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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 29, 2024 18:47:21 GMT -5
Home for the game opened a soda and watch Crawford give up a grand slam to Henderson that is enough of this all ready
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 30, 2024 3:16:01 GMT -5
Gunnar Henderson's grand slam lifts the Orioles to a 6-1 victory over Boston in series' rubber match AP
BALTIMORE (AP) Gunnar Henderson's grand slam in the second inning put Baltimore ahead to stay, and Corbin Burnes pitched seven sharp innings to help the Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox 6-1 on Wednesday night.
The Orioles, winners of six of their last seven, have not lost any of their last 18 series against AL East foes, going 13-0-5. The defending division champs took two of three from Boston, scoring five runs in the second inning of the finale.
“We're in a great spot,” Burnes said. “Still got a long way to go. I think we would all agree we're playing pretty good baseball right now, but the most important part is to be healthy and play good baseball when you start October. Right now it's great winning all these games, but when you're looking at the long run of things, you want to make sure you're ready for September and October.”
Burnes (5-2) allowed an unearned run and three hits. He struck out five and walked three.
Kutter Crawford (2-4) gave up five runs in six innings, five days after yielding a season-high six runs against Milwaukee.
Ramón Urías also homered for Baltimore, hitting a solo shot in the seventh.
With Adley Rutschman and Jordan Westburg getting the day off, the last five spots in the Baltimore batting order included just one player batting over .203 at the start of the game. Those hitters played a role in the Orioles' big inning, though. Anthony Santander singled, giving Baltimore runners at first and second, and Urías hit an RBI single with two outs to tie the game at 1.
Then No. 9 hitter James McCann drew his first walk of the season to load the bases. Henderson followed with a drive to right. It was his 18th home run of the year, tying Houston's Kyle Tucker for the major league lead.
“Urías put a good swing on him, aggressive with a man in scoring position," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “And the walk to McCann was the one. He's not trying to walk him, of course, but that put us in a bad spot.”
Boston's only run came with plenty of assistance from the Orioles in the second. A single to left and a throwing error put Connor Wong on second with one out. Henderson was charged with an error when he couldn't hold onto Burnes' pickoff throw, allowing Wong to advance to third. Dominic Smith hit a groundball to drive in the game's first run.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Red Sox: Boston put OF Tyler O'Neill (right knee inflammation) on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Sunday.
Orioles: Westburg did not play after being hit around the hand by a pitch Tuesday night, although manager Brandon Hyde said he was feeling a lot better and X-rays were negative.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: Begin a four-game series at Detroit on Thursday night.
Orioles: Off Thursday before hosting a three-game set against Tampa Bay.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 30, 2024 3:39:20 GMT -5
Crawford frustrated by 2-out walk that set up deciding slam 12:17 AM ADT Ian Browne
Ian Browne @ianmbrowne
BALTIMORE -- A grand slam by young star Gunnar Henderson was getting most of the attention in the Orioles’ clubhouse on Wednesday night at Camden Yards, and rightfully so.
His tiebreaking shot with two outs in the bottom of the second inning led to Boston’s 6-1 loss in the rubber match of a three-game series.
But over on the visiting side, the lament was not over a slam by a great player. Instead, it was about the walk to No. 9 hitter James McCann that preceded Henderson’s 18th homer of the season.
And nobody felt worse about it than Kutter Crawford, who issued that five-pitch walk.
“Two-out walk,” Crawford said. “And I’ve said it time and time again, two-out walks always find a way to bite you in the [butt]. Obviously it did today.”
After Crawford landed his first-pitch four-seamer for a strike, he went with a four-seamer that just missed the zone. Then it was back-to-back sweepers (high and outside and high) to make it a 3-1 count. And the capper was another four-seamer that was way up and in.
“Just trying to pound the zone,” Crawford said. “Obviously I lost it a few times up and in and then a couple away, but he’s the nine-hole hitter. I’ve got to go right at him.”
Though catcher Connor Wong smartly came out for a mound visit to give Crawford a breather and a chance to reset, the relentless Henderson didn’t let a big opportunity slip away.
Crawford hung a 1-0 sweeper, and Henderson took it for a Statcast-projected 422-foot ride to right-center field.
Where was Crawford trying to go with the game-turning offering?
“Just underneath,” Crawford said. “Was trying to go back foot, underneath with it, and it stayed up, and a good hitter put a good swing on it.”
When the bottom of the second started, the Red Sox led, 1-0.
There are certain nights when a half-inning changes an entire game. This was one of them.
“It took everything away from us,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Hit batsman, base hit, the walk to McCann put us in a bad spot. That’s the one, right? And then we're facing one of the best hitters in the big leagues. He got a sweeper up in the zone and put a good swing on it.”
A deficit like that -- especially at such an early portion of the game -- can be surmountable on some nights over a long season. But against Orioles ace Corbin Burnes, this didn’t feel like it would be one of them.
“That's the last thing you want to do when you’re facing a guy like him,” Crawford said. “So I knew that once I gave up that inning, it was going to be tough for the offense to come back from that. I just tried to go out there and continue to eat up some innings.”
Crawford kept the Orioles off the board in five of his six innings and allowed just four hits and two walks on the night, but that was of small consolation.
“Frustrating outing because I thought mechanically and pitch quality-wise, I was a little bit better [than recent outings],” Crawford said. “I thought the fastball was a little bit better tonight but just didn’t execute pitches when I needed to.”
In his first five starts of the season, Crawford looked like a breakout candidate, posting a 0.66 ERA. However, the righty has pitched to a 5.05 ERA in his last seven outings. He is still at a solid 3.29 over his 12 total starts this season.
“I think the command was off,” Cora said. “It’s something we have to get back to [with him]. I think the four-seamer was good today.”
As for the Red Sox, they return home at 28-28 after a night that saw the Orioles improve to 13-0-5 in their last 18 series against American League East foes dating back to last season. The Red Sox go home for four against the Tigers and two against the Braves and have already put another tough series against the O's -- a team they won’t see again until Aug. 15 -- in the rearview mirror.
“I’m going to sound like Bill [Belichick] here: Onto the Tigers,” Cora said. “We’ve got to play well against the Tigers. That's where we’re at. We cannot look ahead. We know we have guys coming back. That’s in a few weeks or a month or whatever. We’ve gotta grind with the people that we have here.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 30, 2024 3:45:02 GMT -5
Tyler Milliken ⚾️ @tylermilliken_ Doesn’t make you feel any better about this series, but at least Kutter Crawford was able to eat 6 innings.
No day off before 4 against the Tigers to finish the week.
If only you had attacked James McCann, instead of being the first guy to walk him ALL season. 9:22 PM · May 29, 2024 · 10.9K Views
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on May 30, 2024 3:50:12 GMT -5
In the heavyweight AL East, the middling Red Sox cannot afford to be a middleweight puncher By Alex Speier Globe Staff,Updated May 29, 2024, 11:01 p.m.
BALTIMORE — Hours before the first pitch of their series finale at Camden Yards, a pair of Red Sox in the visitors clubhouse outlined the team’s ambitions for the night.
“Happy flight?” inquired one.
“Happy flight!” pronounced another.
But reality played out differently than the vision. A second-inning grand slam from emerging Orioles superstar Gunnar Henderson (“He’s going to be a pain in the butt in the AL East for a while,” Sox manager Alex Cora said before the game) set the stage for a comfortable 6-1 victory by Baltimore over their visitors. The happy flight back to Boston was not to be — a common occurrence for the Sox when facing top teams.
The Sox have played 21 games spanning seven series against teams that are at least five games over .500 this year. They are now 5-16 in those contests, and 0-7 in those series. There have been many subdued flights for a 26-26 team that has now been at exactly .500 on 11 separate occasions this season.
Half-empty? Half-full? What does it say that the team keeps wobbling around the axis of .500 — still within arm’s length (2½ games) of the Twins for the third wild-card spot, but in a different zip code from the Yankees and Orioles in the AL East?
“I don’t know, man. That’s a great question,” said closer Kenley Jansen. “Hopefully we can catch a run here and get to like, 10 over. That would be great. At some point we’ve just got to win more instead of win, lose, win, lose. That’s not going to help us with anything. We’ve got to get on a streak here.
“If you want to be a playoff team, you’ve got to beat teams over .500. Period,” he added. “Now that the season is established a little bit and you see who are your .500 teams, you’ve got to compete against those big guys and try to win the series.”
The team’s formula — elite pitching that has allowed the team to overcome a depleted and inconsistent offense — has been unexpected. But the overall picture has conformed largely to expectations.
The team resides in baseball’s vast middle, with no evidence to date of its ability to hold its own in head-to-head matchups against top competition. The Sox are now 1-5 in two series against the Orioles, a team that is taking flight as a powerhouse with both elite position players (particularly Henderson) and excellent pitching. On Wednesday, Corbin Burnes (5-2, 2.35 ERA) dominated while allowing just one unearned run on three hits over seven innings.
“They’re a complete team,” said Cora. “They do a lot of good stuff and they keep getting better.”
The Sox are not alone among AL East teams in struggling against Baltimore. The Orioles are amidst a mind-boggling run of 18 consecutive series wins or splits against AL East competition, compiling a 13-0-5 mark in series within the division dating to last year.
Still, the Sox will need to assert themselves against top competition soon if they are to make a case that postseason contention — even as a third wild card team — is a realistic aspiration this year.
The recent series losses against the Brewers and Orioles represented the start of a stretch that will also feature eight games against Atlanta, the Phillies, and the Yankees — all teams that entered Wednesday with at least 10 more wins than losses. Even the immediate task of a four-game series against the Tigers (27-28) offers little reprieve.
That elevated degree of difficulty comes at a time when the Red Sox lineup has been further depleted. Tyler O’Neill (right knee) landed on the injured list on Wednesday, joining fellow middle-of-the-order residents Triston Casas (improving but, by virtue of his 60-day injured list placement, out until at least late-June), Trevor Story (out all year), and Masataka Yoshida (still unable to swing due to his thumb injury).
“We are where we are. We’ve got to keep grinding. We know that there’s going to be guys coming back, big guys in the middle of the lineup. We’ve just got to make sure we stay in the hunt,” said Cora. “We cannot look ahead. We know we have guys coming back. That’s in a few weeks or a month or whatever. We’ve got to grind with the people that we have here.”
Despite their struggles against elite opponents, the Sox deserve credit for not wilting through 56 games. Across a young roster, the majority of their players are raising performance expectations rather than falling short of them, helping to explain a generally optimistic view of the team’s performance to date.
“I think we’re competing well. We just faced one of the best teams in the big leagues. But even though we’re a young team, we’re doing our best right now,” Rafael Devers said through a translator. “All we can do is just what we’ve been doing — playing hard, and God willing, things will come out for us the way that we want.”
Yet for that outcome — to enjoy some happier flights ahead — the team will have to start punching above its current weight class, and soon, regardless of which players are healthy and available. The time for urgency has arrived.
“This is what we have,” said Jansen. “We’ve got to figure it out.”
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