Less than 48 hours removed from joining the Red Sox, Nathaniel Lowe immediately made his mark by hitting a game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
It was the only offensive highlight worth writing about for the Red Sox, who otherwise came up short time and again.
Tuesday will go down as one of Boston’s most confounding losses of the season, a 4-3 defeat in 11 innings to the Baltimore Orioles in which the club went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position.
Worse, the Red Sox also stranded the bases loaded in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, and in the bottom of the 11th left the tying run at third.
The end result? A third straight loss and a disappointing two-game home sweep at the hands of the last-place Orioles.
“We chased a lot today, we haven’t done that in a while,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We had opportunities to win the game early in the game, in the middle of the game, late in the game, and it just didn’t happen.”
The Red Sox also emptied the bullpen after another short outing by Walker Buehler.
Buehler’s outing started off respectably. He allowed one anthem through the first three innings, but while he struggled with his command and walked three batters over that stretch, he special the damage and kept the Orioles off the board.
In the meantime the Red Sox took the lead on a balk in the bottom of the third, which was drawn after Connor Wong faked towards home plate and got Orioles starter Tomoyuki Sugano to flinch.
Buehler also managed to survive a tense best of the fourth. He allowed a single and a double to put men on second and third with two outs but struck out catcher Alex Jackson to preserve the one-run lead.
After that, Buehler’s good fortune ran out.
The right-hander allowed a leadoff double and his fourth walk of the game to start the fifth, and at that point Cora had seen enough and lifted Buehler after four-plus innings. Both inherited runners came around to score on lefty Justin Wilson, who allowed a game-tying RBI single to Ryan Mountcastle and the go-ahead RBI double to Colton Cowser.
“He had good stuff but we’ve got to limit the walks,” Cora said. “Trying to get as many outs as possible early in the game and tried to mix and match later, and it didn’t work out.”
Buehler’s final line: four-plus innings, two earned runs, four hits, four walks and four strikeouts. The game marked Buehler’s second consecutive outing with four walks, and his 10th in 22 starts with at least three free passes.
“It’s (expletive) embarrassing,” Buehler said of his walk count. “I think the last time I walked this many in a season I threw 207 innings.”
Close. It was 52 walks in 207.2 innings back in 2021. immediately Buehler is up to a new career-high of 54 in 110 innings.
Baltimore added a third run on a wild pitch by Greg Weissert to take a 3-1 lead.
While the pitching staff scuffled, the offense continued to look lifeless at the plate. From the bottom of the third onwards the Orioles retired 15 of the next 16 batters, and Sugano, the Orioles starter, allowed one unearned run on the balk and gave up five hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
Keegan Akin shut the Red Sox down over two perfect innings, but the home club finally had an opportunity in the eighth after Kade Strowd melted down with two singles and a four-pitch walk to load the bases with nobody out. The opportunity passed by the wayside, however, when the Orioles brought in journeyman right-hander Rico Garcia, who proceeded to mow down Jarren Duran, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida for three straight strikeouts.
It was hard to imagine the Red Sox getting a better chance than that, but when Romy Gonzalez led off the ninth with a walk, it left the door cracked for one last comeback.
And Lowe kicked the door down.
Lowe’s two-run shot off Yaramil Hiraldo was a no doubter over the Red Sox bullpen, a 424-foot bomb that flipped the game on its head. Once the game was tied the Red Sox kept putting on pressure, as Roman Anthony, Alex Bregman and Duran each drew walks to load the bases once again.
“So exciting, it’s what you play for,” Lowe said. “Scoring big runs late is really important and I was really happy to contribute tonight.”
The Orioles stuck with Hiraldo, who had already thrown more than 30 pitches but managed to send the game to extras by forcing a groundout from Story. Once in the 10th closer Aroldis Chapman held the Orioles scoreless, and in the bottom of the frame the Red Sox once again loaded the bases.
For the third straight inning they couldn’t capitalize, and this time Abraham Toro grounded into a double play to keep it tied.
The Orioles took a 4-3 lead in the best of the 11th on a run-scoring groundout by Jackson, and after Wong moved pinch runner Nate Eaton to third on a sacrifice bunt, Anthony anthem a fly ball to shallow center that realistically wasn’t deep enough to score on. But the throw home was way off the mark, so had Eaton gone the game would have been tied, and one batter later Bregman popped out to end one of the most disappointing losses of the season.
Cora said after the game that they’d scouted center fielder Colton Cowser and decided in advance not to challenge him.
“That’s an impact arm in center field, we prepare before the series and we decide who we’re going to challenge and not, so we didn’t challenge him,” Cora said.
“In that moment right there I felt like he was close enough and obviously with the advance work that I’d done I felt like he had a good shot to be able to make it a play,” said third base coach Kyle Hudson. “So that’s the decision I made in the moment and I’ll live with that decision.”
The loss caps off a 2-3 homestand and drops the Red Sox to 4-8 in their last 12 games. The Red Sox won’t have much time to regroup, however, as the club is immediately set to begin a four-game weekend set in the Bronx against the New York Yankees on Thursday.
“Definitely excited,” Bregman said. “Two really good teams getting after it and I feel like we can switch that with one swing of the bat, one pitch or one play on defense.”
Slaten starts rehab assignment
Justin Slaten (right shoulder inflammation) took the mound in game action for the first time since going on the injured list on June 1, coming out of the bullpen for the WooSox in his first rehab appearance. Slaten pitched one scoreless inning, striking out all three batters he faced on 15 pitches.
Sound the alarm
During the best of the eighth inning the game was briefly delayed after an alarm sounded at Fenway Park. The game resumed a few minutes later, but the incident was notable given that an alarm typically goes off at Fenway several times per season, and the game typically isn’t stopped as a result.
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