Red Sox Dominate on Sunday

The Orioles finished the three-game series were shut-out, 5-0, against Boston on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in Baltimore.

Their loss featured a so-so outing from Orioles starting pitcher Jason Hammel and an offense quieted by Boston southpaw John Lester.

Lester has now upped his lifetime record to 15-2 against the Orioles.

What can we say about Jason Hammel?

His numbers on the day are as follows: 5 1/3 innings pitched, three earned runs on six hits and one home run allowed – Ortiz in the third inning.

He threw another yet in a line of mediocre starts on the mound on Sunday. Not much can be done about that, considering the offense for Baltimore was muted against Boston pitching.

Overall, Hammel has gone winless in his last ten starts.

The Orioles did have chances against Lester, especially, in the bottom of sixth when they had two runners on base with one out; alas, J.J. Hardy grounded into a double play and ended the threat.

The Orioles made Lester work at times – most notably, a 30-pitch sixth inning – but were dominated on Sunday. Only Adam Jones was able to do much against Lester, as he was able to get two hits off of him.

Nick Markakis had two hits on the day; however, Chris Davis has been struggling at the plate. His first half was nothing short of amazing; however, he looks lost at the plate. He has now struck out at least once in the past 22 games, and whiffed three times on Sunday.

Sometimes the game of baseball humbles the best of players, and Chris Davis may be a testament to that statement. I’m sure he will get back on track, but he may be a different player from what we saw in the first half versus the second one. He just seems to be swinging at a lot more pitches at the plate, not getting a lot of offerings to smash the ball, very anxious, and hurlers may be figuring out his weak spots.

Also, he does not look disciplined when batting now, versus what we saw in the first four months of the season.

David Ortiz – a day after his petulant tantrum in the Red Sox dugout – took out his frustrations on the Orioles, going 4-for-4 with a home run. Amazing.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia put the game out of reach for Baltimore with a two-run single in the eighth inning off reliever T.J. McFarland that raised Boston’s lead to 5-0.

Like I said this weekend, the Orioles need to win as many games at they can against their next two opponents during this homestand – the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.

It’s no shame losing to the likes of Boston and dropping a series to them; however, they cannot give games away to sub .500 teams such as Seattle or Houston.

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