masn-baseballs-orioles.jpgOn a night when both starting pitchers struggled, the game was played at times at a laborious pace. The Orioles made a couple of outs on the bases. It was just not a crisp night for Baltimore. But it was a long one, as the Orioles lost for the first time this season.
Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez gave up four runs and six hits over five innings as Boston beat the Orioles 4-2 at Fenway Park. Jimenez walked four and fanned five, throwing 104 pitches. He is 1-1 with an ERA of 3.75
The Orioles’…

On a night when both starting pitchers struggled, the game was played at times at a laborious pace. The Orioles made a couple of outs on the bases. It was just not a crisp night for Baltimore. But it was a long one, as the Orioles lost for the first time this season.

Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez gave up four runs and six hits over five innings as Boston beat the Orioles 4-2 at Fenway Park. Jimenez walked four and fanned five, throwing 104 pitches. He is 1-1 with an ERA of 3.75

The Orioles’ 12-game winning streak dating to September is over and they are 7-1. Boston improved to 4-4. It took about 1 hour, 45 minutes to play the first four innings as each pitcher needed 90 pitches to get the first 12 outs.

davis-swings-grey-sidebar.jpgEach team scored twice in the third inning. For the Orioles, Manny Machado, who had three more hits, doubled to left. He scored when Chris Davis hit a two-run homer over the Green Monster for a 2-0 lead. Davis hit No. 4 on a 3-0 pitch. He put an inside-out kind of swing on a 95 mph fastball from Joe Kelly to hit it out.

It was the Orioles’ 14th homer of the year – the first seven were solo shots and the last seven have all come with at least one man on base.

Boston tied it 2-2 on Xander Bogaerts’ two-run double down the third-base line that scored Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia, who had led off the third with singles. Boston went ahead 4-2 an inning later. Jackie Bradley Jr. tripled home a run and scored on a groundout by Betts. Betts went 7-for-14 in this series. He entered it batting .130.

Machado went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and is batting .441. After going 2-for-9 the first two games, he is 13-for-25 the last six games with three doubles and three home runs.

But Jimenez had an ineffective outing and O’s starters have pitched more than five innings just once this year. In the first four games, O’s starters pitched to an ERA of 1.42. In the last four games, that number is 6.86, with 15 earned runs allowed over 19 2/3 innings.

The Orioles also made a few baserunning mistakes tonight. J.J. Hardy doubled leading off the second but was thrown out trying for a triple. In the sixth, Machado doubled but was thrown out for the last out of the inning trying to steal third with Davis at bat.

Kelly allowed two runs over five innings to get the win and five Boston relievers kept the Orioles off the board the rest of the night. Closer Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth, getting the O’s top of the order on 14 pitches to end it.

After scoring 18 runs in the first two games of this series, the Orioles were held to two tonight. They left nine runners on base over the first five innings and went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position for the game.

Now it is on to Texas for Thursday’s start of a four-game series. Chris Tillman (1-0, 1.29 ERA) pitches against left-hander Cole Hamels (2-0, 2.08 ERA).