O’s pound Porcello
Ugly loss to start series
Rick Porcello had seemingly turned a corner. He had won four starts in a row, he was finally getting run support and wasn’t looking like the opposite of last season’s Cy Young winner.
And just like that, it all came crashing back down.
Porcello wasn’t sharp, the defense behind him was even worse, and the offense was basically useless as the Red Sox were rocked by the Orioles, 16-3, in their return to Fenway Park last night.
“You saw it,” Porcello said. “I threw it; they hit it.”
On Thursday night, the Sox got crushed 14-6 in their series finale in Cleveland, giving the Indians the split of the fourgame set. Last night, it was a combination of poor pitching and even worse defense that did them in, and this one was over by the fifth inning.
And if that wasn’t clear enough, Mitch Moreland came in to pitch the ninth as the Sox threw in the towel for good. Porcello gave up nine hits over 42⁄3 innings and was charged for 11 runs, but only four were earned. That was mostly due to a horrific defensive display that had the Red Sox commit five errors, all in the first five innings.
“Defensively, we mishandled far too many plays,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “We’re in a couple-of-day rut here defensively where some miscues have shown up.
“Regardless of the team you’re facing, you give extra outs, you’re asking for trouble. And particularly the way they swung the bat, we need to put this game behind us and be ready to go tomorrow.”
It was already 7-2 Orioles in the fifth when it all came unglued for good. Porcello was actually one strike away from getting out of the inning with the bases loaded, but Seth Smith hit a two-run single to right. That ended Porcello’s night, but the inning was far from over.
Joe Kelly came on in relief and gave up four consecutive hits to give the Orioles a 13-2 lead. When Kelly finally got Trey Mancini to ground out to first to end the inning, the Fenway faithful gave the Red Sox a Bronx cheer.
It was ugly from the start. Porcello committed the Sox’ first error of the game in the first. Adam Jones hit a comebacker that hit Porcello, but the pitcher picked it up and threw it away into center field, which allowed Manny Machado to score.
“Trust me, I don’t think anybody was more frustrated in the ballpark at that point than I was throwing that ball away, but it happened,” Porcello said.
It snowballed from there. Mark Trumbo led off the second with a blast into the bullpen, and the Sox committed two more errors in the frame as catcher Sandy Leon’s errant throw to second made it 5-0.
“It’s just a matter of executing pitches and I didn’t do it at all,” Porcello said.
Noted Farrell: “They had everything going offensively tonight.”
Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run homer, his eighth of the season, in the second, but that was the Sox’ only source of offense until the fifth. By that point, the game was already well out of reach.