BOSTON — At least this one was close.
After the Orioles’ laughable 19-5 loss Friday, they took the Red Sox to extra innings in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader, falling 6-5 in 10 innings.
The close loss was perhaps a step in the right direction, though the only way to go from Friday’s debacle was up. Still, the Orioles played sloppy baseball — Gunnar Henderson’s error in the sixth inning helped the Red Sox tie the game — and squandered a pair of leads, 2-0 in the first and a 5-2 in the fifth.
Zach Eflin struggled for the second straight start, the offense went silent late and Boston’s Rafael Devers hit a walk-off single off Gregory Soto to win the game. Interim manager Tony Mansolino elected to let Soto face Devers, one of baseball’s best sluggers, for the left-on-left matchup rather than set up a double play and have Soto face a string of right-handed hitters.
In the top of the 10th, one of Mansolino’s earlier decisions came back to bite when Jorge Mateo stepped to the plate in a key spot. Mansolino pinch ran Mateo for Ryan Mountcastle with one out in the eighth inning of a tie game, and Mateo stole second but did not score. Boston manager Alex Cora then intentionally walked Ryan O’Hearn with two outs in the top of the 10th to face Mateo, who struck out on four pitches to end the frame.
Baltimore falls to 16-34 — a season-worst 18 games below .500 — and has lost 10 of its past 11. The Orioles are 4-16 in May as their season circles the drain.
After a 30-minute rain delay, the Orioles took a 2-0 lead on a two-run double from Ramón Urías in the first inning off Red Sox right-hander Hunter Dobbins. Normally, that would be a sign of better things to come, but nothing is certain anymore with how poorly this team has played this year. Just Friday, the Orioles led 2-0 and then lost 19-5 in embarrassing fashion.
Eflin took the mound coming off his worst start since joining the Orioles last summer. Against the Nationals last Sunday, in the second game after the organization fired manager Brandon Hyde, Eflin surrendered 10 hits and eight runs. The right-hander had allowed three or fewer runs in each of his first 13 starts since the Orioles acquired him from the Tampa Bay Rays at last year’s trade deadline. Now, he’s given up five or more in each of his past two outings.
In one of the strangest Orioles seasons in recent memory, the start to Game 1 on Saturday was just the latest example. As Eflin took the mound, rain began pouring at Fenway Park. Fans sprinted up the concourse to take shelter, but Eflin stood on the mound to pitch in less-than-ideal conditions. Leadoff hitter Jarren Duran clobbered the second pitch from Eflin into the right field bleachers. The rain worsened, and the umpires pulled the players off the field for an unofficial delay that lasted six minutes. As soon as the players left the field, the rain stopped, bringing them back onto the field to warm up as the grounds crew tended to the wet dirt.
After the game resumed, the Orioles’ lead disappeared. Wilyer Abreu took the first pitch he saw from Eflin and deposited it 399 feet to right field.
Eflin settled down for the next few innings, and Baltimore’s bats put up one of their best frames in weeks in the fifth. Heston Kjerstad hit a leadoff double, moved to third on Emmanuel Rivera’s single and scored on Jackson Holliday’s RBI groundout to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. After Adley Rutschman walked, Henderson’s double off the Green Monster scored Holliday, and Baltimore went up 5-2 thanks to a wild pitch from lefty reliever Sean Newcomb.
Of course, no lead is guaranteed for the Orioles, and they proved that in the next two innings. After Eflin gave up a solo homer to Abraham Toro in the fifth — the seventh long ball he’s allowed in his past two appearances — his start unraveled in the sixth when he allowed the first three batters to reach base.
After Henderson’s error brought home a run, Mansolino pulled Eflin for Bryan Baker with runners on second and third and no outs. Baker allowed one of them to score on a groundout, but he recorded the final two outs to keep the game tied.
The best chance the Orioles had to score the remainder of the game was in the eighth with two runners on and one out, but Kjerstad grounded into a double play to spoil the opportunity. The Orioles recorded only one hit in the final five innings and ended the game 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position while leaving eight men on base.
Orioles roster moves: Ramón Laureano placed on IL, Terrin Vavra called up
Instant analysis
Throughout this season, as the Orioles have struggled at the plate and in the field, former manager Brandon Hyde, his coaches and the team’s leaders have said that Baltimore’s young players are “trying to do too much.”
There might be no better example than Henderson’s error in the sixth inning.
Instead of taking the “easy” out at first base and trusting his pitching staff to escape a first-and-third jam, Henderson tried to make an acrobatic throw to get the out at second base to set up a potential double play. His throw was uncatchable for second baseman Jackson Holliday and bounced into the outfield — a mistake that resulted in an unearned run.
Henderson’s defensive miscues have been under a microscope this season after he made a league-leading 25 errors last season. But his blunder Saturday was far from the only one the Orioles have made in Boston. On Friday, Jorge Mateo and Holliday both made errors, Kjerstad didn’t corral a fly ball that many right fielders would be able to catch and Rutschman dropped a throw at the plate that would’ve resulted in an out.
The Orioles aren’t just playing bad baseball. They’re playing sloppy baseball.
On deck
Let’s play two — for real this time.
After Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader was postponed because of rain, the Orioles and Red Sox should be able to complete Saturday’s twin bill with Game 2 scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Right-hander Lucas Giolito will start for Boston. The Orioles have yet to announce a starter, though it will presumably be left-hander Trevor Rogers or right-hander Charlie Morton.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Jacob Calvin Meyer at jameyer@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/JCalvinMeyer.
