The Red Sox have always been a team that you could rely upon for a strong defense, but that’s not been the case in 2017. The Sox repeated what has been way too often this season; they had their ace on the mound, the team gave them little to no run support and the defense fell apart giving the victory to the other team. The Sox have allowed a total of 13 unearned runs in the short span of the season. It doesn’t matter how good their starting pitching is if they don’t have a decent offense and defense behind it.
The game started off as a nice pitchers duel between Rick Porcello and Dylan Bundy. There wasn’t a run on the board until the top of the 5th inning. Porcello gave up the first run of the game when he allowed an RBI double to Joseph to score Schoop. Sox 0-1. The O’s went out to a 2-0 lead in the 6th when Manny Machado answered the boos he was receiving from the Fenway crowd with a solo home run off of Porcello. Sox 0-2. Porcello pitched through 6 innings, but was leaving the mound in line for the loss with no run support behind him. Porcello’s pitching line for the night was 108 pitches, 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB and 7 Ks.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, Bundy hit Mookie Betts with a pitch and he took his base. Whether or not that pitch was intentional or not is up for debate, however it wouldn’t end up benefitting the Sox in anyway since the next two batters went down in order. The crowd boo’ed, however the Sox carried without increasing the drama. Mookie also got hit below the waist, so if he was hit intentionally, at least the O’s know how to do it correctly. Heath Hembree came out to pitch a scoreless 7th inning and then went back out for the 8th. Hembree would end up suffering from some bad defense behind him. Manny Machado by way of an error and then Gentry came home to score. Sox 0-3. Trumbo then hit an RBI single and then all the runners moved up due to a throwing error from Benintendi. Sox 0-4. It was looking like a circus out there. Abad came out to finish off the inning and ended up allowing the O’s to score their 5th run of the game when he gave up an RBI sac fly to Davis. Sox 0-5.
The Sox were able to score their first run in the bottom of the 8th. Benintendi hit an RBI single to score Hernandez. Then the errors continued when the Sox were up to bat as well. Hanley Ramirez hit an RBI single, however he tried to leg out a single into a double. The only problem was that Benintendi stayed at 2nd base. The ball came into the infield and both Sox players were standing on 2nd base. Benitendi was called out due to some bone headed base running by Ramirez. Sox 2-5. Joe Kelly came out and pitched a scoreless 9th inning, but the Sox wouldn’t have a rally in the bottom of the 9th inning. The O’s took the opening game of the series with ease.
Red Sox 2 Orioles 5 BOXSCORE
WP: Bundy (4-1) LP: Porcello (1-4) SV: Brach (5)
Additionally, it was reported by Orioles centerfielder, Adam Jones, after the game that fans in the bleachers were swearing, yelling racial slurs at him during the game and then a fan threw a bag of peanuts at him. Fenway confirmed that a fan was ejected for throwing peanuts at Jones. It’s so disappointing to hear this is how fans behaved. Jones should be able to do his without having to subjected to this kind of behavior. Jones stated after the game that this is not the first time he has had racial slurs yelled at him while at Fenway and while that is so disappointing, it is not surprising. The Red Sox released an official statement condemning the actions of this individual. That kind of conduct is unacceptable in my opinion and hopefully in your opinion as well.
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