It seemed like it was all set up for a Red Sox' comeback. But strange things happen. In this case, the strangest.
With the Orioles clinging to a one-run lead in the eighth inning, Cedric Mullins led off the frame against Red Sox reliever Matt Andriese. What happened next was a combination of bad luck for the visitors, and really good base running for Baltimore.
Two batters later, with the Red Sox' infield forced in, Trey Mancini's single made it a two-run game, with the Orioles adding another later in the frame on a sacrifice fly from Freddy Galvis.
When it was all said and done, the Red Sox left Camden Yards with a 4-1 loss, just narrowly missing out of the four-game series sweep.
"It was a fluke play," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora, whose team saw its four-game win streak snapped. "I believe everybody reacted the right way. It’s kind of like that play we talked the other day in New York and the Astros. Good heads up play by their guy. Christian (Vazquez) was just there. I don’t think he was late, the guy was safe, just a flukey play."
Andriese took the loss, having come in for starter Martin Perez to kick off the sixth inning. He was immediately greeted with the eventual game-winning homer from Mancini.
The good news for the Red Sox was that Perez kept the string of solid Red Sox' starts intact, going five strong innings in which he only allowed one run (a solo homer from Ryan Mountcastle in the second inning).
Perez now has a 2.20 ERA over his last three starts.
But this time, the lefty wasn't allowed to see if he could pick up his first win of the season, with Cora bringing in Andriese after Perez had thrown just 74 pitches. The decision was based on the flurry of right-handers at the top of the Orioles' lineup.
Also, with the decision to leave Perez in against Detroit -- resulting in a game-turning double -- fresh in Cora's mind, the move was made.
"We like the guy," the manager said of Perez. "He had good stuff, good changeup. Just today we were set up with Matt to go multiple innings, he did a good job for five and we pushed Matt for three innings and that was good too. Just a flukey play at the end that happened. When we got to the eighth inning they had only scored two runs so that's the name of the game, avoid runs and score runs and today we didn’t score runs. As far as the usage, and all that I don’t think that’s an issue. We managed the game as a group and we had a plan against Detroit we left him in against a righty and today we felt like five innings was perfect."