It’s early. Really early. It’s one series loss. In fact, it was only their first series loss of the season…
But when the Boston Red Sox let a 5-0 lead — along with their chances to keep fighting for a statement early-season series victory— slip away on Wednesday night, it felt like a missed opportunity. Not only to prove the naysayers wrong, but also to prove to themselves that their 7-3 start wasn’t just a mirage.
Laundry day. pic.twitter.com/dyLGXtNxQz
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 11, 2024
The “special group” that management and players alike have continued to tout started to crack when the going got tough. And when they found themselves in a position where they needed to fight back, there was no fight to be found…
Boston wasted a quality night from its bats and a quality night from its starter in another late-game collapse at the hands of a hungry Orioles team that smelled blood in the water and didn’t back down from a fight.
Up 5-0 with a two-run homer by Triston Casas, a two-run single by Connor Wong and an RBI single from Tyler O’Neill in tow, coupled with five scoreless, two-hit innings with six strikeouts by Kutter Crawford, Alex Cora turned the game over to his bullpen.
They folded like a house of cards. Isaiah Campbell was bad, and Chris Martin (surprisingly) was even worse. Brennan Bernardino mopped up his own mess after allowing a leadoff triple to start the eighth and pitched two scoreless frames with a trio of strikeouts, but the damage had already been done.
All told, the Red Sox’s relievers combined to allow seven earned runs on seven hits on 72 pitches over four innings.
“I did a pretty bad job of managing that inning,” said Martin, who was saddled with a blown save and the loss after surrendering four runs, three earned, including a go-ahead three-run homer by Baltimore eight-hole hitter Jordan Westburg in the seventh.
Crawford did his best to put a positive face on it. His outing was good, not great, but he showed a grit to get out of trouble that is vital for a starting pitcher over the course of a rigorous 162-game grind.
“It feels good to be able to kind of work out of situations like that that I put myself into,” Crawford said after escaping multiple bases-loaded jams, including coaxing an inning-ending groundout to Ryan O’Hearn in the top of the fifth.
Crawford had the strikeout pitch working early, fanning five batters through four after punching out Colton Cowser with the bases juiced to end the fourth. Walks started to plague him later on in the outing, but he found a way to power through.
“You know, even though my command’s not the greatest, I kind of take a lot of pride in just kind of going out there, competing no matter what kind of stuff I had that day,” Crawford said.
In more bad pitching-related news, Crawford’s day also ended with a potential injury as he came up limping covering the bag following that O’Hearn groundout to end his day.
“He gave us enough,” Cora said. “They’re checking on him. As of now, nothing serious. Kind of like he slipped a little bit on the bag around his knee, but nothing to be concerned right now.”
At least it wasn’t his elbow, I guess…
Casas ➡️ Monster. pic.twitter.com/HiQBPYItSp
— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 11, 2024
Offensively, Casas turned in his best game of the season while launching an impressive two-run shot over the Green Monster in the fifth to make it 5-0 — and it wasn’t a cheapie for the lefty, either. He finished 2 for 4 with a pair of runs scored and a strikeout.
“That was a good swing, stay(ing) on him. He’s putting (up) good at-bats,” Cora said. “I think the results are not there, but when he takes pitches they’re on the edge of the strike zone and he doesn’t chase. And that (homer) was amazing.”
On a positive note, the Sox’s arms were able to hold baseball’s No. 1 prospect Jackson Holliday hitless in his major league debut. The prodigy second baseman went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts, but was able to contribute to his team’s win with an RBI groundout in the sixth to punctuate what was still a memorable debut at Fenway.
“It’s really neat, the history of this ballpark,” Jackson told me after the game. “Got to come here as a little kid, watch my dad (former All-Star outfielder Matt Holliday) play, and to be able to be out there and competing, it’s very special.”
Kutter Crawford strikes out Jackson Holliday pic.twitter.com/K57KIMGQaN
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) April 10, 2024
Instead of going into Thursday with a chance to beat the defending American League East champion Orioles in the rubber match, the Sox will instead have to regroup behind Garrett Whitlock in a showdown with talented O’s righty Grayson Rodriguez to avoid a sweep.
Don’t expect Baltimore to let off the gas, either…
“(It’s) super important, you know, being inter-division guys (we face)” Westburg told me about winning their first series of the year against the Sox. “And they’re a good team over there. You know, they’re playing really good baseball early in the year. So for us to win those first two is super big for us.”
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.