Haven’t been to Fenway recently but, hearing the languid rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” over the radio further served as reminder of the gulf between the first place Orioles and last place Red Sox. Hackneyed as it is, the tune is barely tolerable when the team is winning. In September of 2014, it’s a reminder that we stink.
And you can update the count: the Sox have now been shut out 14 times on the season.
The punchless Olde Towne Team fell 4-0 and committed three errors in this Monday night, late summer matchup. Boston starter Joe Kelly (1-2) labored his way through six and a third innings, throwing 120 pitches as he allowed four runs on six hits and three walks, striking out six. He left with two on in the seventh; Tommy Layne got Chris Davis to ground out and Alex Wilson closed the frame with a strikeout of Steve Pearce. Wilson completed the contest with no further damage to the scoreboard.
Baltimore got their runs on a Pearce RBI single in a messy second, on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice in the sixth, and as a result of errant throws by David Ross and Yoenis Cespedes in the seventh.
Former Red Sox farmhand Miguel Gonzalez (9-7) pitched slightly better than Kelly, mirroring his six hits and three walks allowed while striking out four. Tommy Hunter escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh (the most legitimate opportunity the Sox had), while Darren O’Day got the O’s out of a first-and-third scenario in the eighth.
The Sox tallied seven hits; the only players absent from the hit column were Ross and Dustin Pedroia, and no one logged more than a single except for David Ortiz, who doubled in that eighth inning. Pedroia grounded into two double plays.
The Red Sox send Anthony Ranaudo (3-1, 4.63) to the notch against Baltimore’s Chris Tillman (11-5, 3.40) on Tuesday night.