The Boston Red Sox completed a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles with a 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards. Aroldis Chapman earned save 400 of his career, becoming the ninth pitcher in MLB history to earn 400 or more saves in a career. All the runs scored came in the first two innings, as the last seven frames became a pitching duel.
The Orioles struck first with back-to-back two-out doubles in the first inning from Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. Eli White got that run right back and then some, as he took a 1-0 slider from Kyle Bradish and blasted it to left field for a three-run homer.
Red Sox starter Payton Tolle rebounded well, as he retired the next 10 hitters in a row, with seven of them by way of strikeout. Despite allowing baserunners in the fifth and sixth innings, Tolle prevented more runs from scoring.
Erik Miller took the mound in the seventh to replace Tolle. His final line: six innings, four hits, one earned run, and 12 strikeouts.
Bradish’s ended his day with four innings, two hits, four walks, three runs, all of which were unearned, and three strikeouts.
Jovani Moran was sent out for the eighth inning, and he was sure not to repeat his mistakes from his last outing, where he allowed two baserunners and only secured one out. Moran didn’t allow a baserunner and notched a strikeout to set up Chapman for the ninth. Despite a one-out single from Pete Alonso, Chapman earned save 400 with relative ease, striking out Mayo and Encarnacion-Strand to end the game.
When Chapman earned save 400, he joined the 400-save club, which also contains Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Kenley Jansen, Lee Smith, Craig Kimbrel, Francisco Rodriguez, John Franco and Billy Wagner. Chapman is the third lefty to notch 400, with Franco and Wagner the only other southpaws. He is also the third active player on the list, joining Jansen and Kimbrel.
With Ceddanne Rafaela dealing with a quadriceps injury since the series finale against the Seattle Mariners on September 2nd, the Red Sox needed someone to step up. White wound up being the guy, capping off a great series with a 2-for-4 day, including a three-run home run. White ended the series going 5-for-16 with five RBI. They will need him to keep this up, since Rafaela has just been put on the 10-day IL.
The Orioles struck out a whopping 17 times over the course of the game. Six members of the Orioles’ starting lineup struck out multiple times, including a hat trick of strikeouts by Encarnacion-Strand. Payton Tolle, especially, was a pain to deal with for the Orioles.
The Red Sox offense struggled mightily trying to generate any sort of offense against an Orioles bullpen that ranks sixth in the American League. Boston only mustered four baserunners over the five innings the Red Sox had against the Orioles bullpen.
Anthony Nunez took the mound for the fifth and went two innings and allowed no hits or walks while striking out three, allowing one baserunner via a hit by pitch. Next was Luis De Leon, who fared better this time around than in his last outing, pitching one inning and allowing a walk but no hits or runs. Cam Sanders struck out the side in his lone inning of work in the eighth, and Grant Wolfram struck out two and allowed one hit but no runs in the ninth.
The Red Sox sit at 79-65 and remain firmly in the second Wild Card spot, six games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians, who have the final spot as of the time of writing. The Orioles remain at the bottom of the AL East with a 69-75 record. The Sox will take this momentum back to Fenway Park as the Los Angeles Angels will visit for a three-game series starting on Monday at 1:35 p.m. The Orioles will look to bounce back as they stay home to take on the Guardians in a three-game series of their own.
If you love sports, download Stadium Rant from the Apple App Store and join one of the fastest-growing social sports communities. Be sure to follow us on socials too — you can find all our profiles on our Linktree.
