Bucking the Trend
Since assuming the helm of the floundering Orioles organization Buck Showalter has reversed the team’s course. Baltimore is 28-17 since August 3. Over the same period the Red Sox are 23-21, but more than a handful of the losses seemed like they should have been wins.
The opening game of the this series was one of those eminently winnable games. The local nine tied the game twice. Hot-hitting Victor Martinez starched a single in the bottom of the first to plate Darnell McDonald and knot the run tally 1-1.
In the bottom of the sixth the Red Sox had all the fixings for a home-cooked rally: Mike Lowell walked with one out and Jed Lowrie was hit by a pitch to push Lowell into scoring position.
Bill Hall blooped in Lowell with a single to right. Lowell was able to reach home on the single because Nick Markakis clumsily tripped and bobbled the ball. Lowrie reached third on the miscue.
Markakis’s mistake was countered by Lowrie’s baserunning blunder. On Jason Varitek’s strikeout Matt Wieters fired to shortstop Cesar Izturis to tag Hall, who was part of a failed hit and run. Izturis noticed Lowrie breaking for home and threw back to Wieters for the final out of the inning.
What the Red Sox lacked in offense they made up somewhat on the other side of the ball. In the third Hall fielded Luke Scott’s single to left and propelled the ball to Jason Varitek. Brian Roberts was sent from second to score and was greeted by Varitek’s armored bulk. Understandably Roberts tried to slide away from the catcher.
McDonald made running catch for the first out of the top of the fourth, robbing Adam Jones of at least a ground-rule double. The outfielder made a more mundane catch of a Matt Wieters fly ball to end the first, but McDonald ended it with no less of a flourish: handing the ball to the mother of the little girl sitting in the first row just past Pesky’s Pole.
| Game 150: September 20, 2010 | ||
 Orioles60-90 | 4 | BS, W: David Hernandez (4, 8-8) H: Jim Johnson (9) S: Koji Uehara (10) |
| 2B: Nick Markakis – 2 (43) | ||
| Red Sox 83-67 | 2 | L: Daisuke Matsuzaka (9-6) |
| 2B: Victor Martinez (32) | ||
