Alex Verdugo went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs and Rich Hill pitched six shutout innings as the Boston Red Sox downed the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 on Wednesday night.
Verdugo bookended Boston’s scoring with an RBI single in the first inning and a leadoff homer in the sixth. Abraham Almonte’s first long ball with the Red Sox came in the third.
Hill (8-7) struck out nine — his second-highest total of the season — and walked only one while allowing just five hits. The 42-year-old left-hander is 5-1 in 19 career games (nine starts) against Baltimore.
Matt Barnes logged his sixth save for Boston, striking out pinch hitter Adley Rutschman with the potential tying run on first in the ninth.
Robinson Chirinos hit an eighth-inning homer for the Orioles, and Ryan McKenna went 2-for-2 with a double and a walk.
Dean Kremer (8-6) allowed three runs, six hits and four walks in a five-inning start for the Orioles, who have lost two straight and four of their last five games. Kremer fanned two.
Baltimore (80-75) fell 4 1/2 games back of Seattle (84-70) in the race for the third and final American League wild card after the Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 later Wednesday night. The Orioles have just seven games remaining.
Boston (74-81) scored right away against Kremer, who had pitched a complete-game, four-hit shutout on Friday against the Houston Astros.
Rafael Devers started the first-inning offense with a ground-rule double to deep center. After Xander Bogaerts walked, Devers scored on a single up the middle that extended Verdugo’s hitting streak to eight games.
Almonte’s homer to right led off the third, extending Boston’s lead to 2-0. It was his first home run since July 29, 2021, when he was playing for the Atlanta Braves.
Austin Hays and Tyler Nevin hit consecutive two-out singles in the fourth inning, but Hill induced a Jorge Mateo flyout to end the biggest threat he faced. The Boston southpaw allowed just one baserunner thereafter and struck out four of the last six batters he faced.
Verdugo made it 3-0 when he dropped a solo homer inside the right field foul pole. J.D. Martinez followed with a double to chase Kremer from the game.
After Boston’s Ryan Brasier dealt a 1-2-3 seventh inning, Chirinos lined a leadoff solo shot to center off Kaleb Ort to break up the combined shutout bid in the eighth. It was Baltimore’s 10th homer through the first three games of the series. The Red Sox have won the past two.
–Field Level Media
