Some games you don’t have to be your best.
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“You need to make high quality pitches, however with Ortiz proper there, clearly needed to be protected, get the ball down within the zone, and thankfully, I used to be capable of”, Matusz stated.
Big Papi has 50 multihomer games in a 19-year career. “He wasn’t going to pitch beyond the sixth inning”. This play scored Reimold, who aggressively advanced on a fly ball to deep center to get himself only 90 feet away.
Perhaps the boys possess a flair that was not seen prior to Farrell’s departure – they seem to be playing for their leader and friend.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be long in the game”, the lefty said. He had posted a 1.67 ERA in his last five starts. Baltimore’s pitching staff has been doing poorly against opposing offenses during the last 10 games, allowing an average of 6.8 runs per game, well above its season average of 4.2. He found himself in trouble in the bottom half of the second, thanks to a double from Caleb Joseph and a walk to J.J. Hardy. But the Orioles, much like in the first inning, flubbed their three chances with a man in scoring position. He was capable of combine his split-fingered fastball with four-seamers and an occasional slider.
With one down and runners at the corners in the first, Adam Jones reached on an E4, as the second baseman tried to tag the runner from first out to start a double-play. That included escaping a fourth inning problem which saw the bases loaded with only one out. The Red Sox allow 4.8 runs per game, but does worse whenever another team from the AL East Division is on the schedule.
When the Red Sox allow at least one home run, they are 34-60. This was still a good season, but the low average and increased strikeout numbers began to worry fans.
Turning the game over to B.O.B.
. Brach pitched a ideal seventh.
Boston leadoff hitter Mookie Betts went 0 for 3 with a walk, ending his 18-game hitting streak. Still, he recovered to strike out Xander Bogaerts.
Still, having healthy players is always good problem for a manager. Facing Matusz, Ortiz was 2-26 with 13 strikeouts headed into tonight.
When they are outhit, the Orioles are 11-54.
With their win Sunday night against the Kansas City Royals, the Baltimore Orioles won back-to-back series for the first time since the end of July.
Closer Zach Britton picked up his 33rd save with a ideal ninth.
1969 – St. Louis left-hander Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets for a nine-inning game record.
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Matt Barnes came out in the 6th inning to take over for Rodriguez. Not that pitcher wins and losses matter, of course. They need to find out now if he’s capable of it, because otherwise they need to explore options to trade him in the offseason.
