Having lost 8-1 Wednesday night, the Baltimore Orioles turned that frown upside-down in an 8-2 beating of the Boston Red Sox (26-35) Thursday afternoon. The Birds struck immediately and struck hard, scoring 6 runs and sending 12 players to bat in the first inning.
The first inning started with Taylor Ward hitting a double on the first pitch and ended with Adley Rutschman striking out on the 40th pitch, a pitch that was originally called a ball but was overturned by ABS on a challenge. Ward went 2 for 2 in the first inning alone on his way to a 3 for 5 day with a double, a run scored and a RBI. His second hit of the inning knocked in the Orioles’ sixth run. Gunnar Henderson (0 for 3, R, BB, HBP), however, went 0 for 2 in the inning after being hit by a pitch and reaching basse on a fielding error. Five of Baltimore’s six first inning runs came with two out.
In between the 1st and 40th pitches, Rutschman hit a RBI-single, Leody Taveras hit a RBI-single and stole second base, Coby Mayo hit a 2 RBI-double and the aforementioned Ward RBI-single.
Baltimore proceeded to go 3-up, 3-down in the second, third and fourth innings. In the fifth, Pete Alonso (2 for 4, R, BB) singled and scored on a double of the bat of Samuel Basallo. Colton Cowser knocked in Basallo with a sacrifice fly to end the O’s’ scoring at 8. Despite putting at least one runner on base in each of the final 4 innings, Baltimore could not cash in on those opportunities.
The fifth inning also marked the end of Boston’s Brayan Bello‘s (2-6) day; his line, 5.0 IP, 8 R, 7 H, 3 BB, 4 K, HBP on 108 pitches (72 K’s) thrown. Bello saw his ERA rise 71 points to 6.34.
On the flip side, in front of quite a few family members, Trevor Rogers (3-6) limited Boston to 1 run while scattering 5 hits in 5.2 innings of work. He walked 1 and struck out 3 on 87 pitches (66 K’s). Most notably is the fact that Rogers threw first pitch strikes to 15 of the 22 (68%) batters he faced.
Andrew Kittredge gave up a Willson Contreras solo homerun in the ninth inning.
The Orioles saw everyone in the starting lineup reach base at least once in the game with Henderson and Jackson Holliday (0 for 2, 2 BB) both going hitless.
2026 Record: 30-33
Next Game: Fri. 6/5 @ 7:07 pm @ Toronto Blue Jays
