Empyreal Environs

When spotted a two-run lead Clay Buchholz seemed to seize up with insecurity rather than face his opposition with fortitude. In the bottom of the third Buchholz walked two batters with the bases loaded for half the runs scored in the second half of the frame.

The two other runs were scored on weak ground balls. J.J. Hardy smacked an infield single up the middle that exposed miscommunication between Mike Aviles and Dustin Pedroia. Aviles thought he would flip the ball to his double play partner but Pedroia assumed Aviles would tag second himself and then fire to first. By the time the runners advanced to the next station Hardy was safe at first and the game was tied 2-2.

Aviles and Pedroia were in perfect coordination for Adam Jones’s batted ball. The 6-4-3 double play plated Xavier Avery to give the Orioles a two-run advantage, but the additional run was worth the two outs. Matt Wieters ended the stanza with a ground out to second.

Rather than knuckle under when the pitching went sour the batters stepped up. David Ortiz led the charge in the sixth with a massive blast that bounced about Eutaw Street. The Orioles haven’t updated their Eutaw Street Home Run Tracker page yet, but Hit Tracker says Ortiz’s shot had a true distance of 442 feet.

Adrian Gonzalez followed with a ringing double to the opposite field and Will Middlebrooks ran out an infield single. The baserunners advanced on Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s ground out and tagged up on Daniel Nava’s sacrifice fly to center. With Middlebrooks feinting a charge at home plate Tommy Hunter got a case of happy feet which allowed Middlebrooks home on a balk. But that trick never works! This time for sure!

Kevin Gregg added accelerant to the fire in the seventh. Aviles and Pedroia extended their defensive partnership to the offense with a single-double combination punch with one out. Gregg intentionally walked Ortiz to load the bases, which much have been difficult for the reliever as his first instinct would be to plunk this particular batter. Gonzalez arced a fly ball to left to score Aviles. With a sharp grounder up the middle Middlebrooks plated Pedroia.

Rookie Che-Hsuan Lin got in on the action in the eighth and tallied his first major league run. With two down Lin singled to left field. He advanced to second when Troy Patton struck out Aviles but Wieters couldn’t gather the ball to get the out at first. Pedroia found fair territory in left to score Lin.

Thanks to the vagaries of the hold definition Rich Hill got one despite allowing more hits than outs. Fortunately for him they were all singles and Vicente Padilla was locating with his fastball. Alfredo Aceves had an uneventful ninth and the Red Sox could feel a modicum of solace that their humiliating extra-innings debacle at Fenway was partially avenged.

Game 42: May 21, 2012
Boston Red Sox 21-21	8	W: Andrew Miller (1-0) H: Rich Hill (3), Vicente Padilla (9) S: Alfredo Aceves (10)
		2B: Marlon Byrd (2), Adrian Gonzalez (15), Dustin Pedroia (14) HR: David Ortiz (10)
Baltimore Orioles 27-16	6	L: Kevin Gregg (2-2)
		HR: Chris Davis