The Boston Red Sox are on a serious roll, and it didn’t stop Wednesday night.
The Red Sox got an excellent outing from starter Clay Buchholz and a clutch hit from rookie Andrew Benintendi to earn a 5-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
Boston is on a season-high seven-game winning streak and expanded its lead in the American League East to five games with its third consecutive victory over the Orioles.
Here’s how this one went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Gift.
The Red Sox scored all five of their runs in the sixth inning, and all five were unearned, as Orioles first baseman Chris Davis made a costly two-run error to give Boston the lead. The Toronto Blue Jays also lost in a night of generosity from Boston’s AL East competitors.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Benintendi came up clutch with a two-out, three-run homer.
The rookie left fielder’s sixth-inning blast came right after Davis’ error and proved to be the nail in Baltimore’s coffin, turning a one-run Boston lead into a 5-1 advantage.
ON THE BUMP
— Buchholz got stronger as the night went on in one of his best outings of the season.
The right-hander essentially had one bad inning, loading the bases with nobody out in the third. But he was able to limit the damage, allowing just one run to score on an Adam Jones sacrifice fly, and pretty much was unhittable outside that frame.
Buchholz worked seven full innings, relying heavily on off-speed pitches to limit the Orioles to one run on just three hits. He also struck out four and walked two to pick up his third win in his last four outings.
— Brad Ziegler needed just nine pitches to retire the side in an efficient eighth inning.
— Robby Scott struck out Davis to start the ninth but exited after allowing a one-out hit to Mark Trumbo.
— Craig Kimbrel finished the deal, recording the last two outs of the game to seal the victory.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Benintendi delivered the clutch hit of the night with his second homer of the season in the sixth inning. He went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
— The Red Sox had serious trouble scoring runs before that. They loaded the bases in two separate innings but failed to produce both times, as Aaron Hill grounded out to end the first and Sandy Leon hit into an inning-ending double play in the fourth.
— Hill was part of a bizarre play in the sixth, hitting a soft grounder to first with the bases loaded that Davis threw errantly to pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Two runs scored on Davis’ error, turning Boston’s 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
— Mookie Betts continued his dominance of Camden Yards, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.
— Leon failed to record a hit (0-for-4) and is in the midst of a brutal 0-for-17 funk.
TWEET OF THE NIGHT
We see what you did there, and we like it.
UP NEXT
The teams’ series finale Thursday will feature a battle of aces between Boston’s David Price and Baltimore’s Chris Tillman. First pitch at Camden Yards is set for 7:05 p.m. ET.
Thumbnail photo via Evan Habeeb/USA TODAY Sports Images
