A TEAM THAT COULDN'T
GET THE JOB DONE ...
Hanley and Chris Sale slam the Orioles

May 2, 2017 ...  At the very least, the brewing beef between the Red Sox and Orioles felt as if it should’ve been at a low simmer Tuesday night. The attention of both teams, the city of Boston and all of baseball was focused on a larger issue.

The day had been dominated by the aftermath of an ugly incident the night before when a fan threw a bag of peanuts and hurled a racial slur at Orioles center fielder Adam Jones. Sox management met with Jones personally to apologize. Mayor Marty Walsh admonished the behavior. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred echoed the sentiments. Players in the Sox clubhouse processed it all internally.

When Jones stepped in the batter’s box with one out in the first inning, an ovation slowly grew from the crowd at Fenway. He let it build, adjusting his batting gloves, taking practice swings before nodding his head to acknowledge the sentiment. On the mound, Sox ace Chris Sale took in the moment. Then, in a matter of three pitches, Jones was back in the dugout, the first of Chris Sale’s 11 strikeout victims.

Once that moment was gone, the simmer was back to a boil. The cheers for Jones flipped to boos for Manny Machado. The discontent that was supposed to have been left behind by the teams was still lingering after Orioles starter Dylan Bundy hit Mookie Betts with a fastball high in the thigh Monday night. Sale took the first opportunity he could to let the Orioles know he hadn’t forgotten. The first pitch he threw to Machado was a 97 mile-per-hour fastball that whizzed behind Machado’s knees. Home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn starting throwing out warnings almost instantly. Machado chirped at the Sox from the batter’s box. Umpires tried to settle him down. Both managers came out from their dugouts to try to restore order.

But not only did Sale send a message, he set the tone in the Red Sox’s  5-2 win. He struck out Machado, blowing a 98-mile-per-hour fastball by him. He went back to the dugout charged up, slapping fives with every hand he could find and howling at whoever could hear him.

Over eight innings of work, Sale took a torch to the Orioles lineup. He ran his major-league leading strikeout total up to 63. In his fifth straight start, he racked up double-digit strikeouts. The only other pitcher in Sox history to achieve the same feat was Pedro Martinez in 2001.

Sale’s delivered at least seven innings in all six of his starts, never allowing more than two earned runs.

A pair of solo home runs from Hanley Ramirez jump-started a Sox offense that’s struggled to show vital signs in recent weeks. The Sox were desperate to give Sale some run support after cobbling together just four runs for him in his first five starts. An RBI single by Dustin Pedroia in the second inning gave Sale an early lead for the first time in his past three starts. When Hanley Ramirez blasted a 1-and-1 curveball from Alec Asher out to the light tower over the Green Monster in the fourth inning for a solo homer, the Sox took a 2-0 lead.

The Orioles got one of the runs back in the fifth when Trey Mancini jumped on an 0-and-2 fastball and lined it to the edge of the Wall in center for an RBI double.

But Ramirez had another towering shot in him. In the sixth, Asher left another curveball dangling over the plate and Ramirez shot it past the AAA sign over the Monster to put the Sox up, 3-1. The two homers gave Ramirez four in the past four games. He stretched his hitting streak to eight straight games. He’s driven in at least one run in each of the past five.

Machado got a bit of revenge in the seventh when he lifted a first-pitch fastball from Sale out to the Monster for a solo homer. It was his sixth of the season and his third against the Sox.

But a two-run double from Mookie Betts in the bottom of the inning all but sealed the win for Sale, who picked up his second win of the season.

The Orioles turned a fielding gaffe by short stop J.J. Hardy into in an odd triple play in the bottom of the eighth. With no outs and two men aboard, Jackie Bradley Jr. lofted a high fly over Hardy, who allowed the ball to drop in shallow left field but alertly started the rare triple by throwing to second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who tagged out Mitch Moreland. Schoop then stepped on the bag to get Pedroia, who stood at first slightly confused, out at second. Schoop then threw to first baseman Chris Davis, who stepped on the bag to get Bradley for the third out.