Red Sox Take Two Game Set From Orioles...

Unlike last night, the Orioles fought against the Red Sox in a hard-fought game; however, the Boston smelled blood and jumped on the Baltimore bullpen. With the score tied at four in the bottom of the seventh, Victor Martinez came up as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded and came through with a bases-clearing double to give the Red Sox a 7-4.

Instead of folding, the Orioles got a run off Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon as Nick Markakis and Matt Wieters got on base with singles and Luke Scott hit a sacrifice fly to plate Markakis; however, with a runner on first base and two outs, Ty Wigginton hit a shallow a fly to end the contest. In the end, Baltimore lost 7-5, and Boston took both game of the two-game set.

Matt Albers took the loss on Wednesday as he was charged with the deciding run, although it was Danys Baez who gave up the deciding hit. Meanwhile, Jason Berken, who started the game for Baltimore certainly was a lot better than Hernandez – who pitched the night before – on Wednesday as he went 5 1/3 innings and gave up four runs (three earned).

Reliever Billy Wagner earned the win, and Papelbon got his 35th save although he made things interesting as usual with his inning pitched.

Boston scored twice in the first inning as Jason Bay had a two-run single; however, Berken dug a hole for himself early with two walks in the frame that setup Bay’s at-bat. The Orioles added a run off a Cesar Izturis groundout in the second inning, but the Red Sox added another run in the fourth thanks to a Jason Varitek RBI-double.

Baltimore scored once in the fifth inning off a Nolan Reimold sacrifice fly, but took a brief 4-3 lead in the sixth as Boston reliever Manny Delcarmen loaded the bases, and walked Brian Roberts allowing a run to score. Moments later, Felix Pie plated in a run with a single to give Baltimore the lead.

However, Berken gave up an RBI-single to Dustin Pedroia as he beat out an infield single, and the game was tied once again.

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