BALTIMORE -- All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 6-4 win over the Orioles, complete with BSJ analysis and insight
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
ERod inefficient but victorious: On the one hand, Eduardo Rodriguez improved to 8-1 for the season and saw his ERA lowered -- however slightly -- to 3.64 for the season. But after a 12-inning game on Monday, the Sox could have used some length from their lefthander, and once again, he failed to deliver, hitting the wall at 109 pitches in just 5.2 innings. In 13 starts this season, he's gotten an out into the seventh just twice. "The next step for him is to go deeper into games and keep that pitch count down,'' said Alex Cora of his starter. "There were certain at-bats that he should have put them away (earlier than he did). He did his job; I'm not saying we're not pleased with the result. But we feel that there's more there. There's certain games where we need our starter to go deeper and today was one of them.'' Rodriguez is cognizant of the fact that he needs to be more efficient so he can last longer. "My focus is to try to get deeper into games,'' he said. "A lot of starts have been like 5.2 (innings) and that's not a really good feeling for a starting pitcher.'' The consensus seems to be that Rodriguez needs to trust his stuff more and recognize that his stuff is good enough to retire hitters earlier in counts, rather than on the seventh or eighth pitch of an at-bat.
Offense breaks out: With some help, that is. After a period of games in which the Red Sox scored two runs or fewer in four of their five games and never scored more than four in any one contest, Tuesday represented something of an offensive outburst, with six runs scored and two homers hit (Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers). All six of the runs came by the fifth inning, after which the Sox went back to their recent familiar ways, stranding baserunners left and right. They left 10 baserunners on for the game and their 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position was a vast improvement for a club which had gone 2-for-41 in that department of late, there's still some improvement to be made. The Sox got some help extending innings and creating traffic from a Baltimore pitching staff which either wouldn't or couldn't throw strikes, issuing a mind-numbing 10 walks.
Not the cleanest exhibition: It's a good thing the Red Sox were playing the lowly Orioles (losers of six-straight and now 10-20 at home this season) and not a team that might have taken advantage of some of their mistakes. The Sox committed two errors in the field -- one by Benintendi and one by Devers, who now has 13 for the season. They also had a baserunner thrown out at the plate -- by a lot -- and got a sloppy ninth inning from closer Craig Kimbrel, who issued two free passes to the first four hitters he faced while trying to close out a four-run game.
https://twitter.com/Orioles/status/1006743402682175494
SECOND GUESS
Not that it mattered in the big picture, but Eduardo Nunez attempting to score from second on a hard single to right by Mitch Moreland in the eighth was a huge miscalculation. Nunez was out by a good 30 feet and didn't bother to slide all the way to the plate, so obvious was his fate.
https://twitter.com/Orioles/status/1006728421488152576
TWO UP
Christian Vazquez: Vazquez was the only member of the Red Sox starting lineup to collect two hits, singling to left in the fourth and again in the fifth, the latter of which drove home a run. It was his third multi-hit games in his last five.
J.D. Martinez: Even when the slugger is now powering the ball all over -- and out -- of the ballpark, he's still managing to get on base. He reached four times (two walks, hit batsman, single) in five plate appearances.
ONE DOWN
Jackie Bradley Jr.: After showing signs of life earlier this month, Bradley is right back in the offensive doldrums. He hit the ball hard on a lineout to right, but finished 0-for-4 and now has one hit in his last 17 at-bats.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"To say the least. Hopefully, we can swing the bats tomorrow and Chris (Sale) can do deep. If I'm the manager of the other team, I know that we're very thin.''
— Cora, asked if he was concerned about the team's bullpen availability for Wednesday after getting 8.2 innings from his relievers the last two nights.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- The Red Sox are now 8-1 against Baltimore this season.
- The Sox are 8-2-1 in road series.
- Boston has had 33 multiple homer games, the most of any team in the big leagues. They're 28-5 in those games.
- Rafael Devers extended his hitting streak to eight games.
- Andrew Benintendi has one homer in his first 32 games; he now has 11 in 32 games since.
- The Sox are 12-1 in Eduardo Rodriguez's 13 starts.