BALTIMORE -- The Red Sox beat the Orioles, 5-3, Monday night. So what?! (For a complete recap, click here.)
The team that is now 40 games over .500 won out over a club that hasn't even won 30 games. It was supposed to happen this way. And while it was a nice bonus for Alex Cora's club that the Yankees lost, pushing the Red Sox' American League East lead to six games, this also wasn't the true payoff.
What truly could be taken away from the series opener at Camden Yards was a reminder that this is about something bigger than a rainy, late July night.
Ironically, it was the Red Sox' worst play of the night that sent the strongest message.
With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning, Mookie Betts stepped the plate, looking to build on the Sox' three-run lead. If Betts could drive in one more run, Cora wouldn't have to use closer Craig Kimbrel, who had been warming up alongside Matt Barnes. But a terrible baserunning play by Rafael Devers ruined everything.
For some reason, Devers bolted off second base on Betts' shallow line-drive to center field, resulting in an easy, inning-ending double play.
"Bad read. We'll address that," Cora said. "Where we're at and we're going, we can't play that way. It's not only the baserunning mistakes but we had to bring Craig in that situation. Barnes was hot too. Those things, he doesn't have to manage the team but he needs to understand that we need to play better baseball. He knows it. I just saw him in the clubhouse with his head down. I said, 'Hey man, I know how you feel but at the end of the day we won the game.' We'll talk about it tomorrow."
The key words: "Where we're at and we're going, we can't play that way."
That is what everything is all about for this team. It was a reminder provided by Devers' miscue and reiterated by the Red Sox' starting pitcher. Wake-up calls can be pretty powerful in the midst of these sort of runs.
As much as the Red Sox need guys like Devers to not screw up, they also absolutely have to get the kind of pitching performances like the one turned in by Rick Porcello.
If Porcello repeated the struggles of his most recent outing -- a two-inning, eight-run disaster -- it would put a huge dent in this team's plans. But he didn't. The righty weathered a pair of rain delays (of 43 and 19 minutes) to shut down Baltimore for six innings, offering Cora's club the kind of starting rotation security that might ultimately determine the Red Sox' fate.
"We built a nice foundation for ourselves so far this season and we still have a lot of baseball to play," Porcello said. "We have to keep going. It's not like we're winning this division by 15 games. The Yankees are right there so we have to keep playing good baseball, try and win the division and make the playoffs."
The Red Sox have won 13 of their last 14 games against Baltimore, including 10 of 11 this season. The Sox have won each of their last nine games at Camden Yards.
