RED SOX WOES CONTINUE
Smith Jr. homers, drives in 4 in O’s 8-1 win over Red Sox
BOSTON (AP) >> Chris Davis knows his homer went a lot further than teammate Dwight Smith Jr.’s two-run shot. He also knows he’ll have his time to gloat.
Smith Jr. hooked his homer into the first row of seats down the right-field line and drove in four runs, leading the Baltimore Orioles past the Red Sox 8-1 Monday in Boston’s annual Patriots’ Day game.
“He’s been really doing well, there’s no reason to talk,” said Davis, smiling. “I’ll wait a little bit and talk.”
Davis also had a two-run shot — estimated just short of 100 feet longer than Smith’s — projected at 408 feet into the right-field bleachers.
“Honestly, I had no clue of it was going to get over,” Smith said of his drive. “Whoever caught it might have helped me out, honestly. A homer is a homer. I’ll take it anyway.”
Asked about Davis’ shot, Smith said: “He crushed it. That’s his name — ‘Crush’ — for a reason.”
Renato Núñez had three hits with an RBI single for Balti
more, which salvaged a split of the four-game series. It had lost nine of its previous 11 games and was 4-21 in its last 25 against Boston.
Davis halted a record 0-for-54 stretch Saturday, the longest for a position player. He started the season 0 for 33.
It was the 60th straight year the Red Sox were scheduled to play on the holiday. The defending World Series champs completed a 3-3 homestand and have yet to win one of their five series this season.
“It doesn’t concern me. It’s just a bad start,” Boston manager Alex Cora said.
Dan Straily (1-1) rebounded from a rough debut start with Baltimore, giving up a run on two hits in five innings. He was tagged for five runs and eight hits over 3 1/3 innings by Oakland last week.
The Red Sox open a twogame series against the Yankees on Tuesday night in New York, the first meeting between the rivals since they ousted the Yanks in the divisional round of the playoffs last October.
Leading 1-0, Baltimore scored three times in the fifth off reliever Marcus Walden. Smith’s homer sliced into the seats about 20 feet down from the Pesky Pole, which is 302 feet away, and came after Jonathan Villar’s RBI single.
Smith added a two-run double.
Boston catcher Christian Vázquez started at second base for the first time in his career, handling two grounders and a tag play cleanly.
“He was smooth. He was smooth, man,” Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “Obviously behind the dish he’s pretty smooth, so I didn’t think we would have a problem with him back there.”
Orioles rookie manager Brandon Hyde got his first ejection, tossed by crew chief Mark Wegner after his challenge on the “slide rule” at second base was upheld. Hyde said he knew he was going to get thrown out.