The Boston Red Sox will try to extend their first winning streak of the season to three games when they host the Baltimore Orioles in a Saturday matinee.
The Red Sox (5-9) kicked off the four-game series between the two teams with a 6-4 win Friday night. Eduardo Rodriguez shined in the outing, becoming the first Boston starter to earn a win this season after allowing just two runs in 6 2/3 innings. Rodriguez had been 0-2 with a 12.38 ERA entering the contest, and Red Sox starters were a combined 0-8 with a league-worst 8.79 ERA.
Right-hander Rick Porcello (0-2, 13.50 ERA) will similarly try to emerge from a rut as he’s opposed by Orioles righty Andrew Cashner (2-1, 5.28 ERA) in Game 2.
Rodriguez retired the first 14 Baltimore batters he faced Friday and had gave up only one hit entering the seventh before Trey Mancini doubled with one out. An out later, Dwight Smith Jr. hit his second home run in as many games, and the Orioles were down 3-2.
“It was actually a good pitch, and Smith got to it,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after the game. “Sometimes you have a great night like that and one pitch messes up the whole thing, but (not tonight). We needed (Rodriguez) to go deep in the game, he did an outstanding job.”
Boston pulled ahead to 6-2, maintaining its lead courtesy of a Jackie Bradley Jr. leaping grab at the wall with a runner on to end the top of the eighth, but Baltimore made it interesting in the ninth when Renato Nunez hit a two-run home run off Tyler Thornburg. But Ryan Brasier entered and got the final two outs for his third save.
The Orioles (5-9) dropped their fourth straight game and have lost eight of their last nine following a 4-1 start. Cashner will once again get the chance to be a stopper, as his win over Oakland in his last start ended a four-game skid.
“We’ve got to get more hits, obviously,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told the media of his team, which has been limited to four hits in three straight outings. “We’ve got to get more baserunners. I like the way we’re grinding out at-bats. It’s just been a struggle the last couple games putting rallies together.”
Cashner is 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA this month. He will make his second career start at Fenway Park, having allowed five runs in five innings as a member of the Texas Rangers his first time out in 2017.
Porcello, meanwhile, makes his first home start after a disastrous pair of outings on the road to begin his 2019 season. He allowed nine runs (four earned) in 2 2/3 innings at Seattle in his first start before Arizona roughed him up for seven runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings last week.
“I can go to bed and tomorrow wake up and say, ‘Yeah, we’ve got Rick Porcello on the mound,’” Cora said. “We expect him to go deep in the game.”
Andrew Benintendi homered for the Red Sox in Friday’s win, ending a run of 194 at-bats (including postseason) since he last went deep on Aug. 31, 2018. Mitch Moreland had two hits, including a double — his fifth straight start with an extra-base hit (four homers, two doubles).
Baltimore’s Chris Davis made the final out of the contest as a pinch hitter to extend his record hitless streak to 54 at-bats.