Eovoldi’s 7 scoreless innings not enough
BALTIMORE — Nate Eovoldi threw seven scoreless innings but the Red Sox couldn’t hold off the Orioles in the 10th inning, losing 2-1, Saturday night in Baltimore.
The Red Sox claimed an immediate 1-0 advantage in the top of the first against Orioles righthander Spenser Watkins. Trevor Story jumpstarted their offense by rocketing a 105 miles-per-hour double to right — a smash that continued a recent trend of hard contact for the Red Sox’ biggest offseason acquisition.
Story advanced to third on a groundball and then jogged home when Xander Bogaerts grounded a single up the middle and through a drawn-in infield — the major league-leading 16th groundball hit of the year for Bogaerts.
The early surge, however, proved a mirage. The Red Sox did not score again against Watkins over his 4⅔ innings. But thanks to Red Sox starter Nate Eovaldi, the team’s inability to sustain offensive pressure proved irrelevant.
Eovaldi attacked the Orioles with a filthy first-inning array of pitches, striking out the side on 16 pitches — two of the punchouts coming on splitters, one on a 98 mph fastball. That dazzling opening stanza proved a fitting prelude to an overpowering outing.
Eovaldi unleashed his full fivepitch arsenal in an onslaught that left the Baltimore batters shaking their heads. His 96-98 mph fastball set up an anvil of a splitter (accountable for seven of his 16 swings and misses), two breaking balls — a slider that wiped out righties and a curveball that froze lefties — along with an occasional cutter.
The result? Mastery. Eovaldi allowed neither hit nor walk through the first five innings, the only runner to that point coming on a Bogaerts throwing error that permitted Austin Hays to reach while leading off the bottom of the second.
While the Orioles did connect for occasional hard contact, Red Sox defenders invariably ran down their threats — most notably when Kiké Hernández raced to the fence in right-center to reel in a 396-foot drive by Tyler Nevin to end the second.
But with two outs in the sixth, Orioles leadoff hitter Cedric Mullins got on top of a 97 mph fastball and broke his team’s 0-for-18 spell, lining a ball down the left field line for a double.
On a night when Eovaldi had been cruising, Mullins’s appearance in scoring position offered the Red Sox an uncomfortable reminder: While Eovaldi’s dominance had permitted a sense of comfort, the team’s ongoing April offensive ineptitude had left it clinging to just a 1-0 advantage.
Eovaldi made that edge hold in the sixth by eliciting an inning-ending groundout by Anthony Santander to preserve his one-run lead.
But after the Sox stranded runners on the corners in the top of the seventh, Baltimore amassed its first sustained rally in the bottom of the frame with back-to-back singles against the Sox ace.