In Adley Rutschman’s return to Baltimore, the Boston Red Sox took a 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night inside Camden Yards. Despite only hitting one home run before this game in his Red Sox tenure, Rutschman went 2-for-4 with a pair of home runs and two RBI, while scoring three times. The Red Sox pulled away late and got the win despite a late rally by the Orioles.
Rutschman’s return to Baltimore started strong with a home run in his first at-bat off Brandon Young, his second home run with the Red Sox. Pete Alonso got that run back in the bottom of the inning with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Blaze Alexander.
With two runners on with two outs in the fourth, a Jarren Duran flyout ended the Red Sox rally before any runs could score. Luis Robert Jr., in his second game with the Orioles since being claimed off waivers, started the bottom half of the inning with a solo shot to give the Orioles the lead. Alonso followed that up with home run #33 of the season, just past the outstretched glove of center fielder Eli White, making it a 3-1 lead.
Despite the back-to-back jacks, Jake Bennett rebounded strongly, retiring the next nine batters in a row. His final line: six innings, five hits, three runs, no walks, and seven strikeouts.
Rutschman’s return to Baltimore got that much better in the sixth inning, when he blasted another home run to cut the deficit to one. In the seventh, a two-out double from White brought up Isiah Kiner-Falefa with the RBI chance.
He delivered a single down the first-base line to tie the game at 3-3. This ended Brandon Young’s start. His final line: 6.2 innings, four hits, three runs, two walks, and seven strikeouts. Grant Wolfram came in and got the final out of the seventh inning via a strikeout of Roman Anthony.
Erik Miller came into the game to replace Jake Bennett, and although he walked two batters, he still got all three outs while keeping the game tied in the process.
Jahmai Jones laced a single past a diving Gunnar Henderson, before Rutschman advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. After a strikeout from Wilyer Abreu, Nick Sogard faced Yennier Cano, who hadn’t allowed a run in his last six appearances. However, that streak ended with a two-run blast from Sogard to put the Red Sox up 5-3.
Anthony added an insurance run in the ninth with an opposite-field home run to make it 6-3. The Red Sox wound up needing it, since Christian Encarnacion-Strand went deep off Aroldis Chapman for a two-run home run. Despite that, Chapman got the last two outs to end the game.
Miller got the win with one inning pitched, striking out two batters while walking two batters in the process. Luis De Leon got the loss, pitching 0.2 innings, giving up a hit, and being credited with an earned run. Chapman notched his 31st save of the season.
Outside of Rutschman, Boston’s top of the lineup struggled against Young. Thankfully for them, it was the bottom of the order that came through when it counted. White and Kiner-Falefa’s base hits in the seventh helped bring some momentum Boston’s way. Sogard launching a home run off of Cano completed the comeback.
Erik Miller and Garrett Whitlock managing to keep the Orioles at bay for the seventh and eighth innings was absolutely crucial after the Red Sox tied the game. Despite Miller’s aforementioned walks, he didn’t allow runs to score, while Whitlock struck out a pair of batters himself in a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
It took until White’s double in the seventh inning for Boston to get their first hit not from Rutschman. Young made easy work of the rest of the Red Sox lineup until the seventh inning.
Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran were 0-for-4 each, while striking out five times combined. Caleb Durbin, despite going 0-for-2, mustered a pair of hit-by-pitches in the fourth and seventh innings.
No team ever likes it when their closer gives up runs during a save situation. Encarnacion-Strand happened to capitalize on a fastball high in the zone. Luckily for the Sox, Chapman rebounded to get the final two outs and managed to land his pitches on the corners of the strike zone against the last two batters.
Boston will look to make it a two-game winning streak when both teams match up in game two of the four-game weekend series, which will take place on Friday at 7:05 p.m. at Camden Yards.
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