BOSTON — The Red Sox turned the clock back to 2013 on Easter Sunday, showing incredible resilience to earn a victory.
Boston rallied from a five-run deficit to win 6-5 in walk-off fashion. The Sox have won four of their last five and sit just one game under .500.
The Red Sox and Orioles don’t have much time to sit on Sunday night’s game. They’ll take the field in the Red Sox’s annual Patriots’ Day game at 11:05 a.m. Monday morning.
— Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the Red Sox’s first home game following the Boston Marathon bombing. The Red Sox commemorated the occasion by paying tribute to the victims and first responders of last April’s attack with an emotional pregame ceremony.
— It looked like the Red Sox again would fall because of their inability to produce with runners on base. But Jonny Gomes completely changed the complexion of the game with one swing.
Gomes launched a three-run homer into the Monster seats in the sixth inning. It injected life into the Red Sox’s offense and the crowd.
“Man, I was just going coattails on the celebration before the game,” Gomes said. “We finally got some runners on and I was able to get an offspeed pitch that (Ubaldo Jimenez) might have left up. A nice little kick-start for us.”
— The Red Sox tied the game in the seventh inning amid some sloppy defense by the Orioles.
Grady Sizemore followed Brock Holt’s leadoff single with a comebacker. Pitcher Zach Britton fielded it and tossed to second base, where shortstop Ryan Flaherty couldn’t turn a clean double play. Under MLB’s new rule, a clean transfer from the glove hand to the throwing hand is required for a catch. Thus, both runners were safe.
“I think that’s being discussed right now,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said of the new transfer rule. “To what extent of when any potential adjustments might come down, we don’t know what yet.”
Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz produced back-to-back singles. Mike Napoli hit a chopper to third base that Jonathan Schoop cleanly fielded before firing into the dirt on a throw home.
Making matters worse for Baltimore was that Flaherty shifted to short and Schoop shifted to third base at the start of the inning because shortstop J.J. Hardy left the game with a right hamstring strain.
— Pedroia nearly swatted a walk-off homer in the ninth. The umpires reviewed Pedroia’s wall ball, though, and upheld the initial call, which resulted in a double.
The review took two minutes, two seconds. The Fenway crowd chanted, “Home run! Home run!” during the review while ferociously waving their fingers in a circular motion.
Welcome to Major League Baseball in 2014.
— Sunday’s ending was downright silly.
Mike Carp, pinch-hitting for Gomes with one out and the bases loaded, hit a line drive to left fielder David Lough. Lough made the catch, but he fired an errant throw toward the infield that ended up rattling around near the backstop. Pedroia started, stopped, tagged up and started again before crossing with the winning run.
“He was going in circles. He was running around everywhere,” Carp said. “But the only thing that matters is him sliding into home plate and we got the win.”
— Jake Peavy allowed five runs on 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked four.
— Boston’s bullpen was terrific. Chris Capuano, Junichi Tazawa, Andrew Miller and Edward Mujica combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
The club’s bullpen ERA this season is 2.30 (15 earned runs in 58 2/3 innings).
— Napoli got plunked on the left knee in the ninth inning. He remained in the game, but it took the slugger a minute to get up. Farrell said the Red Sox will learn more about his status Monday morning.
