Anthony Santander homered and later drove in the tie-breaking run with a ninth-inning single as the visiting Baltimore Orioles rallied from a pair of six-run deficits to stun the Boston Red Sox 12-8 on Friday night in the opener of a five-game series.
The Orioles scored 10 runs across the final three innings to win for just the fifth time in their last 14 games.
The comeback came against one of the hottest teams in baseball, as the Red Sox had been on an offensive tear. But Boston’s bullpen let it down in this one.
Xander Bogaerts crushed a three-run home run in a four-run first inning, and the Red Sox appeared in good shape for most of the night. Garrett Whitlock pitched six strong innings in a starting role.
The Red Sox lost for only the second time in their last nine games. They had scored 16 runs in two games this week in road wins against the Chicago White Sox.
Austin Hays and Jorge Mateo also homered and Rougned Odor and Ramon Urias each provided three hits for Baltimore.
Rafael Devers had three of Boston’s 14 hits, and teammate J.D. Martinez, who leads the majors with a .379 batting average, went 1-for-3 with an RBI double.
After the Orioles went ahead in the ninth, they tacked on three more runs on Hirokazu Sawamura’s wild pitch, Ryan Mountcastle’s sacrifice fly and Odor’s single.
Cionel Perez (3-0), who threw one pitch to end the eighth, was the winner. Matt Strahm (2-2) took the loss.
Baltimore’s first seven runs came on homers. Santander and Hays hit two-run homers and Mateo drilled a three-run shot.
Whitlock retired the first 10 Baltimore batters until he walked Trey Mancini in the fourth and Santander followed with his eighth home run of the season.
It was a rough outing for Orioles starter Kyle Bradish, who lasted just 1 2/3 innings and was charged with six runs on six hits.
Boston’s first run came on an error after Devers’ single brought in Enrique Hernandez. Two batters later, Bogaerts cranked his fifth homer this year, all in home games.
Alex Verdugo belted a ground-rule double to center field in the second, driving in two more runs for the Red Sox.
Boston was up 8-2 when Mateo’s third homer of the season came in the seventh off reliever Jake Diekman.
Then Hays went deep in the eighth off John Schreiber to cut the gap to 8-7. The tying run came later in the inning with two outs. Ramon Urias reached on an infield single, but a throwing error on third baseman Devers allowed Odor to score.
–Field Level Media
