For the second straight night an Orioles starting pitcher held the Red Sox lineup in check. Following Tuesday night's start by Zach Britton, Jeremy Guthrie took the mound for the Orioles and tried to overcome his previous struggles against the Red Sox. Guthrie came into the game with a 1-7 career record against the Red Sox, but you wouldn't have known it from the way he pitched last night.
Jacoby Elssbury led off the game with a single, and two batters later Adrian Gonzalez doubled to deep right. It looked as if the Red Sox were going to jump on Guthrie early, but the O's ace was able to avert any trouble as he retired Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz to end the inning.
Jeremy was able to navigate his way through the next two innings without much trouble before facing another Red Sox threat in the 4th inning. Guthrie retired Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis to start the inning before allowing a David Ortiz single and walking J.D. Drew. With runners at first and second and two out, Jed Lowrie singled to right field. With Ortiz rounding third and heading for the plate, Nick Markakis threw a bullet to catcher Matt Wieters gunning the Red Sox DH down at the plate.
In the bottom half of the inning, the O's were finally able to crack through against Boston starter Josh Beckett. Following a Nick Markakis strike out, Derrek Lee came to the plate and blooped a pop up into right center field. Lee's pop up fell into the "Bermuda Triangle" of baseball as it fell between three Red Sox defenders. Given an extra out, the Orioles looked to take advantage and they did. After a Vladimir Guerrero strike out, Luke Scott came to the plate and launched a moon shot 424 feet onto Eutaw Street for his 3rd homerun of the year. Adam Jones followed Luke Scott with a homerun of his own, his 5th of the year, that landed just over the wall in left. The inning should have ended with the Guerrero strike out, but instead the O's took advantage of the Boston mistake and turned it into a 3-0 lead.
The Birds were able to tack on another run in the bottom of the 5th inning. Matt Wieters led off the inning with a single to right, and Robert Andino laid a beautiful bunt down the third base line and was able to reach on a bunt single. A wild pitch by Josh Beckett allowed both runners to advance, and gave the Orioles a 2nd and 3rd situation with no body out. Brian Roberts was able to send a fly ball to deep right field allowing Matt Wieters to score on the sac fly. Beckett was able to avoid any more trouble and retired Nick Markakis and Derrek Lee on groundouts to end the inning.
Jeremy Guthrie went out for one more inning before turning things over to the bullpen in the 7th inning. Jeremy Accardo pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning, and went back out to begin the 8th inning. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the 8th with a single and was followed by a Dustin Pedroia walk. After the Pedroia walk, Buck Showalter again went to the bullpen, this time calling on lefty Clay Rapada to face Adrian Gonzalez. The lefty on lefty matchup did not work too well for the Orioles as Adrain Gonzalez hit his 2nd home run of the year to left center field. Koji Uehara relieved Rapada after only one batter, but had similar results as he gave up a homerun to Kevin Youkilis. These back-to-back home runs allowed the Red Sox to tie the game in two swings. Koji was eventually able to get out of the inning, but the damage was done.
With a tie score, the Orioles looked to take back the lead in the bottom of the 8th inning. Facing Daniel Bard, Nick Markakis and Derrek Lee got things going for the Orioles with back-to-back singles. A Jason Varitek passed ball allowed both runners to move up. Markakis was thrown out at the plate trying to score on another Varitek passed ball, but his hand was blocked by Bard's foot, and he was tagged out by the Red Sox pitcher. Validimir Guerrero delivered the go ahead run with his single up the middle.
Closer Kevin Gregg came on in the 9th trying to hold onto the one run lead. Gregg recorded his second straight 1-2-3 9th inning en route to his fourth save of the season, and a 5-4 Orioles victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment