The Red Sox and Orioles are at it again, with the Sox going in search of some revenge after being swept by the Orioles in Fenway earlier in the month.
We'll keep you up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Camden Yards.
Red Sox 8, Orioles 6, Final -- The Red Sox manage to overcome Clay Buchholz' bad start to finally knock off the Orioles. It's a much-needed win that gets them back up to .500 for the first time in a long while.
Red Sox 8, Orioles 6, Mid 9th -- Troy Patton makes quick work of the Sox in the ninth. Alfredo Aceves will have to hold the Orioles with just the two-run lead in the bottom half.
Red Sox 8, Orioles 6, End 8th -- Vicente Padilla is some sort of Houdini. Coming in after Rich Hill made a mess of things, allowing a run and putting men on second and third with one out in the eighth, Padilla came in, induced a shallow fly ball to left to hold the runners, and struck out Nick Johnson to make it 0-of-15 inherited runners he's allowed to score.
Red Sox 8, Orioles 5, Mid 8th -- A quick rally takes advantage of Che-Hsuan Lin's first big-league hit and a wild pitch on strike three to add a run to Boston's total. Lin's single to left came with two outs and two strikes as, of course, did the wild pitch to Mike Aviles that let him reach second. A shallow single to left from Dustin Pedroia proved enough to score the very speedy Lin and give the Sox a welcome insurance run.
Red Sox 7, Orioles 5, End 7th -- Who is this and what has he done with Andrew Miller? Painting the corners with fastballs and off-speed pitches alike, Miller struck out two batters in a 1-2-3 seventh despite being given little benefit of the doubt.
Red Sox 7, Orioles 5, Mid 7th -- The top of the order gets the rally started, with Mike Aviles singling to left and Dustin Pedroia doubling to right with one out before the middle of the order makes good on the start with some very solid at bats. After an intentional walk to David Ortiz, Adrian Gonzalez works the count to 2-2 and protects the plate on a perhaps too-high fastball, but still puts more than enough of a charge into the ball to get Aviles home from third. Will Middlebrooks is up next, and after taking a 1-2 curveball he may have swung at a week ago for a ball, he jumps all over a four-seamer low in the zone and shoots it up the middle for an RBI single.
Red Sox 5, Orioles 5, End 6th -- Clay Buchholz does his best to give up the lead, allowing two men to reach with one out, but Andrew Miller enters te game and records one out on the ground and another through the air to end the inning.
Red Sox 5, Orioles 5, Mid 6th -- And just like that, it's a tie game. David Ortiz got things started by making up for missing a couple of pitches he should have killed in the third by absolutely crushing a high fastball over everything in right field. It was a mammoth shot that will surely find its way to the top of the distance charts by the end of the night.
Adrian Gonzalez kept the rally rolling with an opposite field double down the line in left, but had to stay at second when Will Middlebrooks' low liner to short was nearly caught by J.J. Hardy, eventually going for an infield single. Both runners would advance on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's rocket to first which Chris Davis managed to knock down, allowing him to record the first out of the inning. Daniel Nava got the second run of the frame home with a sacrifice fly, and then, miracle of miracles, a run-scoring balk was called not against the Red Sox, but in their favor, as Will Middlebrooks' fake towards home brought Hunter out of his windup.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 2, End 5th -- Clay Buchholz records a 1-2-3 inning as he attempts to perform just well enough to keep himself in the rotation for yet another week.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 2, Mid 5th -- 1-2-3 go the Sox in the fifth inning. After sending six men to the basepaths in the last pair, this is not a good sign for a team that needs to start putting some more runs up if they want to stand a chance here.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 2, End 4th -- Chris Davis continues to be a thorn in Boston's side, leading off the inning with a solo shot to center field. I believe extending this metaphor, for the record, would leave Buchholz as the knife in the team's back.
Orioles 4, Red Sox 2, Mid 4th --Three straight Red Sox reach base, but because of a poor stolen base attempt by Will Middlebrooks, they get zero runs out of it. The only question is: whose fault was the stolen base attempt? Middlebrooks' for going with no sign, Saltalamacchia for checking his swing on a hit and run, or Bobby V's if he gave him the green light to run.
Orioles 4, Red Sox 2, End 3rd -- So much for the revitalization of Clay Buchholz. As seems to be the norm for him, one little thing goes wrong, and suddenly it's chaos for the Sox. A ground ball just barely made its way past Dustin Pedroia to give Wilson Betemit a leadoff single and send Clay back into a spiral. A six-pitch walk to Nick Johnson made it two men on, and a poorly played bunt (on Buchholz' part) allowed Robert Andino to load the bases.
Clay would make it easy on the Orioles by walking in Xavier Avery, although a couple close pitches did not go his way. J.J. Hardy would hit a ground ball up the middle where Mike Aviles thought twice about starting the double play, and ultimately cost himself a chance at even one out. Another walk made it 3-2 before a double play gave the Orioles a fourth run in exchange for effectively putting an end to the rally.
Red Sox 2, Orioles 0, Mid 3rd -- The Sox take the first lead of the game thanks to some early damage from the bottom of the order. Where the meat of the lineup had been able to do nothing, Daniel Nava led off the inning with a flair into center field for the first hit of the game. Marlon Byrd followed up with a ground rule double to put runners at second and third with no outs.
Che-Hsuan Lin didn't do the best job of cashing in, grounding out to third with no advance allowed, but Mike Aviles hit a line drive off of Tommy Hunter's glove to get the first run across.The Sox would score a second run when Dustin Pedroia flew out to deep enough right field to get Byrd in on a sacrifice, but David Ortiz let a couple very hittable pitches get by him as he struck out on a foul tip.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, End 2nd -- Three straight ground ball outs leave Clay Buchholz with another clean inning to his name. The Orioles could be in for a long night, as Buchholz seems to have both his changeup and curveball moving and under control. That's a deadly combo on any night.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 2nd -- Adrian Gonzalez tries to get tricky to lead off the second, bunting towards third with the shift on, but it was too close to Tommy Hunter, who recorded the out without much difficulty. Will Middlebrooks and Jarrod Saltalamacchia make it another clean set for Hunter, going down in speedy fashion to end the inning.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, End 1st -- Clay Buchholz has almost an identical first to that of Tommy Hunter: The first pitch pop up and four pitch strikeout were followed up by a four-pitch fly ball to center this time, however, rather than a five-pitch ground ball. A very nice beginning to an important start for Buchholz.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 1st -- Not an encouraging start for the Sox offensively. Mike Aviles sees his streak of leadoff homers endat two games when he pops up on the first pitch of the game, and Dustin Pedroia goes down on strikes not long after. Only David Ortiz is able to at least make Tommy Hunter work, fighting to a 2-2 count before grounding into the shift to end the top of the first.