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Coming home after a successful 10-game road trip to start the season, the Red Sox were immediately presented an opportunity to prove themselves against one of baseball’s best teams.
What they got instead was a painful reality check.
The Red Sox were swept out of the building in their first series at Fenway Park this season, with the Baltimore Orioles coming from behind to win 9-4 in 10 innings in Thursday’s series finale. Orioles rookie Colton Cowser hit his first two career MLB home runs in the win, including a towering three-run home run in the 10th that effectively ended the game.
Much like in the first two games the Red Sox were the authors of their own demise. This time the game-changing sequence came in the top of the eighth, when Pablo Reyes committed an error to allow Jackson Holliday to reach and then David Hamilton failed to tag second while turning what otherwise would have been an inning-ending double play.
At that point the Red Sox were clinging to a 2-1 lead, but given the extra opportunity the Orioles immediately pounced. Outfielder Anthony Santander needed only one pitch to curl a two-run home run around Pesky’s Pole and give his team a 3-2 lead.
Connor Wong tied the game with a pinch hit home run in the bottom of the eighth, but that wound up only setting the stage for more chaos. In the ninth Kenley Jansen narrowly avoided disaster, walking two men before striking out the rookie phenom Holliday to end the threat, and in the bottom of the ninth Reese McGuire was ejected arguing a called third strike after the Red Sox had already emptied their bench, forcing Alex Cora to sacrifice the designated hitter by moving Masataka Yoshida into left field.
But once in extras the Orioles finished messing around. Gunnar Henderson put his team ahead for good with a two-run home run, and then Cowser finished the job with his three-run bomb.
It was a fitting ending given the evident talent disparity between the two sides.
Baltimore’s roster is stocked with former top prospects who have either established themselves among the game’s elite or are on track to do so. This week Holliday became the latest No. 1 overall prospect to debut for the Orioles, joining his predecessors Henderson and Adley Rutschman, and Cowser made his presence felt throughout the series.
Selected No. 5 overall in the 2021 MLB Draft, one pick after the Red Sox took Marcelo Mayer, Cowser went 3 for 5 with a double and his first two career home runs, the first of which was an opposite field solo home run in the top of the fifth. Overall Cowser went 6 for 13 with five extra-base hits and 10 RBI in the series, a breakout performance for the 24-year-old.
Thursday’s starter, Grayson Rodriguez, is also a former top prospect who boasts some of the best stuff in the game, and after a shaky start he settled down and largely kept the Red Sox at bay. He allowed two runs over 5.2 innings, surrendering three doubles and a walk in the first before allowing just four baserunners the rest of his outing.
The Red Sox aren’t operating with that kind of firepower right now, especially with Trevor Story out for the season and Rafael Devers sitting with a sore shoulder.
Still, Thursday brought some reason for encouragement.
Garrett Whitlock continued his excellent start to the season, allowing one run over five innings to bring his ERA to 1.26 through his first three starts. Right-hander Justin Slaten threw two scoreless innings, extending his scoreless streak to 7.2 innings to start his big league career.
Jarren Duran, who committed a costly error in the series opener on Tuesday, continued his bounce back by going 2 for 5 with an RBI and a pair of doubles. Triston Casas came into Thursday batting .368 with a 1.113 OPS over his last five games, and he kept rolling with a first-inning double. Casas came around to score immediately after when rookie Wilyer Abreu doubled off the left field wall to record his first RBI of the season.
Things won’t get any easier from here.
This weekend the Red Sox welcome Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels, and after that they’ll host a Cleveland Guardians team that has surged out of the gate to emerge as early AL Central contenders.
Tanner Houck (2-0, 0.00 ERA) will welcome the Angels in Friday’s series opener, when he’ll face off against Angels’ left-hander Reid Detmers (2-0, 1.64). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
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