Baltimore Orioles Rain Zeros Upon The Red Sox
Jun 11, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (15) is tagged out at second by Baltimore Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy (2) as he attempts to stretch for extra bases during the fourth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
A flood of rains and zeros by the Baltimore Orioles and Wei-Yin Chen washed the Red Sox out of town in a series finale on Wednesday night. A steady downpour in the middle of the seventh inning resulted in a 98-minute delay with a 4-0 O’s lead. After play resumed, the Birds would add two more runs to win 6-0.
It would be difficult to imagine a much better effort than was thrown by Chen. He gave up only four hits in his seven innings and escaped what little trouble he was in by inducing three double plays of the 4-6-3 variety. Over the series, Orioles pitching held the Sox to only one run in 27 innings.
Throwing only 87 pitches, apart from the delay he would have certainly thrown at least one more inning. Another beautiful sight was seeing Dustin Pedroia thrown out at second base by Nick Markakis while trying to stretch a single into a double.
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The Orioles supported Chen with three runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Steve Pearce walk, RBI double by Adam Jones, and two-run homer from Chris Davis. A fourth run was driven in by Nick Hundley in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Jonathon Schoop and Markakis picked up bases-loaded RBI walks in the eighth inning.
The win gives the Baltimore Orioles the gain of a game in the standings upon the Toronto Blue Jays who come to town for a four-game stand. The O’s now trail the Jays by 4.5 games.
Toronto has had a wonderful start to the season that has defied all the experts. They boast a powerful offense, though it has cooled a good bit over the past five games – four of which were losses. Over these five games, the Jays only scored seven runs.
The first game of the weekend series will feature the interesting pitching matchup of Kevin Gausman against the 10-2, 2.04 ERA record of Mark Buehrle.
Gausman pitched the fantastic start against Oakland last Saturday which shut down the A’s with but one run on four hits in seven innings. Apart from three short relief appearances against the Jays last year, Gausman started one game in Toronto on May 23rd – losing it while giving up four runs in five innings, including a homer by J.P. Arencibia.
Buehrle has 13 quality starts in 14 games
This will be Buehrle’s 14th start of the season. He has quality starts in all but one of those games – a rough outing against Boston at the end of April. Buehrle gave up only one run on five hits over seven innings to the Orioles on April 13th.
Some of the Orioles have good numbers against the veteran lefty who boasts a career record of 196-144. Markakis is .429 on 18-for-42 with a pair of doubles and homers. Jones is hitting .385 on 10-for-26 with two doubles and a homer. Maybe Delmon Young could give Nelson Cruz a day off, as Young is 17-for-45 with two doubles and three homers, while Cruz is a perfect 0-for-14.
Among other Orioles, Davis is 6-for-16 with two homers, and J.J. Hardy has struggled at 3-for-25 with a double and homer. Steve Pearce is 2-for-5, both hits being doubles.
It will be interesting to hear if word comes down from on high about the pending suspension of Manny Machado.