The Red Sox Might Never Go Over .500 This Entire Season

Remember the good old days when the Baltimore Orioles were a complete joke? The Boston Red Sox could always count on two things: 1) Camden Yards was Fenway South and 2) they beat up on the O's every year like it was going out of style.

I keep waiting for Baltimore (28-16, 13-10 home) to come back to Earth in 2012 but they continue to play very well as they beat Boston (21-22, 12-11 away) 4-1 tonight at Camden Yards. The crowd might not be showing up yet (don't ask me why) but the Orioles are looking like a legit contender in the AL East this season.

With the win, Baltimore improved to 4-1 against Boston this season while also kicking the Red Sox back under .500 (this is the latest it's taken them to get over that mark since 1996). They have already had two chances to reach that mediocre level but Boston cannot even do that right so far in this forgettable campaign. To make matters worse, the Yankees won tonight so the Red Sox are back in sole possession of fifth-place in the AL East.

After a nightmare 2011, young Orioles lefty Brian Matusz (4-4) appears to have found his game once again. He went 6.2 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits with a career high nine strikeouts and one walk. He turned it over to the lights out Baltimore bullpen which completed the task in style.

Darren O'Day struck out the two batters he faced in the seventh, Pedro Strop struck out one in a scoreless eighth for the hold and Jim Johnson got a 1-2-3 ninth for his MLB-leading 16th save of the season (on 8 pitches!).

Felix Doubront (4-2) pitched very well but it wasn't enough since he received barely any run support. In six innings, he allowed two earned runs on four hits with a career high nine strikeouts and two walks. His only mistake was a two-run homer to Scott Tolleson (1st of the season) in the second inning.

Boston managed only two hits, one was a solo homer by Kevin Youkilis (remember him?) in the fourth inning, his third of the season. Wilson Betemit put it away with a two-run shot off former Oriole Matt Albers in the eighth.

The Red Sox will try to win the series tomorrow afternoon (12:35 p.m., NESN) as Daniel Bard (3-5) faces Jake Arrieta (2-4). It's the culmination of a 20 games in 20 days stretch and an eight-game road trip. Before Boston hops on the plane, it would help them greatly if they show up for tomorrow's game. I'm sure they're dead tired and sick of being on the road but another win in Baltimore would be fantastic.

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Baltimore still has a baseball team?

Before yesterday's game vs. the Orioles (the 82nd game of the 2010 season, ie. the start of the second half), six Red Sox were named to the AL all-star team: Adrian Beltre, David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. Kevin Youkilis is also one of five candidates for the last spot, online voting ends Thursday. Pedroia and V-Mart won't be playing in the All-Star game due to their injuries.

That news far overshadowed the actual game which was a sun-soaked dirty diaper. Baltimore (25-56) avoided the sweep with a 6-1 win over Boston (49-33). If they had won and the Yankees lost, the Sox would have jumped into first place in the AL East. Instead, they're 1.5 games back of New York and half a game ahead of Tampa Bay.

The Orioles victory was all thanks young lefty Brian Matusz. My buddy works for the Bowie BaySox, Baltimore's Double A team and he has raved about Matusz since he was called up last season. He improved to 3-9 with seven shutout innings. He allowed two hits, walked three and struck out eight.

John Lackey (9-4) started out well but his defense and lack of offense behind him was his undoing. He went 7.1 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.

It was scoreless until the fourth when Nick Markakis (3 hits, 2 runs) scored on Lackey's wild pitch. Scott Moore added an RBI single in the frame.

Baltimore scored two more in the eighth thanks to Marco Scutaro's throwing error and a sacrifice fly by Adam Jones.

When Julio Lugo is hitting RBI triples you know its over and that's exactly what happened in the ninth for the O's. Markakis padded his stats with an RBI single.

Boston finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth as Youk hit a solo homer over the Monster. It was one of only three hits on the day for the Sox, Beltre had a double.

The Red Sox hit the road for three in Tampa Bay starting tonight then three north of the border in Toronto.

Dice-K takes on Matt Garza tonight at 7:10 p.m.

Sox take pity on Orioles, lay down in extra innings

For the second series in a row, the Red Sox (33-25) had the chance to sweep but they couldn't do it.

Yesterday afternoon at Camden Yards, they lost 4-3 to the Orioles (16-41) in 11 innings. The win broke a 10-game losing streak for Baltimore and also gave new manager Juan Samuel his first MLB win.

Nick Markakis' bloop single in the 11th off Hideki Okajima (2-2) scored Cesar Izturis with the winning run.

Boston also fell to 1-7 in extra innings this season.

For the third time in a row in Baltimore, the Sox got a nice start from its starting pitcher. John Lackey had one of his best starts in a Red Sox uniform: seven innings, two earned runs on seven hits with three walks and two strikeouts. He threw a Justin Verlander-esque 124 pitches so he deserved a better fate.

Orioles youngster Brian Matusz acquitted himself well, going 5.2 innings and giving up two earned runs on four hits with four walks and seven strikeouts.

Boston went ahead 2-0 in the second on Victor Martinez's two-run blast. Baltimore tied it up with two in the bottom of the inning on Izturis' RBI single and Julio Lugo's ground out.

Scott Moore put the O's up 3-2 in the eighth with an RBI double but the Orioles bullpen did what it does in the ninth, blowing its MLB-leading 11th save of the season.

Dustin Pedroia tied it up with a sacrifice fly which scored Mike Cameron.

Boston plays its next four games in Cleveland against the lowly Indians, probably baseball's worst team. Dice-K gets the start against Fausto Carmona.