Red Sox Offense Waste Chances to Strike Against Orioles’ Much-Improved Pitching Staff

BOSTON –– The offense had its chances to strike.

In the seventh inning of Wednesday's 2-1 loss to the Orioles, the Red Sox had two men aboard with no outs. Then, one by one, Darnell McDonald, Marlon Byrd and Mike Aviles recorded three consecutive outs.

One inning later, the Red Sox seemingly had another shot. After Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz drew walks, the offense was primed to pounce with two runners on base with just one out.

And once again, the Sox coughed up their opportunity, as Will Middlebrooks flew out and Scott Podsednik grounded out. The subpar performance wasted Josh Beckett's reliable outing as he allowed just two runs and five hits over eight innings.

"Their pitchers basically outpitched our hitters, that's what it came down to," Aviles said. "Josh pitched unbelievably well, he definitely deserved the win and unfortunately we weren't able to back him up with the bats."

In reality, the offense hasn't provided Beckett with much support all year. The veteran hurler has received three or less runs of support in seven of his 11 starts this season. He's also been charged with the loss in six of those seven outings.

His sixth loss of the season also resulted in Boston's third consecutive defeat, dropping the team to the .500 mark for the first time since May 28. But Ortiz admitted that much of the credit is owed to the Orioles' improved pitching staff.

"It’s very impressive what they're doing," Ortiz said of Baltimore's pitchers. "They're going through every hitter, doing their thing and throwing the ball where they want to. Their pitching is great, I’m not going to lie to you."

Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen emerged a different pitcher compared to May 4, when he yielded four runs –– three earned –– and walked three batters. His pitches still maintained movement deep into the seventh inning.

For Aviles, the power outage against Chen was simply a testament to the rising competition in the American League East.

"There's not a person in baseball that doesn’t know that this division is easily the toughest division in all of baseball," Aviles said. "You look throughout the year and we pretty much all beat up on each other. You take your lumps and bruises and keep plugging away and try to win as many games as possible."

The Red Sox are currently 0-5 — losing seven in a row at Fenway dating back to 2011 — at home against the Orioles and will to restart the bats on Thursday to avoid a sweep.

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