Red Sox 2, Orioles 0 (F/12): Boston finally breaks through

BALTIMORE --- It certainly took the Red Sox offense long enough to make its presence felt Monday night, but the end result was all that mattered to the visitors at Camden Yards.

Steven Wright’s second straight gem of a start ultimately wasn’t in vain. Nor was stellar relief work from five members of the Boston bullpen, with Craig Kimbrel finally emerging to record the last three outs.

It was a 2-0, 12-inning victory over the Orioles that the Red Sox [...]

BALTIMORE --- It certainly took the Red Sox offense long enough to make its presence felt Monday night, but the end result was all that mattered to the visitors at Camden Yards.

Steven Wright’s second straight gem of a start ultimately wasn’t in vain. Nor was stellar relief work from five members of the Boston bullpen, with Craig Kimbrel finally emerging to record the last three outs.

It was a 2-0, 12-inning victory over the Orioles that the Red Sox desperately needed to begin a three-city road trip, with their dormant bats taking advantage of just a second meaningful rally on the night.

Mychal Givens finally succumbed for Baltimore in the 12th, as Xander Bogaerts singled through the right side and Rafael Devers smacked a long double to left center. Eduardo Nunez was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with nobody out, and consecutive sacrifice flies by Brock Holt and Jackie Bradley Jr. were enough to manufacture the only two runs of the game.

Orioles pitching had retired 13 straight men before the Red Sox mustered a two-out threat in the 11th. Mookie Betts grounded a generous single under the glove of Danny Valencia and down the line in left, Boston’s first hit out of the infield since the fourth. Back-to-back walks by Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez set up Mitch Moreland to be the hero, but Givens came from 3-0 down in the count to notch an inning-ending strikeout.

The Red Sox bullpen was equal to the challenge. Joe Kelly, Brian Johnson, Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree and Kimbrel combined for 5 1/3 scoreless frames, allowing just three runners to reach scoring position. Workman notched inning-ending strikeouts in the ninth and 10th and Hembree fanned the side in order in the 11th to pick up the victory.

Wright had the Orioles similarly flummoxed, running his own scoreless string over his last six outings to 22 2/3 innings. Baltimore advanced the game’s first two runners to third base against Wright in the third and seventh, but a Valencia grounder to Devers snuffed out the first threat and Kelly took care of the second. He was summoned into a bases-loaded, two-out jam and zipped a 97 mph fastball past Adam Jones to end the threat.

It was the longest of Dylan Bundy’s four scoreless starts this season, covering eight brilliant innings. He retired Boston 1-2-3 three times and didn’t allow a baserunner to reach third. Only Benintendi escaped unscathed against the right-hander, singling twice and drawing a two-out walk in the top of the sixth.

Bundy carved his way through the light-hitting Mets in his previous outing, tossing the first seven innings of a 1-0 shutout on Wednesday. He picked up right where he left off on a nice night by the Inner Harbor, allowing just five of the 28 batters he faced to reach safely. Bogaerts added an infield single and a walk to Benintendi’s output, but the rest of the Red Sox were a combined 0-for-23 with seven strikeouts against Bundy.

Boston’s last shutout victory in extra innings also came here, a 1-0 thriller in 11 frames Sept. 19. Bradley plated the game’s lone run somewhat ingloriously on a Brad Brach wild pitch, and Kelly picked up the victory by fanning the side in order in his lone inning of relief. Matt Barnes slammed the door in the bottom of the 11th.

-- bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25