Red Sox Wrap: Orioles Complete Sweep With 11-3 Win Over Boston

This is not the way the Boston Red Sox wanted to start the 2021 Major League Baseball season.

The Baltimore Orioles completed their three-game sweep of the Red Sox with an 11-3 victory at Fenway Park on Sunday.

Boston had won four straight games on Easter but snapped that streak with the loss. The Red Sox allowed a whopping 17 hits in the defeat.

Garrett Richards’ official debut with the Red Sox did not go as the right-hander had hoped, giving up six earned runs on seven hits and 61 pitches. He ultimately took the loss, while Baltimore’s Bruce Zimmerman earned his first win.

Garrett Whitlock was perhaps the biggest bright spot for Boston. He made his MLB debut in the third inning and scattered just three hits across three scoreless innings and 59 pitches.

The Red Sox fell to 0-3 with the loss while the O’s improved to 3-0 with the win.

Here’s how it all went down:

GAME IN A WORD
Yikes.

This one got ugly fast.

ON THE BUMP
— Things did not start smoothly for Richards. The righty gave up three runs and four hits on 31 pitches in the first inning alone, though Boston’s defense was not much help.

Richards struggled a bit more to start the second, allowing two of the first three batters to reach. Bogaerts prevented another run from scoring two batters later with a smart force out at home, and Richards ultimately escaped the inning.

It was much of the same in the third, with Richards allowing back-to-back singles to leadoff the inning. Alex Cora gave him the hook after he walked the next batter he faced.

— Josh Taylor inherited a bases-loaded, no-out predicament in the third, and he didn’t have much success either.

The righty walked in the fourth run on the first batter he faced before Austin Hayes extended Baltimore’s lead to 6-0 with a two-run double into the left-field corner. Trey Mancini knocked in two more runs on another double just two batters later, and a wild pitch allowed the O’s ninth run of the game.

Taylor was pulled after Ryan Mountcastle drove in run No. 10 on a single.

— Whitlock stopped the bleeding by forcing a fly-out to end the top of the third, though the damage was done. It didn’t take long for the righty to find his rhythm, either.

He wound up tossing three scoreless innings and struck out five batters while giving up just three hits.

— Hirokazu Sawamura pitched a hitless seventh inning.

— Matt Barnes walked one and struck out two in the eighth.

— Adam Ottavino gave up a one-out RBI single to Anthony Santander in the ninth.

IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Sox got their first run in the third on a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly.

— J.D. Martinez cut the O’s lead to eight with a leadoff solo shot in the bottom of the fourth.

— Martinez struck again in the sixth with an RBI double into the left-field corner to make it 10-3, Baltimore.

— Vazquez led the team with three hits.

TWEET OF THE GAME
As previously noted, Whitlock was a bright spot for Boston.

UP NEXT
Boston begins a three-game series Monday when they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to town. First pitch is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET.