masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgComing into this game, Boston’s Mookie Betts and David Ortiz had hit 14 of the Red Sox’s 26 homers against Baltimore pitching this year. To the Orioles detriment, they added to that total tonight.
Betts and Ortiz hit two-run homers off right-hander Dylan Bundy as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 5-2 tonight at Oriole Park. The loss drops the Orioles to 82-68 and they fall four games behind the first-place Red Sox with 12 games to play on the year and three more in this series.
Bundy stranded…

Coming into this game, Boston’s Mookie Betts and David Ortiz had hit 14 of the Red Sox’s 26 homers against Baltimore pitching this year. To the Orioles detriment, they added to that total tonight.

Betts and Ortiz hit two-run homers off right-hander Dylan Bundy as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 5-2 tonight at Oriole Park. The loss drops the Orioles to 82-68 and they fall four games behind the first-place Red Sox with 12 games to play on the year and three more in this series.

Bundy stranded three runners in the first two innings, but needed 42 pitches to do so. Xander Bogaerts singled with one out in the third and scored on Betts’ homer to left. He hit No. 31 on a 2-0 fastball at 95 mph.

After that blast, Betts improved his numbers at Camden Yards this year to 13-for-25 with eight homers and 15 RBIs in seven games. In 16 games on the year versus O’s pitchers, he has nine homers and 21 RBIs.

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Meanwhile, Boston starter Rick Porcello needed just 22 pitches to get the first nine outs. He started the night with three straight 1-2-3 frames. Then, with two outs in the fourth, he hit third baseman Manny Machado. Machado objected to getting plunked high and tight and he and Porcello had words as he slowly walked to first base. When the next batter, Mark Trumbo, doubled to right, Machado scored to cut Boston’s lead to 2-1.

But the Red Sox then scored three times in the fifth to take control. Andrew Benintendi led off with a double and scored on Dustin Pedroia’s single. With one out, Ortiz homered to right for a 5-1 lead. He hit No. 35 on a 1-1 changeup. That was his seventh homer in 2016 against the Orioles.

Bundy went five innings, allowing six hits and five runs to fall to 9-6 with an ERA of 4.13. He threw a career-high 99 pitches and has allowed five runs four times in his last seven starts, pithing to an ERA of 6.62 in that span.

In six games (two starts) this season versus Boston, Bundy is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA, allowing 15 earned runs on 31 hits, including six home runs overs 20 innings.

Porcello threw a complete-game four-hitter on just 89 pitches. He improves to 21-4 with an ERA of 3.08. He did give up Adam Jones’ solo homer in the eighth as the Orioles pulled within three runs on No. 28 for Jones. But the Red Sox improved to 86-64, going a season-high 22 games over .500 with their 13th win in the last 18 games.

Now the Orioles only chance to gain ground in this series is to win the next three games. On Tuesday night, former top O’s pitching prospects square off when Kevin Gausman (8-10, 3.43 ERA) pitches against left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (2-7, 4.98 ERA) at 7:05 p.m.