BOSTON – Interim manager Tony Mansolino had a decision to make today with two runners on base and two outs in the fifth inning. The Orioles led by a run and Seranthony Domínguez was ready in the bullpen. Trevor Story stepped to the plate, Mansolino ignored the right-left matchup by sticking with Cade Povich, and a ground ball killed the rally.
Povich was pushed to 98 pitches and exited with only one run allowed. Mansolino had no choice now except to trust his bullpen. That decision was out of his hands.
The lead slipped through the Orioles fingers and shattered.
Ceddanne Rafaela delivered a game-tying single off Domínguez in the sixth, Jarren Duran followed with an RBI single off Gregory Soto and Rafael Devers hit a three-run homer. Devers finished with eight RBIs after his grand slam off infielder Emmanuel Rivera in a 13-run, 12-hit eighth that sent the Orioles to an embarrassing 19-5 loss in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Fenway Park.
Both teams used a position player to pitch, with the Red Sox giving Abraham Toro his first career experience in the ninth. The Orioles scored twice. At times, it resembled baseball.
Devers walloped a slider from Domínguez when the game hadn’t turned into a mockery, launching it 408 feet to right-center field at 108.1 mph. The Red Sox sent 18 batters to the plate in the eighth, and the Orioles (16-33) remain stuck on only two back-to-back wins this season. They’ve lost nine of 10 and 15 of 18.
Cionel Pérez allowed five runs in the eighth inning without recording an out, the last three on Rob Refsnyder’s shot over the Green Monster, and Rivera made his fifth career pitching appearance and first with the Orioles. He loaded the bases, walked Duran with two outs and surrendered a slam to Devers.
Soto bent at the waist, hands on his knees, as Devers approached first base. He let two inherited runners score and his ERA grew to 4.67. Domínguez was charged with three runs and his ERA is 6.06. Pérez has an 8.31 ERA.
The bullpen cracked under pressure again and will be needed tonight in Game 2, which Trevor Rogers is expected to start as the 27th man. Rogers didn’t pitch in spring training due to a partially dislocated right knee and will make his 2025 debut.
The Orioles loaded the bases against Justin Wilson with one out in the eighth and Ramón Urías greeted Justin Slaten with an RBI single that cut the lead to 6-3. Cedric Mullins struck out and Heston Kjerstad grounded out. And the Red Sox pummeled Pérez, who got a double play in the seventh after a leadoff walk but appeared to run out of gas and luck. Mullins nearly threw out Rafaela at the plate, but Adley Rutschman dropped the ball.
Red Sox starter Brayan Bello had five strikeouts through two innings but allowed singles by Kjerstad, Jorge Mateo and Jackson Holliday to begin the third and fell behind 1-0. Mateo scored on Rutschman’s ground ball.
Gunnar Henderson walked, but Holliday broke too quickly for third base on an attempted steal and Bello threw him out.
Ryan O’Hearn and Urías began the fourth with singles and were stranded. Ryan Mountcastle led off the sixth with a single but couldn’t advance. Povich didn’t have much room to operate, but he struck out six in five innings, induced a season-high 14 whiffs and lowered his ERA to 4.86.
Povich tossed three scoreless innings with four strikeouts before the Red Sox pushed across a run in the fourth. Story’s leadoff walk came back to bite Povich after Carlos Narváez singled and Nick Sogard’s ground ball reduced the lead to 2-1. Alex Bregman singled and Refsnyder walked with two outs in the fifth, and they were the next Red Sox runners stranded to increase the total to seven.
Bregman came out of the game with right quadriceps tightness after making a wide turn at first base.
Plate umpire Doug Eddings did the usual check of Povich after the bottom of the second inning, but it lasted longer than usual. Mansolino and pitching coach Drew French joined the conversation, and they appeared to be talking about Povich’s movements from the stretch. Eddings eventually gave Povich a pat on the shoulder and walked away.
Povich struck out three batters in the first inning but also put runners on base with two outs on Bregman’s walk and Refsnyder’s single. Kristian Campbell reached on Mateo’s error with two outs in the second, and Devers singled with one out in the third.
Kjerstad raced back to the warning track in the second and made a leaping catch to rob Narváez. Kjerstad’s glove cleared the fence but the ball might have hit the top of it. Either way, it was impressive.
In the decisive sixth, Kjerstad was unable to make a sliding catch of Sogard’s fly ball to right-center that went for a one-out double. Campbell walked, and three straight hits ensured that the Orioles would remain without a doubleheader sweep since June 25, 2016.