napoli. On a 2-2 count, Napoli flicked a bloop single in front of right fielder Nick Markakis, scoring Holt from second base and giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.
From that point on, the Red Sox went into full-blown “lead-preserving” move. And that wasn’t very difficult with the way Workman was pitching.
Workman didn’t allow a baserunner until the fifth inning and didn’t allow a hit until there were two outs in the sixth. He lasted 6.2 innings before being pulled from the game despite only having thrown 67 pitches. While the decision to remove Workman from the game was questionable, however, it did work out for the best. Andrew Miller finished the seventh with ease before Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara breezed through the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. This was just the type of game to get the Red Sox on a hot streak as they held their own against a tough team in the Orioles, and hopefully the Red Sox will begin to kick off a winning streak right about now.