Red Sox Notes: Top Boston Reliever Drops Uncharacteristic Outing

BOSTON — The Red Sox surrendered a 5-0 lead on Wednesday night in an eventual 7-5 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. The personnel in the loss, however, came as a surprise.

Chris Martin inherited a two-run lead in the seventh inning as he prepared to face the heart of the Orioles lineup. That scenario had been automatic for Martin in his Red Sox career. The veteran reliever pitched to the tune of a 1.05 ERA last season and allowed just one run to start 2024. For what felt like the first time since joining Boston, Martin just had an off-night.

His command was off and Baltimore hitters simply found the barrel. In a 27-pitch seventh inning, Martin whipped two wild pitches, Connor Wong allowed a past ball and the Orioles tallied four runs to take the lead.

“I did a pretty bad job of managing that inning,” Martin told reporters. “A lot of things happened. Just a bad job by me managing the inning and executing pitches.”

Baltimore’s Jordan Westburg completed the comeback with a three-run blast to left-center field.

“We were one pitch from getting away from it and that pitch sailed,” Alex Cora told reporters. “(Westburg) put a good swing on it.”

“I felt like that was a pitch I executed,” Martin added. “He put a good swing on it. He beat me. That’s the pitch we wanted. I tried to go up and in. Maybe it wasn’t in enough.”

Boston’s best reliever could not hold the lead on Wednesday night. His fellow members of the pitching staff continue to trust him, nonetheless.

“He was our guy last year, right?” Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford said. “He was almost automatic. Coming out of the bullpen and just filling up the zone. He just had one of those days. It was kind of a bad day at work for him. We all have confidence and faith that he’ll get back to his normal self.”

After a rare poor outing, Martin’s dominant 2023 run with the Red Sox becomes even more impressive, even if that’s the farthest thing from the reliever’s mind.

“To be completely honest, that’s last year,” Martin said. “I’m not even thinking about last year. I’m trying to improve off of that season and get better. I’m going to continue to work as hard as I can. I’ve got to do a better job managing the inning. That’s something that I can control. I didn’t control that very well today. That’s why I’ll be a little more upset than normal.”

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Orioles-Red Sox game:

— The Red Sox lowered their starting ERA to a league-best 1.42 ERA with Kutter Crawford posting a 0.42 ERA over his last four starts, according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long.

— Boston moves to 9-9 against the Orioles at Fenway Park since the start of 2022.

— Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday made his MLB debut against the Red Sox. The 20-year-old went 0-for-4 with an RBI groundout in the sixth inning.

— Crawford turned in his sixth scoreless start since the beginning of the 2023 season.

— Craig Kimbrel recorded the save for the Orioles. The outing marked his first appearance at Fenway Park since pitching for the Red Sox during the 2018 World Series. It was also his first outing as a visitor since May 29, 2014.

— Martin allowed earned runs in back-to-back outings for just the second time in his Red Sox career. The other instance came on April 10 and April 12 during the 2023 season.

— The Red Sox close out their three-game series with the Orioles on Thursday. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.