The Red Sox blew a four-run lead in a series-opening loss to the Orioles on Monday. They made sure not to repeat the same mistakes in the middle game of this three-game series on Tuesday night.
Powered by Jarren Duran’s first grand slam and Corey Kluber’s first quality start in a Red Sox uniform, Boston defeated Baltimore by a final score of 8-6 at Camden Yards to get back over .500 at 13-12 on the season.
With Kyle Bradish starting for the O’s, the Sox drew first blood in their half of the second inning. Triston Casas drew a one-out walk and went from first to third base on a Duran double. Christian Arroyo then opened the scoring by plating Casas with an opposite-field RBI single. McGuire followed with an opposite-field single of his own to push across Duran. Rafael Devers capped off the three-run frame by scoring Arroyo on a sacrifice fly.
Boston continued to add to its lead in the top of the third. Three consecutive singles from Masataka Yoshida, Enrique Hernandez, and Casas to lead off the inning filled the bases for Duran. Duran, in turn, promptly unloaded the bases by crushing a 2-2, 86.8 mph slider from Bradish 409 feet over the center field wall for his first career grand slam.
Duran’s slam, which left his bat at 107.8 mph, put the Red Sox up, 7-0, as Kluber was in the midst of a much-needed quality outing. The veteran right-hander came into the evening with an 8.50 ERA through his first four starts of the year, but he rebounded in a nice way on Tuesday.
Over six strong innings of work, Kluber allowed just one earned run on five hits and zero walks to go along with three strikeouts on the night. He tossed four scoreless innings out of the gate before serving up a two-out solo shot to Jorge Mateo in the bottom of the fifth.
After giving up that homer to Mateo, though, Kluber retired four of the final five batters he faced through the middle of the sixth. The 37-year-old finished with 80 pitches (55 strikes) and induced five swings-and-misses on his way to lowering his ERA to 6.75 and picking up his first winning decision of 2023.
Following a scoreless seventh inning from Josh Winckowski, the Red Sox got that run back when Duran scored on a McGuire groundout in the top of the eighth. A half-inning later, Winckowski put up another zero to bring Boston to within three outs of a blowout win.
Taking a commanding 8-1 lead going into the latter half of the ninth, Kaleb Ort came on and immediately gave up a leadoff home run to Gunnar Henderson. Ramon Urias and Terrin Vavra then reached on a pair of singles before Enmanuel Valdez committed a missed catch error that should have gone for the second out of the inning.
Instead, the bases were now loaded for Cedric Mullins, who made things even more interesting by depositing a 366-feet grand slam over the left field wall to cut the defecit to two runs at 8-6. That sequence of events forced Red Sox manager Alex Cora to turn to closer Kenley Jansen, who sat down the only two batters he faced to secure the win and notch the 39th save of his career.
All told, Tuesday’s victory took two hours and 44 minutes to complete. Yoshida stayed hot by going 2 for 4 with a walk and run scored. Duran, meanwhile finished a triple shy of the cycle, by going 3 for 4 with three runs and four RBIs.
Arroyo leaves with hamstring injury
Starting second baseman Christian Arroyo was removed from the game in the middle of the fifth inning due to precautionary reasons related to right hamstring tightness. He was replaced by Enmanuel Valdez, who was recalled from Triple-A Worcester earlier Tuesday afternoon and singled in his lone plate appearance.
Arroyo has been dealing with a nagging right hamstring in recent weeks, and so the Red Sox likely wanted to get the 27-year-old off his feet at a point in time where the game felt rather one-sided. He is considered day-to-day and could be back in the lineup on Wednesday.
Next up: Houck vs. Wells in rubber match
The Red Sox will go for their fourth straight series win in Wednesday’s finale against the Orioles. Tanner Houck, fresh off a career-high seven innings of work in his last time out, will get the start for Boston. Baltimore will counter with fellow righty Tyler Wells.
First pitch from Oriole Park at Camden Yards is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN.
(Picture of Jarren Duran: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
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