Red Sox Recap: Orioles Win In Tight Affair, 2-0

One slip and the Baltimore Orioles never looked back.

The Boston Red Sox opened their three-game series in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, starting Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound against Kevin Gausman. If the Red Sox showed any run support for their young prospect-turned-starter, they would have won the game, easily. Instead, it was the Orioles who gave their starter just enough offense to carry them to victory.

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In the bottom of the first inning, Rodriguez struggled to settle into a grove, allowing a single and a walk to start his half of the frame. With one out, Red Sox second baseman Josh Rutledge, brought in by a trade to fill in for the injured Dustin Pedroia, made a fielding error that allowed Adam Jones to reach first base and Nolan Reimold to score from third.

After that display of disenchanted defence, both pitchers mowed down the opposing lineups, inning by inning. Rodriguez did have a balk and a wild pitch, but nothing came of either mistake. Gausman looked like a man possessed, compared to his previous starts. After going 1-4 in August and two no-decisions to start September, Gausman went six full innings, allowing only two hits, no runs, four walks, and seven strikeouts. Rodriguez had what normally would be considered a decent night’s work, allowing one run on five hits, three walks, and nine strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the seventh inning that the Orioles would strike again. With Jean Machi pitching, Jones hit a double to right field that cashed in Chris Davis. The lead was now 2-0.

The fact was that the red-hot bats of the Red Sox went cold, last night. None of the offensive frames for Boston extended past six batters, most of them being three-up-three-down. It didn’t matter that the Orioles used four relief pitchers after their starter, the results were the same. Gausman earned his third win of the season out of 14 attempts, Rodriguez earned his sixth loss, and Orioles closer Zach Britton earned his 33rd save.

The Red Sox are now two games out of third place in the American League East division.

Game Notes:

In 30 at-bats, the Red Sox only earned three hits and five walks. They combined for 10 strikeouts, 10 groundouts, and four flyouts. Clearly, the Sox were not seeing the ball as well as they had in previous games, at least not well enough to make good contact. They couldn’t even get it out of the infield more than four times.
The Red Sox went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight men on base. At least when they walked, they found a way to put pressure on the pitchers. However, nothing came of it. The Orioles went 0-for-10, leaving 10 on base.
Xander Bogaerts, Travis Shaw, Pablo Sandoval, and Jackie Bradley struck out twice each for Boston.

Grades:

B+. . Game Ball. <b>Eduardo Rodriguez</b>. STARTING PITCHING

He gave up a run, a balk, and a wild pitch. Rodriguez also recovered and kept the Orioles from scoring another run. It would have been easier to give him an A for his trouble if he would have pitched six full innings, like his counterpart did for the Orioles. However, he didn’t. He did command his pitches for the most part, 66 of the 104 pitches that he threw being strikes. The young man has a bright future and, if the Red Sox would have mounted some sort of respectable offense, we should have been discussing Rodriguez’s victory. Instead, we are looking at the bright side of his defeat.

B+. . Game Ball. . RELIEF PITCHING

Other than Machi’s run in the seventh, the bullpen came through. They held the Orioles to a 2-0 lead for a combined 2.2 innings. Much of that, however, was due to Barnes blanking the Orioles for his 1.1 innings.

Tommy Layne

only came in to face one batter, who hit a single and eventually scored off of the double hit off of Machi. Still, one run isn’t much. Last night, however, it was an insurance run.

F. . Game Ball. . OFFENSE

Three hits? That’s it? Ten strikeouts. Absolutely brutal. On top of that, it came on a night when they were facing a pitcher who couldn’t find a win in a paper bag for much of the season.

Bogaerts and Sandoval each earned one hit, but the third hit came from Holt who was pinch-hitting for Rutledge. When the pinch hitter has one of the only hits of the night, it’s been a bad outing. That’s no discredit to Holt, who should have been starting the game. The man continues to be used as a utility player, and yet he continues to shine when the rest of the team flounders. Has he not earned a starting job, yet?

The Red Sox may want to give him a starting position on a full-time basis at some point, or else in the future, when Holt’s free agency comes up, he may find a starting job on another team for more money.

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