BALTIMORE (AP) — An engaging four-game series between the two top teams in the AL East ended exactly how it started: with the Boston Red Sox clutching onto a one-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles.
Mark Trumbo and Adam Jones each homered twice, Manny Machado delivered a tiebreaking drive in the seventh inning and Baltimore hit a season-high seven long balls in a 12-7 victory Thursday night.
Pedro Alvarez and Francisco Pena also connected for the Orioles, who earned a split of the four-game series after dropping the first two by a combined 13-4 score.
“A lot of people would have folded the tent after the first two games,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said, “but our guys got their dander up a little bit and wanted to show everybody that we could score a few runs, too.”
One night after ringing up a season-high 13 runs without benefit of a home run, the Orioles returned to their go-to style of offense: pure power.
“Follow the lead of the guys in front of you,” Jones said. “Get good pitches to hit and drive them out the park.”
Boston’s Xander Bogaerts extended his careerhigh hitting streak to 26 games with a two-run double and David Ortiz hit his 16th homer to give the Red Sox a temporary 5-4 lead in the sixth.
Quite simply, Boston couldn’t score enough to keep up with Baltimore’s hit parade. The Red Sox tied a team record by giving up seven home runs.
“A lot of offense with both teams scoring a lot of runs. We just came up short today,” Bogaerts said. “Hopefully, we just continue to swing the bats and the pitching will take care of itself.”
The Orioles hit their most homers in a game since connecting eight times last June 16 against Philadelphia.
Trumbo put Baltimore up 2-0 in the fourth inning, Jones added a two-run drive in the fifth. Trumbo then evened the score at 5 in the sixth after the Red Sox roughed up Ubaldo Jimenez in the top half.
In the seventh, Robbie Ross (0-1) walked Ryan Flaherty and gave up a single to Pena before retiring the next two batters. Boston manager John Farrell then summoned Junichi Tazawa to face Machado, who drove the right-hander’s second pitch deep into the left-field seats.
The Orioles added four runs in the eighth. Alvarez hit a solo shot off Tazawa, Pena launched the first of his career off Noe Ramirez with a man on and Jones followed with his 200th home run with Baltimore for a 12-5 lead.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less