Game over, Orioles win 4-0: There wasn’t any late-inning magic left for the Red Sox, who popped three straight flies in the ninth to end the game.
Bud Norris went eight strong innings for the Orioles (32-30), striking out six and surrendering just three hits and three walks against the Red Sox (28-35). Adam Jones, Nick Markakis and Ryan Flaherty homered for Baltimore.
The Red Sox will try to exact revenge Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.
End 8th, Orioles 4-0: Burke Badenhop made it look easy, skimming through the meat of Baltimore’s order with a 1-2-3 eighth.
The righty set down Jones, Davis and Crus without so much as a whimper. Let’s see what the Sox have up their sleeve for the ninth.
Mid 8th, Orioles 4-0: Bud Norris is not a man. He is a pitching machine — and not the type batters are supposed to get hits off of, either.
The Red Sox are making him look that way, at least. Despite a one-out double by Ross, the Red Sox again are stymied by Norris, stranding Ross at third. Norris has now thrown 98 pitches, 63 of them for strikes.
End 7th, Orioles 4-0: What a weird start this has been for Peavy.
He has looked really sharp, such as when he sat down the O’s in order in the sixth, then really off, like when he served up a fat pitch to Ryan Flaherty for a solo home run in the seventh. He actually has a better pitch-to-strike ratio than Norris, but when he has missed, it’s been bad.
Mid 7th, Orioles 3-0:Â If you’re going to put together a pitching outing like Norris has had, it helps to completely erase the heart of the opponent’s order. Pedroia, Ortiz and Napoli — Boston’s 3-4-5 hitters — are a combined 0-for-9 with four strikeouts against the Baltimore righty.
After Ortiz and Napoli were retired to begin the inning, Nava walked, but Sizemore grounded out weakly to first base.
With a double and a walk, Nava is now one of just two Red Sox batter to have reached base twice against Norris tonight. Holt, with a single and a walk, is the other.
On a related note, it’s weird that Oriole Bird would be suicidal with his team faring so well:
[tweet https://twitter.com/bradfo/status/476167492742942720 align=’center’]
End 6th, Orioles 3-0:Â Peavy could use an easy inning like this one. Cruz popped out behind home plate, Hardy grounded out after a nice play in the hole at shortstop by Herrera and Lough flied out the left field for a quick 1-2-3 inning.
Mid 6th, Orioles 3-0: At the bottom of the order, Herrera gave the Red Sox some hope of breaking through against Norris. In this game, such chances have been rare.
Yet the Red Sox were unable to do anything with Herrera’s leadoff walk. Ross flied out on the first pitch he saw, but Holt drew a walk of his own around some careful pitching by Norris. With two men on and one out, however, Bogaerts lifted one to right field and Pedroia grounded into a fielder’s choice.
End 5th, Orioles 3-0: Nick Markakis wasn’t letting Peavy off the hook this time.
After Joseph led off with a flyout to center, Flaherty singled up the middle. With the hit and run on, Markakis plastered Peavy’s offering to deep right field for a two-run homer.
The O’s were thinking about another dinger once Jones singled, following a groundout by Machado. But Davis got under Peavy’s pitch and flied out harmlessly to center.
Mid 5th, Orioles 1-0: Ortiz is not in a good mood after a surefire hit was taken away by the shift.
Ortiz lined one to short right field, where Flaherty was positioned perfectly to nab the ball on a dive. Then Napoli went down looking. Nava provided a spark with a double just past Davis at first base, breaking a streak of 13 straight Red Sox batters retired, but Sizemore could not capitalize, grounding back to the mound.
End 4th, Orioles 1-0:Â Things started out sort of interesting for the Red Sox in the bottom of the fourth. Just when Peavy looked to be settling in, he gave up a well-placed pop-up single down the right field line by Jones to lead off the inning. Davis tried to bunt Jones over, but his bunt was so well-placed, he actually made it safely to first base.
Well, at least he made it safely after a review. First base umpire Brian Gorman called Davis out, but no matter the tremendous effort by Peavy to go to his knees to field the bunt and make the throw to first, replay showed Davis was safe.
Fortunately for the Red Sox, Peavy regrouped. He fanned Cruz, induced a flyout by Hardy and snared a comeback chopper to retire Lough.
Mid 4th, Orioles: Through four pitching frames, Bud Norris has faced the minimum. OK, so that includes a single and caught stealing by Brock Holt, but why nitpick such a strong performance?
Holt, Bogaerts and Pedroia all grounded out in succession in the top of the fourth. Norris has thrown an average of 11.75 pitches per inning and has three strikeouts.
End 3rd, Orioles 1-0: Machado is having a frustrating night, to say the least. After hitting into a double play his first time up, the O’s third baseman waved at a pitch that was way low and way outside to end the inning with a whiff.
Mid 3rd, Orioles 1-0: Bud Norris has not given the Red Sox much to build on the first time through the order. Grady Sizemore, Jonathan Herrera and David Ross go down without much of a fight in the third. Norris has now retired eight straight Red Sox since Holt’s leadoff single.
End 2nd, Orioles 1-0: Peavy has been a bit wild at times, but he appears to be settling in a little.
After walking Nelson Cruz, Peavy struck out J.J. Hardy and David Lough before getting Caleb Joseph to ground into a force out. Peavy has now thrown 21 strikes in 33 pitches after running 50-50 balls and strikes for a while.
Mid 2nd, Orioles 1-0: The Red Sox didn’t have much of a answer for Jones. David Ortiz grounded to first base, Mike Napoli struck out swinging and Daniel Nava grounded to second as Boston goes down in order.
End 1st, Orioles 1-0: Jake Peavy had an eventful first inning, but got out of it giving up only one run.
Nick Markakis rolled a single through the left side of the infield to get things started, but was erased at second base when Manny Machado — confirmed bat-thrower — hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Peavy was lucky for the twin killing, too, because Adam Jones stepped up and blasted what would have been a three-run homer.
Instead, the solo shot gave Baltimore a modest 1-0 lead.
Chris Davis took a couple of healthy hacks at Peavy’s offerings, but ultimately flied out to the warning track in left field.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Brock Holt led off with a hit, because that’s what he does. He singled to left field, but was wiped out trying to steal second base on a bull’s-eye throw by catcher Caleb Joseph.
Xander Bogaerts popped out to shallow left field and Dustin Pedroia went down swinging against Bud Norris.
4:58 p.m.: Drew’s absence isn’t just for rest. According to CSNNE, Drew felt tightness in his right oblique in his last at-bat Sunday night and is considered day-to-day.
3:40 p.m. ET: It has been more than a month since Jake Peavy last picked up a pitching win. Then again, it had been a week since the Boston Red Sox last won a game, before Sunday, so streaks clearly are made to be broken.
Peavy (1-3, 4.72 ERA) will try to get off the schneid Monday night against the Baltimore Orioles, but it won’t be easy. As up-and-down as the O’s have been, they are one of only two teams in the American League East with a record better than .500. The O’s (31-30) trail the Toronto Blue Jays by 5 1/2 games in the division, while the Red Sox (28-34) are just five games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the worst record in the AL.
Brock Holt is back in the leadoff spot for the Red Sox, where he is batting .350. Despite right-handed hurler Bud Norris (4-5, 4.41) taking the hill for Baltimore, Stephen Drew starts the game on the bench, so the left-handed swinger will need to come in as a pinch-hitter if he is to help the Sox improve their 15-25 record against righty starters.
Stick with us for updates on the action in Baltimore, where first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
