Porcello struggles again as Red Sox fall

Baltimore's Chris Davis ripped a single and two doubles and drove in four runs to lead the Orioles to a 9-5 victory over the Red Sox on Saturday at Fenway Park.

BOSTON – Chris Davis figured to end his major-league-record hitless streak someday. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, that day was Saturday.

Meanwhile, Rick Porcello’s stretch of poor pitching hasn’t been nearly as long, but he has yet to find a solution.

Davis ripped a single and two doubles and drove in four runs to lead the Orioles to a 9-5 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Davis was hitless in his previous 54 at-bats and 62 plate appearances, both major league records, when he stepped to the plate in the first inning and received a warm round of sympathetic applause from the fans. Then he lined a 93-mile-an-hour, belt-high, four-seam fastball from Porcello to right field for a two-run, two-out single to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead.

“I definitely don’t want to give up a hit to him,” Porcello said, “but I respect how he’s going about his business. It’s never easy. Baseball is a tough game when you’re struggling and he’s still showing up and playing and working hard every day so I tip my hat to him for battling through what’s he’s battling through.”

Said Davis: “I have all the respect in the world for Rick. He’s a great pitcher and he actually made a pretty good pitch. Thankfully it just found some grass.”

Davis asked for the ball as a keepsake. It was his first hit since doubling off White Sox right-hander James Shields on Sept. 14. He had been 0-33 this season. In the fifth, he ripped the first pitch from reliever Heath Hembree to right for a run-scoring double that snapped a 2-2 tie. He capped a four-run sixth with a run-scoring ground-out. He led off the eighth with a double and to lift his batting average to .079. He hadn’t had three hits since Aug. 28 vs. Toronto.

The Orioles have no choice but to be patient with Davis because they still owe him $92 million as part of a seven-year, $161 million contract he signed before the 2016 season.

Porcello’s contract is up after this season and he hasn’t done anything so far to convince the Sox to keep him. He has failed to last longer than 4-2/3 innings in any of his first three starts. In four-plus innings on Saturday, Porcello allowed six hits and five walks, but only three runs so his earned run average actually dropped from 13.50 to 11.12.

Porcello said he’s battling with his mechanics and tempo and that he’s having trouble throwing any of his pitches for strikes. He walked at least five for only the second time in his 310 career starts.

“Too many walks and a lot of traffic,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “That’s not him. He’s a guy that pounds the strike zone. He’s always ahead and he hasn’t been that way.”

“I’m battling right now,” Porcello said. “I’m definitely not where I want to be. So I’ve got to keep working and get there and get there quick. I can’t keep going out there and rolling out these starts like this. I’m only hurting our team and I’ve got to do a better job, that’s the bottom line.”

The odd up-and-down trend of his Red Sox career continues. In even years, he’s gone 22-4 and 17-7, but in odd years his record has been 9-15, 11-17 and now 0-3.

Porcello watched video during the game to try to pinpoint the trouble with his mechanics.

“It’s frustrating for him and for me,” Sox catcher Christian Vazquez said. “We’re in the same boat, trying to figure it out.”

Of course, Porcello isn’t the only Sox pitcher having problems this season. The defending World Series champions have allowed six runs or more in 10 of their 15 games. They’re won only two of those 10 games and they’re only 5-10 overall.

Unlike Porcello, Colten Brewer (1.59 ERA in six previous relief appearances) had pitched well this season, but he didn’t on Saturday. The right-hander couldn’t retire any of the five batters he faced in the sixth, walking two and allowing three singles, including a run-scoring single by Renato Nunez and a two-single single by Rico Ruiz that skipped through the shift and just barely between Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts.

“Just no command of his cutter,” Cora said. “He had good breaking ball going, but he was a one-pitch pitcher today.”

Vazquez knocked in a career-high four runs, blasting a two-run home run into the Monster seats in the third and a two-run double off the Monster in the seventh. His home run was the only hit off Orioles starter Andrew Cashner in the first five innings.

“I was expecting something soft and I got it,” he said.

Boston’s other run scored on Mitch Moreland’s double-play grounder in the sixth.

 Contact Bill Doyle at william.doyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.