The franchise literally cannot do anything right these days, on or off the field. After losing in 13 innings on Friday night and getting blown out yesterday afternoon, today Boston (11-16, 4-10 home) topped those by losing 9-6 in 17 innings (!) to the Baltimore Orioles (19-9, 11-5 away) at Fenway Park.
Both teams burned through every available reliever so it ended with Darnell McDonald (0-1) facing Chris Davis (1-0) in the 17th. Adam Jones (3 hits, 2 runs) hit a three-run homer over The Monster in the 17th and if that wasn't bad enough, McDonald grounded into a double play to end it. Davis might have been 0 for 8 at the plate with five strikeouts but he can tell his grandkids that he shutout the Red Sox for two innings.
Where do you want to start with the horrific/depressing numbers? The Red Sox have lost five straight games for the second time already this season. This was the first time that the O's swept a series at Fenway since 1994. Boston has lost 10 of 11 at Fenway and Baltimore is 8-2 against the Red Sox dating back to last September.
The Orioles have won five straight games and they woke up today with the best record in MLB (a huge step for that awful organization).
After seeing the Orioles this week and the Blue Jays Opening Week, I can make the case that the Red Sox could honestly finish in fifth-place in the American League East this season. That sounds crazy unless you've watched all these games. It's not, at all. Boston's starting pitching is a joke, their bullpen is very shaky and there are some huge holes in the lineup. Other than that, they are rock solid.
I would say that Clay Buchholz (at least five earned runs for his sixth straight start) needs to be sent to Pawtucket or put on the DL with a classic Red Sox fake injury but who else do they have to stick in his place, Andrew Miller (recalled today)? In 3.2 innings, Buchholz allowed five runs (all earned) on seven hits with four strikeouts and four walks. He can't stop serving up homers when he constantly throws pitches right down the middle with no movement on them.
J.J. Hardy had solo homers in the first and third (his 5th and 6th of the season) over The Monster before noted Red Sox killer Robert Andino (2nd of the season) hit a three-run bomb over The Monster in the fourth.
Baltimore starter Tommy Hunter couldn't hold the 5-0 lead as Boston tied it up with Ryan Sweeney's (4 hits) RBI single in the fourth then Will Middlebrooks cleared the bases with his first MLB home run, a grand slam onto the Landsdowne Street parking garage in the fifth inning.
Mark Reynolds (2 hits, 4 walks) had an RBI double in the eighth but Jarrod Saltalamacchia made up for his two errors earlier in the frame with a sacrifice fly that tied it in the home half of the eighth.
Both teams used seven relievers in the never-ending (6:07) extra innings game before finally turning to position players.
Mike Aviles was 3 for 8 with a run but there is one Red Sox hitter that needs to be singled out in the loss: Adrian Gonzalez. He was 0 for 8 with two strikeouts (including one against Davis) and worst of all, he swung at the first pitch (something he never does) in all three extra innings at bats. What the hell is going on with him? He feels like the most unclutch hitter in MLB this season. Every time he comes up with a runner on base, it seems like an automatic weak ground out.
Similar to when Boston had to slink out of town after getting embarrassed by the Rangers and Yankees two weeks ago but falsely gained confidence by beating AL Central scrubs (Twins, White Sox) on the road, they have the same scenario this week as they leave town to play three in Kansas City. The Royals (9-18) are the second worst team in the AL, behind Minnesota with Boston not far behind in third.
If the Red Sox can't take at least two out of three at Kauffman Stadium against what has to be the worst pitching rotation in MLB, I think my head will explode. Felix Doubront (1-1) faces Jonathan Sanchez (1-1) tomorrow night (8:10 p.m., NESN), Daniel Bard (2-3) gets Danny Duffy (2-2) on Tuesday (8:10 p.m., NESN) and Jon Lester (1-2) closes it out against Bruce Chen (0-4) on Wednesday (8:10 p.m., NESN). Needless to say, after playing 39 innings over three games this weekend, these three guys have to go seven or eight innings. Pitch counts be damned. The whole team must be dead based on the recent results and the fact that they had to travel tonight (much later than expected) with no off-day tomorrow.
It probably won't but this wretched series should set ratings lows for NESN however I don't think people can resist seeing these train wreck games.
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