Four Real? Four at bats that changed the game. Red Sox vs Orioles. 6-16-13

Game 71: Sox can't play catchup,lose 6-3

Jon Lester continues to slip, his ERA continues to rise, and his team continues to lose when he pitches. You really can't say he pitched horribly, striking out 8 and walking none, but he only mustered five innings and gave up nine hits in over 100 pitches. Boston bats looked dead until the seventh inning, but by then, they were down five and did not look strong enough to make a poignant comeback. Baltimore took three out of four games from the Red Sox and looked like the stronger team. The Orioles can flat out hit, and do not have a weakness on their offense. Here are today's four at bats that changed the game:

1)Happy 100! After an Adam Jones double to score a run, Chris Davis came up to bat. Usually, pitchers fear the homerun hitter, but Lester has never given up a hit to Davis, so why fear the hitter? Well, maybe Lester should have. Davis took a low 3-1 pitch over the right field fence to put the O's up 3-0 and give him the 100th dinger of his career.

2) Make it end! Bottom of the fifth inning, and Balimore adds to their lead. The good news is that Jon Lester strikes out three in the inning. The bad news is that his gives up three hits in the inning, with Chris Davis's soft double scoring Machado to give them the second run of the inning to give the O's a 5-0 lead.

3) So close, yet so far. Boston needs to make a comeback, and fast. In the top of the sixth, Jacoby Ellsbury singles and Jose Iglesias reaches on a rope that Manny Machado can not handle. Hot hitting Daniel Nava, who sees all fastballs from pitcher Miguel Gonzalez, swings at an outside and letter high fastball and drives it deep. It looks like it will be a three run homerun, but outfielder Steve Pierce takes it in just at the last part of the warning track for a harmless out. If only they were playing at Fenway, it would be 5-3. But we're at Camden Yards. Still 5-0 O's.

4) Now is the time. Boston takes the momentum from inning six to get some runs back in the seventh. Mike Carp doubles and Jarrod Saltalamacchia singles to put two men on. Will Middlebrooks, who can always get it done with the glove but is hitting under .200, goes with an outside 2-1 fastball for a three run opposite field bomb. Good to see from Middlebrooks, and the homerun brings the Red Sox to 5-3.

The Orioles would add another run in the bottom of the seventh, and Boston never threatened again. The Orioles played some great baseball over the weekend, and they showed the northeast that they are a threat in the AL East. We shall see how it all ends up. With tomorrow off, Boston returns home to take on the Rays at 1:05pm when Chris Archer faces Felix Doubront. Happy Father's Day all!
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