The Sox are out to salvage what dignity they can from this series by avoiding a sweep. To do that, however, they'll have to survive another Clay Buchholz start. Entering today with an 8.69 ERA, he has been uniquely awful in the first month of the season.
We'll keep you up-to-date as all the action goes down in Fenway Park.
Orioles 9, Red Sox 6, Final -- Adrian Gonzalez strikes out with two men on, Darnell McDonald grounds into a double play. This team has somehow found a new rock bottom.
Orioles 9, Red Sox 6, Mid 17th -- Amazingly, Darnell McDonald is not a very good pitcher, and Adam Jones takes him deep for three runs. Is this a crushing blow, or is it mercy? I really don't know.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 16th -- It takes a strong throw from center to the plate, but Chris Davis actually has a scoreless inning to his name. A Marlon Byrd ground ball ate up Mark Reynolds at third, putting the winning run on first for Mike Aviles' gapper, but the throw was strong and Byrd was out by a mile.
Oh, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia struck out on three pitches against a first baseman. Can a career sink any lower?
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 16th -- A pair of excellent plays from Dustin Pedroia helps the Sox head into the bottom of the sixteenth, where they'll face Chris Davis. This has to end here, right?
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 15th -- Adrian Gonzalez goes down on another first pitch, Cody Ross strikes out for the fifth time...we're 330 minutes in and there's no sign of the end. Except for Chris Davis warming up in the bullpen.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 15th -- Yet another double play from the Orioles wastes yet another leadoff baserunner for Baltimore, and Chris Davis grounds out to strand Matt Wieters at second after a double.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 14th -- Ryan Sweeney manages a two-out single, but Dustin Pedroia has his knees buckled by a looping Jim Johnson breaking ball that drops in for strike three.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 14th -- The Orioles are gifted a one-out baserunner as Will Middlebrooks' throw to first goes wide of the bag, but J.J. Hardy quickly makes up for it by grounding into a double play to end the inning.
Can this game go any longer? It's been more than five hours since first pitch now.
Orioles 6 Red Sox 6, End 13th -- This time it's the Sox with the leadoff baserunner in Darnell McDonald, but Cody Ross, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Will Midlebrooks go down in order, leaving him stranded at first.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 13th -- Matt Wieters gives the Orioles yet another leadoff single, prompting Rich Hill's entrance into the game with Chris Davis already holing a 1-0 count. Davis manages to avoid a sixth strikeout, but instead grounds into a double play to make his night that much worse and put Rich Hill just one out--an Endy Chavez pop-out--from ending the inning.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 12th -- Adrian Gonzalez is now officially pressing but hard. After Dustin Pedroia draws a two-out walk, Gonzalez goes chasing a high pitch and pops out to move the game along to the thirteenth inning.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 12th -- Franklin Morales gets a nice double play to erase a leadoff single and send the game to the twelfth still tied.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 11th -- Will Middlebrooks gives the Sox a two-out baserunner, though he's caught watching his ball assuming it was going foul and is held to a single when he could have had a double. Marlon Byrd makes it a moot point, however, striking out to end the inning.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 11th -- Alfredo Aceves gives up a leadoff single, but Franklin Morales comes in to clean up the mess, getting a pair of pop-ups (fielding the first one on a bunt attempt himself) and a ground ball, which Will Middlebrooks fields smoothly on the grass to get Ronny Paulino at first and end the inning.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 10th -- A tame performance from the heart of the Red Sox order...if you still count it as that with Darnell McDonald in for David Ortiz after pinch-running in the eighth.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 10th -- Nick Markakis draws a leadoff walk, but Alfredo Aceves manages to work around the baserunner with a couple of fly balls and a strike out of Chris Davis--Davis' fifth of the night.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 9th -- More extra baseball for the Red Sox, as a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out of Ryan Sweeney and Mike Aviles respectively ends the ninth with the teams still tied.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, Mid 9th -- Alfredo Aceves is throwing some serious gas these days, getting Robert Andino swinging at a changeup and then blowing away Ryan Flaherty on a 97 MPH fastball as part of a 1-2-3 ninth.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 6, End 8th -- The Sox come right back to tie it in the eighth inning. Leading off, David Ortiz nearly leaves the park, but instead ends up with a wall scraper much like Reynold's. Darnell McDonald replaces Ortiz at second, pulls into third on a Cody Ross ground ball, and then scores on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's sacrifice fly.
Orioles 6, Red Sox 5, Mid 8th -- This is a very Red Sox way to lose a game, if indeed the score stays the same. Jarrod Saltalamacchia drops an Adam Jones pop-up in foul ground, leading to a ground ball chopped over the head of Vicente Padilla, who just barely deflects it for an infield single. A Matt Wieters fly out leaves Jones at first, but he quickly makes his way to third when Saltalamacchia makes a terrible throw down to second on a stolen base attempt.
Padilla managed to get Chris Davis with a strikeout to leave Jones 90 feet away with just one out to go, but Mark Reynolds manages to take him to the wall in center for an RBI double.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 5, End 7th -- Adrian Gonzalez can't come through with runners in scoring position, grounding out to shortstop as his woes at the plate continue.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 5, Mid 7th -- Matt Albers completes his second scoreless inning, retiring the Orioles 1-2-3 with a strikeout of Nick Markakis to end the frame.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 5, End 6th -- Will Middlebrooks can't cash in on the 2-out baserunner Jarrod Saltalamacchia provides. Trade him for a reliever!
(Please don't actually do that.)
Orioles 5, Red Sox 5, Mid 6th -- Matt Albers strikes out Nick Johnson induces a double play to work around a leadoff walk.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 5, End 5th -- And suddenly the game is tied! David Ortiz and Cody Ross lead off the inning with singles, and a walk from Jarrod Saltalamacchia loads the bases with zero outs as Tommy Hunter starts falling apart. He completes the collapse with a hanging breaking ball to Will Middlebrooks, who stays back and then takes it very high over the Monster and into the parking lot for the game-tying grand slam. You want hope? There is your hope.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 1, Mid 5th -- Andrew Miller strikes out the side in the fifth, putting some hope in the hearts of Sox fans that will inevitably lead only to disappointment. Such is the way of Andrew Miller and restoration projects like him.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 1, End 4th -- Mike Aviles plants a ball off the Monster and Ryan Sweeney drives him in to give the Sox their first run, but Dustin Pedroia pops out and Adrian Gonzalez grounds into a double play to end the inning.
Orioles 5, Red Sox 0, Mid 4th -- Thus ends another terrible day for Clay Buchholz at the ballpark. A pair of early walks put two men on with one out to start the inning. A long fly ball off the wall in center for Nick Johnson should have added to Baltimore's tally, but Matt Wieters held up too long to see if Marlon Byrd would make the grab, and then had to hold up at third, sending the other two baserunners back and leaving Johnson stranded between first and second for the second out.
Still, that ended up just being a warning shot, as the next pitch was a fastball in Robert Andino's wheelhouse (if such a place exists...) that ended up knocked off a sign above the monster. Clay would allow two more baserunners to reach before being pulled for Andrew Miller, who finally recorded the last out.
Orioles 2, Red Sox 0, End 3rd -- Jarrod Saltalamacchia is robbed of a hit by the shift, and Marlon Byrd manages a ten-pitch at bat, but Tommy Hunter has still had to face the minimum through three innings of work.
Orioles 2, Red Sox 0, Mid 3rd -- J.J. Hardy does it again, homering off a hanging curveball to put the Orioles up 2-0 before a double play manages to get Clay Buchholz out of the inning without any more damage.
Orioles 1, Red Sox 0, End 2nd -- More futility from the Boston lineup, though they do manage to at least take a few pitches along the way. Adrian Gonzalez strikes out swinging for what seems like the hundredth time this season, David Ortiz hits the ball hard but right at Nick Johnson, and Cody Ross goes down by way of the K as well.
Orioles 1, Red Sox 0, Mid 2nd -- And after a terrible first, Clay Buchholz strikes out the side around a walk to Mark Reynolds (throwing four straight balls low-and-away despite getting neither a swing nor a call on any of them). Quite the turnaround from the first, but he was like this in his last outing, too: one good inning, one terrible one, and so on until he exploded late.
Orioles 1, Red Sox 0, End 1st -- The Red Sox go down in a hurry, despite an infield single from Dustin Pedroia. Mike Aviles and Ryan Sweeney take all of five pitches combined to record two outs, and Pedroia is gunned down at second to end the inning.
Orioles 1, Red Sox 0, Mid 1st -- More of the same for Clay Buchholz, who can't be far from a phantom DL stint. The first four batters of the game all get big contact off of the Sox' starting pitcher, with J.J. Hardy taking him deep and Adam Jones doubling. Matt Wieters finally gives the Sox an easy out with a pop-up, but it's not looking like today's the day Buck turns things around.