Red Sox 0, Orioles 2: Stuck in the basement

The Red Sox will stay at the bottom of the AL East thanks to a 2-0 loss to the Orioles that saw them muster only three hits.

So, the good news: Eduardo Rodriguez was...well, he was fine. Great in some ways, less so in others, in much the way you'd expect from a young pitcher with big stuff and small experience. While Rodriguez was out there, he was quite impressive. Or, he was after the first couple batters faced. The lefty started the night off with an early jam, giving up a single and a walk right of the bat. Rodriguez did manage to escape with minimal damage, with only one run coming in, and that on an error. But the run would have come in anyways, with Josh Rutledge's drop resulting in little more than a wasted baserunner Rodriguez struck out Steve Pearce and handled a come-backer from Jonathan Schoop to end the inning.

The Red Sox lineup, meanwhile, had wasted a pair of walks in the top of the first, which was a shame, since that was about all they were going to get. Gausman would only show so much vulnerability one more time, loading the bases in the fourth on another walk and a pair of singles. The Sox nearly broke through, with Rusney Castillo making a bid for a potential go-ahead single, but Schoop snagged the ball out of mid-air, and Gausman got Blake Swihart to hit a lazy fly ball to center behind him for the third out.

While Rodriguez was able to match Gausman's zeroes from there in, he did so with an inefficient flare for the dramatic. Again, in the second, he faced immediate trouble, offering up a double and a walk to start the frame, retiring the next two batters, and then balking both into scoring position. Already having struck out Nolan Reimold in the inning, Rodriguez went with heat away from Machado for another strike three and another, more successful escape act.

Though Rodriguez was often in trouble with baserunners, he was always able to work his way out from there as he piled up strikeout after strikeout. But all those strikeouts--combined with three walks and five hits--cost him plenty of pitches. Rodriguez was out of the game after sixteen outs.

All those bullpen innings might have proved a liability if the Sox were ever going to score. But that would not prove the case. Brian Matusz saved Darren O'Day from a rough outing in the eighth, entering the game with two on and one out and preventing either baserunner from scoring. That sent the game to Zach Britton in the ninth, with just nine pitches needed to retire the Red Sox in order and end the game.