The Orioles can outslug the Red Sox, but can they beat them to the trading deadline?
COMMENTARY
It seemed that Mookie Betts might take a fantastical aim at Major League Baseball’s single-season home run record just two weeks ago.
If the Red Sox right fielder kept up the same pace he set in Baltimore, swatting five over every two games, he’d probably have somewhere around 275 home runs by the end of the year.
It was also only a fortnight ago that Boston seemed capable of slugging its way to a fourth-straight win over its American League East foes, thus opening a four-game lead atop the division.
Joe Kelly had other ideas.
In the start that had him demoted to Triple-A before he could even emerge from the shower stalls at Camden Yards, Kelly lasted only 2 2/3 innings and surrendered seven earned runs to the Orioles, whose offense outlasted the Red Sox in a 13-9 victory. The following evening, the Orioles scored 12 more against Boston pitching and earned a split of the four-game series.
That unattainable four-game lead was whittled down to one. Today, it’s none.
‘‘A lot of people would have folded the tent after the first two games,’’ Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said after the Red Sox pounded out back-to-back wins at Camden Yards, ‘‘but our guys got their dander up a little bit and wanted to show everybody that we could score a few runs, too.’’
They can, and they most certainly will.
The Orioles are at Fenway this week to kick off what will be a 10-game homestand for the Red Sox, coming off a 3-2 road trip that included the indignity of losing to the 20-43 Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon. Baltimore and Boston are tied for the division lead, each with 36-26 records, followed closely by the 35-31 Toronto Blue Jays (who just beat the Orioles three out of four times over the weekend), only three games back.
Betts still needs 62 home runs to break the record. He hasn’t even hit one since departing Baltimore 12 days ago.
I don’t think it’s happening.
Nor are the Red Sox running away with the AL East.
Boston is only 7-9 over its last 16 games, in part thanks to a haphazard pitching staff that can’t seem to string together any sort of consistency. David Price and Steven Wright are a combined 6-3 with a 2.25 ERA over their last 10 starts, but Rick Porcello has again turned into a homer hanky, and Eduardo Rodriguez is reminding more of fizzled prospect of yore Frankie Rodriguez than the kid that dazzled at times last summer.
Price goes in the series opener Tuesday night against Chris Tillman (8-1, 3.01 ERA), who hasn’t faced the Red Sox yet this season. The Orioles are 4-3 against the Sox this season, having scored 49 runs off Boston over seven games. The Red Sox have countered with 45 runs of their own. Enjoy whatever semblance of a pitching duel you can muster out of Tuesday night. There won’t be much beyond it.
“We’ve got to do some things differently as far as our attack plan from the mound,” manager John Farrell said after the Red Sox dropped their second straight game to Baltimore earlier this month. “You get these type of games where you’re putting up that kind of offense. We’re not going to get that all the time. To do that on the road, in visiting ballparks, that’s a testament to our offense.”
It’s a testament to the Orioles’ offense as well, which managed to plate 20 runs during their three-game series here at the beginning of April, including what turned out to be Price’s ugly first start in a Red Sox uniform at Fenway Park (five runs over only five innings of work…thanks, Mark Trumbo). Baltimore and Boston are ranked 9th and 11th, respectively, in AL team ERA. Offenses are hitting .264 against Orioles pitching, among there worst in the league. They are hitting .238 against Red Sox pitchers, best in the league.
But the Baltimore bats have been able to hold their own against Boston, which still owns the best attack in the league, even considering the helpless presences of Travis Shaw and Hanley Ramirez.
It’s not like the news that the Red Sox need pitching if something of a revolutionary note, but in fewer games has that matter been magnified this season than against the Orioles, to the tune of a 7.08 ERA. Baltimore’s ERA against the Red Sox this season is a robust 6.53.
Which all makes it very likely that once things are all sorted out by the trading deadline that the Orioles will be pursuing many of the same names to take the mound that the Red Sox may be looking at over the next few weeks (Who wanted James Shields — 16.71 ERA over two starts with the White Sox — anyway?)
Rich Hill. Julio Teheran. Doug Fister. Sonny Gray. More likely to be pitching later this summer in the Hub or on the Harbor?
Right, add Toronto too.
It all sets up for a nifty summer filled with baseball drama, each team leap-frogging the other.
Remember that?
Betts (1.658 OPS vs. Baltimore this season) should hit four home runs this week.
The chase is back.
Photos from the 2016 Bacon and Beer Festival
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