The Red Sox can only hope to dodge the sweep as they take on the Baltimore Orioles in Fenway Park.
Red Sox 2, Orioles 1, End 8th -- And with just one inning left, the Red Sox have taken a 2-1 lead. The run comes without even a single out in the inning, as Dustin Pedroia doubles past first off of Luis Ayala, and Cody Ross scrapes the wall in left for an RBI double of his own. Brian Matusz and Dylan Bundy manage to strand Ross, but the damage has been done.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, Mid 8th -- It's a clean 1-2-3 inning for Junichi Tazawa, but with zero strikeouts rather than his customary two, not what we've come to expect. If he doesn't watch out, he may end up giving up a single at some point. Maybe. Possibly.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, End 7th -- Manny Machado makes an amazing play to rob Pedro Ciriaco of a potential ground ball double down the left field line, and then gets to his feet and fires to first to end the inning besides. Had that gotten through, Scott Podsednik may have been able to score from first.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, Mid 7th -- A rare seventh-inning appearance for Felix Doubront goes well, as the starter wraps up his night by working around a one-out single from Chris Davis, finishing off the frame by striking out Robert Andino for the third time today.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, End 6th -- James Loney singles and even manages to tag up and take second on a long fly ball, but that's all the Sox get in another scoreless inning from Chris Tillman.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, Mid 6th -- For the first time in two months, Felix Doubront is enjoying a legitimately good start. Having survived his bad inning, Doubront goes back to his old 1-2-3 ways, and the strikeout that ends it is his tenth of the day--a career high.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, End 5th -- Another 1-2-3 frame for Chris Tillman. But for an error, the Sox are still scoreless against him.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 1, Mid 5th -- Doubront's meltdown seems to have come one inning late. He also seems to have survived it. Letting runners reach second and third on a Lew Ford single and Chris Davis wall ball double, Doubront has the first run come in on a bloop single back of second base. He does manage an impressive recovery, however, striking out the next two batters and getting a ground ball to keep the runner at third from scoring despite having three outs to work with.
Red Sox 1, Orioles 0, End 4th -- The Sox reward Doubront for his resiliency with a run in the bottom of the fourth. The score comes thanks to a couple of leadoff baserunners in the form of Cody Ross (single) and James Loney (walk). The Sox don't exactly take the best advantage of the situation, but manage to push the run across when Robert Andino throws away a prime double play ball that would have ended the inning.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 4th -- Far from the usual meltdown suffered by Doubront right around this point, the lefty has a tremendous fourth. He only needs 12 pitches to get through the frame, and what's more, he struck out the side in order! Not exactly par for the course for Doubront. Perhaps he's actually found some momentum to build on?
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, End 3rd -- 1-2-3 go the Sox in the third. Tillman seems to be up to the task of matching Doubront zero-for-zero while the Boston lefty can hold out against the Orioles lineup.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 3rd -- Another walk in the third means this is taking on the look of a typical Felix Doubront start. If it turns out continuing down that path, the Sox will have to watch out for a meltdown in the coming frames--his pitch count is already up over 50.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, End 2nd -- The Sox luck into a situation with some good potential when a fly ball from Jarrod Saltalamacchia drops in front of Adam Jones, who seemed to lose it in the sun, for a leadoff double. But they do not take advantage, with the bottom of the order going 1-2-3 after to end the inning.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 2nd -- Doubront gives up his first baserunner on a walk to Lew Ford, but it comes after two strikeouts and before a routine fly ball, giving the Sox another scoreless inning.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, End 1st -- The Sox also threaten in the first, but do so by getting men on base rather than just missing out on the long ball. Solid contact from Scott Podsednik and Dustin Pedroia get the Sox two men on with one out, but Cody Ross goes down swinging and James Loney grounds out to end the threat.
Red Sox 0, Orioles 0, Mid 1st -- Felix Doubront is through a 1-2-3 first, but he's got Cody Ross to thank for that. With two outs in the inning, Adam Jones hit a long drive to right, which Cody Ross was able to pick out of the air at the wall, banging himself up a bit in the process. It might have been a homer but for Ross' intervention.