Following Monday afternoon’s loss, Red Sox manager Alex Cora described the Baltimore Orioles as having a “fast break offense.” When their bats get going, he said, they can be tough to stop.
In the sixth inning Tuesday, it looked for a moment like Brennan Bernardino was about to get posterized.
With the bases loaded and nobody out, the left-hander found himself clinging to a one-run lead. The Orioles have capitalized on situations like that all season long, but Bernardino held his ground and shut them down, drawing a force out at home and two strikeouts to escape the jam unscathed.
It was the highlight of one of the most impressive performances of the season for the Red Sox.
The Red Sox pulled out a 8-3 win over the Orioles on Tuesday, riding Bernardino’s outstanding relief outing and Rafael Devers’ historic night at the plate to even the three-game series. The Red Sox slugger went 4 for 5 with two RBI, and with his eighth inning triple Devers also tied Hall of Famer Jim Rice for the franchise record for most extra-base hits by a Red Sox player aged 27 or younger with 422. Devers won’t turn 28 until October.
Following the game, Devers made a point to give Bernardino his due.
“I’m really proud of Bernie,” Devers told NESN’s Jahmai Webster via translator Daveson Perez. “His story coming from Mexico and being where he is today, he’s a hard worker and I’m proud to see what he’s been doing and we believe in him.”
After getting shut down for most of Monday’s matinee, the Red Sox came out swinging Tuesday, jumping on Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez for two runs in the top of the first. Wilyer Abreu smoked a solo home run to break the ice, Rob Refsnyder doubled and Devers drove him in with an RBI single to make it 2-0.
The Orioles immediately answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Four of Baltimore’s first five batters reached safely, with the main damage coming courtesy of an RBI single by Colton Cowser and a two-run single by Jordan Westburg.
Baltimore could have been off to the races from there, but the Red Sox had another response in them.
Boston immediately tied the game on a Jarren Duran RBI double in the top of the second and then took the lead on another Devers RBI single. Brayan Bello, who’d thrown 29 pitches to labor through the bottom of the first, came back with three straight strikeouts in the second to effectively stop the Orioles in their tracks.
He and Rodriguez both settled down from there, with the Orioles starter recording a career-high 10 strikeouts over six innings while Bello finished with seven strikeouts over five-plus innings.
After the game Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Bello hadn’t been feeling well and that they’d nearly scratched him from making the start.
“He actually wasn’t feeling great, at one point last night we were like he’s not going to pitch,” Cora said. “Somehow, someway he felt better, the training staff did an amazing job. He was feeling sick throughout the day, so we sent him to the hotel and he grinded through it, and just to go out there and pitch like that was good to see.”
Bello did eventually run into trouble again in the sixth, leaving after allowing a leadoff single and then hitting Westburg with a pitch to end his outing. Bernardino then walked pinch hitter Ryan Mountcastle to load the bases, but he struck out Austin Hays, drew a groundout from Jorge Mateo and struck out reigning AL Rookie of the Year Gunnar Henderson to end the inning.
Bernardino followed that up with a perfect seventh inning to cap off his best outing of the season.
Tuesday might have been among Devers’ best games of the year too. The slugger went the opposite way each of his first four times up at the plate, and his first two singles both came with runners in scoring position, the latter putting Boston ahead for good. His triple not only tied him for the extra-base record with Rice, but also put him scoring position for Connor Wong, who drove him in with an RBI single to extend Boston’s lead to 5-3.
Romy Gonzalez added a sacrifice fly and Rob Refsnyder delivered the dagger with a two-run home run in the top of the ninth. That was more than sufficient for Greg Weissert, who closed things out with a scoreless ninth.
The Red Sox (28-27) are now back over .500 with the win, which was also the team’s first against the Orioles this season. Boston will look to take two out of three at Camden Yards on Wednesday, with Kutter Crawford (2-3, 2.89) scheduled to take the mound against Orioles ace Corbin Burnes (4-2, 2.60). First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.