Jeremy Guthrie’s 8.1 scoreless innings almost go to waste after a shaky 9th from the bullpen, but Chris Ray does just enough to lock down a 5-4 Orioles victory.
Inspired by Taylor Swift re-releasing her own songs as (Taylor’s version), Camden Chat writers will be spending the rest of 2023 re-releasing some Orioles game recaps and giving them better endings. Today’s newest Orioles hit is a re-imagining of the game from May 13th, 2007 infamously known as “The Mother’s Day Massacre.” Originally, what looked to be a dominant Orioles win took a turn for the worst in the bottom of the ninth. As former Camden Chat steward Scott Christ said immediately afterward, “I’m at a loss to describe my feelings for the Mother’s Day Massacre without going into expletives that even I would find inappropriate.”
We instead choose to imagine a world where the Baltimore bullpen gave Birdland a better Mother Day’s present.
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Rookie right-hander Jeremy Guthrie delivered the best outing of his big league career, and it almost wasn’t enough for the Orioles. The bullpen still found a way to make things exciting in the ninth inning. Ultimately, though, the O’s sent the mothers of Birdland home with the gift of a 5-4 Mother’s Day win.
The Orioles bats started the day by getting off to a fast start against the Red Sox’ No. 2 starter Josh Beckett. The Red Sox righty walked Brian Roberts to lead off the game, then Nick Markakis pulled the first pitch he saw through the right side for a single. Two batters later, Roberts scored after stealing third base and then coming home on an errant throw by Jason Varitek. Aubrey Huff then doubled the lead, bouncing a two-out single up the middle to drive home Markakis from third.
Beckett would keep the O’s off the scoreboard the next three innings. However, after throwing 30 pitches in the first, the Red Sox starter’s afternoon ended after only four innings. Baltimore’s bats greeted reliever Kyle Snyder the same way they greeted Beckett: by getting the offense going immediately. Jay Payton led off the top of the fifth with a double to deep left field. Payton then advanced to third on a failed pick-off attempt, setting up a prime RBI opportunity for fellow outfielder Corey Patterson. The nine hitter Patterson did not waste the opportunity, bouncing a single through the right side to give the O’s a 3-0 lead.
After stranding two runners in the top of the sixth, the Orioles’ offense widen the gap even more in top of the seventh. After two quick outs, Roberts reached on an infield single and Markakis walked to give the O’s two on with two outs. Miguel Tejada then picked up his first hit of the game, singling to left to drive home Roberts and stretch the lead to 4-0.
The O’s continued to beat up the Boston bullpen in the top of the eighth, giving the Orioles a run that proved vital in securing the win. Huff led off the inning with a walk and then a single from Kevin Millar gave the O’s a runner in scoring position with nobody out. Jay Gibbons then continued a hot day for Orioles hitters with RISP, singling past Alex Cora at second to drive home Huff for the O’s fifth run.
All of this offense came in support of a brilliant outing from the rookie Guthrie. Making his second start of the season and third in his career, Guthrie shut down the AL East leaders like he was a seasoned veteran. He started off the bottom of the first by setting down Julio Lugo, Coco Crisp and David Ortiz in order. The former first round pick ran into his first bit of trouble in the bottom of the second, giving up a two-out double to Kevin Youkilis. Guthrie did escape the inning unscathed after getting Varitek to fly out and strand Youkilis.
Guthrie faced the minimum in the third and fourth innings as he continued to cruise against Boston. He put together a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the third to turn over the Red Sox lineup. Crisp then led off the fourth with a bunt groundout, but Guthrie allowed his second base runner with a walk to Ortiz. He quickly erased that runner, though, getting Manny Ramirez to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
The rookie continued to work out of trouble in the fifth and sixth innings. J.D. Drew led off the fifth with a double to give the Red Sox another runner in scoring position. However, Guthrie got Youkilis, Varitek and Eric Hinske to all ground out to strand the runner. In the sixth, the Red Sox got two on with one out thanks to a single by Cora and a walk to Crisp. However, the double play once again proved to be Guthrie’s best friend, as he got Ortiz to roll into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Guthrie would cruise through the seventh and eighth innings, setting down the lineup in order each inning and collecting his only two strikeouts. Manager Sam Perlozzo decided to let the rookie go for the complete game shutout, sending him back out in the bottom of the ninth with O’s up 5-0. The inning started off well for Guthrie, who got Lugo to ground out to short for the first out. Guthrie should’ve been one out away from his shutout, but a dropped popup by catcher Ramón Hernández gave Boston a base runner instead.
From there, chaos ensued. Perlozzo sent out Danys Báez to replace Guthrie and the veteran reliever only added fuel to the fire that was the Red Sox’ rally. Ortiz immediately doubled off Baez to bring home Crisp and give Boston its first run of the game. Wily Mo Peña then singled on a slow roller past third base, allowing Ortiz to move up. At that point, Perlozzo had seen enough from Báez, replacing him with closer Chris Ray.
Ray walked the first batter he faced in Drew, loading the bases for Youkilis. The Red Sox 1B walked to force in Ortiz and cut the O’s lead to 5-2. Varitek then doubled to right center, bringing home Peña and Drew to reduce the Orioles lead to 5-4. At that point, though, Ray locked in. He issued an intentional walk to Hinske to load the bases, before Cora grounded into a force out at home. Nine hitter Julio Lugo the came to the plate and proceeded to bounce ball to Millar, who flipped it to Ray for the final out.
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The win cuts the Red Sox lead in the AL East down to 6 and gives the Orioles a .500 record at 19-19. The Orioles will continue their road trip as they head to Toronto for another AL East matchup. After the O’s swept the Blue Jays earlier this season in Camden Yards, they’ll look to build off the momentum from Sunday’s win against Toronto.