What a fun, draining and disappointing day. The Baltimore Orioles had the Red Sox where they wanted them — down 5-1 in the top of the ninth inning; however, the Red Sox decided to flip the script and show that they could do a comeback as well.
Not only would the Orioles blow a four-run lead, thanks to four walks by the relief corps — mainly, Jim Johnson and George Sherrill — plus a two-run shot by Kevin Youkilis and giving up bases load single to ex-Ray Rocco Baldelli to the the game. The pesky Red Sox would decide the game in the 11th as Julio Lugo plated in the winning run off reliever Danys Baez, and they would steal one from the Orioles, 6-5.
Amazingly, Sherril struck out two Boston batters — Jason Bay and David Ortiz — for two outs in the frame; however, after giving up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury and a walk to Jeff Bailey, Jason Varitek earned a contoversial walk and then the flood gates opened thanks to Baldelli’s single.
It was a warm day, and after the amazing come-from-behind-historic-victory last night at the Yard, it looked for about eight innings that the Orioles would get a rare series win over their rival.
What can one say about Brad Bergesen — who is now easily the best pitcher on the staff. He threw eight innings of four-hit ball and struck out six and walked none. Once again, Bergesen threw strikes and was efficient on the mound, throwing only 103 pitches in his outing.
The Orioles jumped all over a shaky Josh Beckett — who started for Boston. Baltimore’s offense came through in the first four innings as Felix Pie had an RBI-single in the first, then they took a 2-0 lead as Luke Scott homered. They scored twice third to take a 4-0 lead as Nick Markakis had a two-RBI double and Baltimore’s final run came as Ty Wigginton homered to put them up, 5-0.
However, after the Wigginton homer, the Orioles would have a hell of a time producing any offense, Crazy enough, the Orioles are only 6-15 in day games this season, and only 1-6 versus the Red Sox this season. Well, I don’t know if this loss compares to the Mother’s Day Massacre of several years ago when former Oriole manager Sam Perlozzo yanked Jeremy Guthrie in the ninth inning with a 5-0 lead, but to have seen the way that Baltimore lost this game was galling.
It’s simple, if the Oriole pitchers had thrown strikes in the ninth — we would have won. However, the umpiring was very, very questionable in this series — to the point where there were several discussions from Oriole players/management to the respective umpires — but Red Sox fought, executed and when they smelled blood, they attacked.
