Red Sox Wrap: Boston’s Bullpen Falters, Drops Series To Orioles

BOSTON — The Red Sox continued their series against the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-5 loss on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.

With the loss, Boston moves to 7-5 while Baltimore improves to 7-4.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Boston’s starting rotation suffered a setback on Tuesday when Nick Pivetta was placed on the injured list with a right flexor strain.

That forced Kutter Crawford up a day, still on regular rest, to start against the Orioles. The right-hander needed a resurgent outing after losing his command against the Angels last time out, failing to finish five innings. Crawford looked fantastic through three innings, getting swings-and-misses on a third of his strikes.

The Red Sox fell into trouble in the middle innings when Crawford’s command faltered, walking four batters. This time around, the young starter pushed through, stranding the bases loaded in both the fourth and fifth innings. When the going got tough against a quality lineup, Crawford performed what was asked to finish five scoreless innings.

Fellow members of the young core provided offense between Jarren Duran scoring on a Tyler O’Neill blooper and Triston Casas homering over the Green Monster.

The Red Sox bullpen could not reward Crawford for his performance. Isaiah Campbell and Chris Martin turned in unusually rough outings, allowing seven runs in two innings to lose a significant lead.

The Orioles held on to take the series at Fenway.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Duran tallied a pair of hits and hustled to score from first on the game’s first run.

— Crawford struck out six batters in five shutout innings.

— Casas lifted his second home run of the season on an opposite-field blast.

UP NEXT
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.