On back-to-back days, the Orioles faced left-handed starting pitchers who have dominated Baltimore in their careers.
The way the Orioles performed in the first game, despite winning 2-1 on a walk-off wild pitch, wasn’t an encouraging sign for how they’d fare in the second. Already in a hitting slump, the Orioles on Sunday could barely touch Detroit Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who was perfect until he had two outs in the seventh inning.
They didn’t have the same issue Monday.
The host Orioles were all over Boston Red Sox starter Chris Sale, tagging the once-dominant left-hander for nine hits and five runs, as Baltimore came back from down four to win, 5-4, and extend its winning streak to seven games.
The Orioles (15-7) are now 8-0 in series openers and have won 11 of their past 13. Seven of those 11 triumphs have been in come-from-behind fashion. Baltimore also overcame four-run deficits on April 11 against the Oakland Athletics and on April 16 against the Chicago White Sox. The club came back from down one run in the eighth to win Sunday.
Sale dominated Orioles lineups for nearly a decade for the White Sox and Red Sox, entering Monday with a 10-3 record, 3.21 ERA and 12.7 strikeouts per nine in 109 1/3 innings against Baltimore. But those days seem to be behind him — and the Orioles — as the southpaw was tagged for seven runs in three innings against Baltimore in the first series of the season and struggled once again Monday.
The Orioles, who had scored just 14 runs in their previous five games, took 42 swings against Sale and missed just two of them. Sale didn’t strike out a single batter in his five innings — the first start in his career in which he’s made it past the first inning and not recorded a punchout. The Orioles didn’t strike out in the game, the first time they’ve accomplished that feat since Aug. 8, 2010.
After Boston (12-12) had a 4-0 lead in the third inning, the Orioles started chipping away, scoring one in the third, three in the fourth and one in the fifth. Adam Frazier, who raced home in the walk-off win Sunday and hit the game-winning RBI ground ball Friday, poked a slider by Sale to left field for a single that scored Cedric Mullins, who led off the inning with a double.
The Orioles then tallied four straight hits off Sale in the fourth. Ramón Urías roped a two-run double to score Ryan Mountcastle and Anthony Santander to cut the deficit to one. James McCann then tied the game with a single to right field, fouling off several pitches before finding grass on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.
Austin Hays singled home Jorge Mateo, who doubled, in the fifth for the game-winning RBI.
Boston took the lead in the second inning against Orioles starter Dean Kremer with a home run from Triston Casas that was clobbered 111 mph and traveled 426 feet to right field. Kremer surrendered three more runs in the third, allowing an RBI single to leadoff hitter Alex Verdugo and a two-run blast to Rafael Devers.
Devers’ home run was the 118th in Camden Yards history to land on Eutaw Street, including the 63rd by an opponent and the seventh by a Red Sox player. He crushed a 2-0 cutter from Kremer, who was trying to back door the pitch but missed over the plate, 115 mph down the right field line. The long ball was the seventh Kremer has allowed in five starts this season; four of them have come off his cutter, an offering that was perhaps his best in 2022 but has been his worst in 2023.
Kremer bounced back from the poor third, though, striking out the side in the fourth, retiring the side in order in the fifth and getting two outs in the sixth before being pulled. Kremer (2-0) ended his night allowing seven hits and four runs with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings to earn the win.
Relievers Keegan Akin, Bryan Baker, Danny Coulombe and Yennier Cano followed Kremer to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless. Cano pitched the ninth instead of Bautista, who threw Friday and Sunday, to record the first save of his career after getting three straight outs to strand a runner at second base.
This story will be updated.
Red Sox at Orioles
Tuesday, 6:35 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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