The Red Sox now have 11 wins in their first 13 games, this time courtesy of a 7-3 decision over the Orioles on Friday night at Fenway Park. it's been 100 years since the Sox enjoyed a season start like this.

By Bill Koch Providence Journal

BOSTON -- It’s been an even century since the Red Sox enjoyed their only other season start like this.

That fateful 1918 campaign served as a painful benchmark for four generations of Boston fans, the last World Series winners in franchise history until a long-awaited breakthrough in 2004.

But here the Red Sox sit with 11 wins in their first 13 games yet again, this time courtesy of a 7-3 decision over the Orioles on Friday night at Fenway Park.

Eduardo Nuñez opened things up with a three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning and Eduardo Rodriguez turned in six strong innings as Boston moved to 11-2 on the year. Rafael Devers added three hits and Tzu-Wei Lin reached base three times in his 2018 debut, as a Red Sox lineup without Hanley Ramirez (right wrist) and Xander Bogaerts (left ankle) still managed to score at least six runs for the sixth straight game.

Adam Jones lifted a sacrifice fly to left to give Baltimore a 1-0 edge in the top of the first, one that would last all of six batters in the bottom half. J.D. Martinez answered with a sacrifice fly of his own to center before Nuñez did the night’s real damage, driving a three-run homer to the Monster Seats that made it 4-1. Christ Tillman threw only half of his 24 pitches in the inning for strikes, a harbinger of the trouble to come for the Orioles starter.

Back-to-back doubles by Lin and Mookie Betts in the second and a passed ball that allowed Devers to score in the third gave Boston two more single runs, with Tillman on the wrong end of a 6-1 deficit and giving way to Pedro Araujo. Mike Wright Jr. gifted the Red Sox another run with a wild pitch in the sixth, and three Boston relievers managed to combine for the last nine outs.

 

Rodriguez improved considerably from his season debut on Sunday, recording seven more outs while using just a dozen more pitches. He became the first Boston starter to crack the 100-pitch mark, firing a cut-fastball on his 104th to freeze Chris Davis for a strikeout looking that ended the sixth. Rodriguez struck out eight against two walks and scattered five hits, lowering the earned-run average for Red Sox starters to a tidy 1.97.