Red Sox 19-3, Orioles 3-10: Boston settles for split with Baltimore

BOSTON — It was a stormy night in Baltimore two months and one day ago, and the Red Sox to a man were seething.

Boston needed just one inning to build a five-run lead in the July 25 finale of a three-game series with the Orioles at Camden Yards. David Price flashed some of his best stuff of the season. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez had already hit home runs.

Then heavy rain swept through Charm City, and a delay of more than two hours preceded a postponement and an [...]

BOSTON — It was a stormy night in Baltimore two months and one day ago, and the Red Sox to a man were seething.

Boston needed just one inning to build a five-run lead in the July 25 finale of a three-game series with the Orioles at Camden Yards. David Price flashed some of his best stuff of the season. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez had already hit home runs.

Then heavy rain swept through Charm City, and a delay of more than two hours preceded a postponement and an annoyed traveling party’s trip home. Surely the Red Sox would have finished the job over the next eight frames against the worst team in baseball, and they’ve made Baltimore pay for it ever since.

The last of Boston’s six victories in the ensuing seven meetings against the Orioles came in Wednesday’s day-night doubleheader. The Red Sox fired on all cylinders at the plate in a 19-3 afternoon battering before running out of gas and dropping the nightcap, 10-3.

The split didn’t threaten to change the reality of two seasons that couldn’t be more diametrically opposite. Boston clinched baseball’s best record Monday night and continues to add to its own franchise mark for victories in a season. Baltimore is 60½ games out of first place in the American League East and won just three of 19 games against the Red Sox this season.

Chris Sale threw 92 pitches in his final start ahead of the postseason, fanning eight against just one walk in the nightcap. He lasted just 4 2/3 innings and a showed below-average velocity on his fastball, the result of what he and manager Alex Cora said were some mechanical difficulties involving Sale’s lower half. The left-hander has nine days to sharpen himself for his presumed start in Game One.

“I saw some things last week – even tonight,” Sale said. “Just not really driving off my lower half. Not able to create that torque I have in the past. We’ve got extended time now to figure to what we need to do and we’ll go from there.”

“The way he was talking about it, they know themselves,” Cora said. “They have pitching coaches and they have all kinds of people helping them out, but they know themselves. I just saw him and he talked about it. I was like, ‘Okay, if you feel that way I’m good with it.’”

The Red Sox bullpen allowed the Orioles to break open what was a 3-3 tie in the seventh. Matt Barnes and, later, Craig Kimbrel combined to retire two men while surrendering seven earned runs. Trey Mancini’s RBI single to center against Barnes plated the eventual winning run in the seventh and Massachusetts native John Andreoli’s ground-rule double to right in the ninth provided a finishing touch.

“I know where we’re at physically,” Cora said. “We didn’t throw the ball well today in the second game, but we’re in a good spot.”

Boston piled up 14 extra-base hits in the opener, three of which came off the suddenly sizzling bat of Rafael Devers. He slapped a three-run double to the left field corner in the first and bashed a pair of solo homers to right in the seventh and eighth. It was a third career multi-homer game for Devers, and his six RBI were a career high.

“At this level you have to be focused on what you want to do and what you’re supposed to do,” Devers said. “If you look back you’re already late. I just have my mindset to go out there and focus on what’s at hand.”

“He’s been very solid in the strike zone,” Cora said. “When he does that he can do some damage. He’s not chasing up. Sometimes he’s chasing down, but he’s in total control of the at-bat.”

The Red Sox took a 5-0 lead after just six batters in the first and encountered only one real bump. Price needed 39 pitches to record three outs in the second, as the first five Orioles he faced reached safely. Mancini and Renato Nunez each homered to left field, but Price induced Adam Jones to ground into a fielder’s choice that left the bases loaded.

Price rebounded from there, finishing five innings on 88 pitches in his final start of the regular season. An 8-6-2 relay to retire Tim Beckham at the plate in the third was the left-hander’s only other real trouble spot, as Price set down six of the last seven men he faced. J.D. Martinez sent a three-run homer onto Lansdowne Street in the fourth to restore Boston’s five-run cushion and the rout was on.

“We always feel like we’re going to win,” Price said. “That comes from our lineup and how potent our lineup is. We’ve seen it many, many times.”

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25