The Baltimore Orioles rolled to a six-run first inning and never looked back, scoring an 8-2 win over the host Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon.
Baltimore logged five of its 10 hits in the big inning, including Coby Mayo’s three-run double. Taylor Ward went 3-for-5 with a leadoff double, a run and an RBI to lead the lineup, while Pete Alonso was 2-for-4.
Trevor Rogers (3-6) pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball to earn the win, breaking an eight-game winless skid. He held the Red Sox hitless through 4 1/3, striking out a batter in three of the first four frames.
Willson Contreras (2-for-4) drove in both Red Sox runs on an RBI single in the sixth and a solo homer in the ninth.
The Orioles blitzed Red Sox starter Brayan Bello (2-6) — who was sharp while making four of his previous five appearances as a bulk reliever — right out of the gates. Twelve men came to the plate, and five of the six runs came across with two outs.
Bello was charged with eight runs on seven hits and three walks in a five-inning start. He struck out four.
Ward opened the game with a first-pitch double off the wall in right-center before Gunnar Henderson was hit by a pitch. Adley Rutschman lined a run-scoring single into center, plating the opening run.
Bello then induced a double play ball, but that did not stop the Baltimore offense. Leody Taveras knocked an RBI single through the right side two batters later. After Taveras stole second and Colton Cowser walked to load the bases, Mayo provided the biggest blow of the frame with a bases-clearing double that banged high off the Green Monster.
Two batters later, following another walk to Jackson Holliday, Ward made it a six-run inning with his single back through the middle.
Bello retired 10 straight batters after Baltimore’s fast start, but back-to-back hits by Alonso (single) and Samuel Basallo (double) plated another run. A Cowser sacrifice fly made it 8-0 later in the fifth.
Wilyer Abreu was the first Red Sox baserunner, drawing a two-out walk in the fourth.
In Boston’s sixth, three consecutive singles by Ceddanne Rafaela, Abreu and Contreras plated a run and marked the end of the day for Rogers. Contreras lined a single to left for the RBI.
Contreras opened the ninth with a deep homer to left.
–Field Level Media
