Quality at-bats and quality starts are what it’s all about in baseball.
The Boston Red Sox hope that both trends can continue as they return home to host the Baltimore Orioles for the first time this season, opening a three-game series with their American League East rival on Tuesday night.
After Boston rode a six-run seventh inning to a series-clinching 9-4 win at the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, rookie Connelly Early (5-2, 2.95 ERA) will take the ball looking to deliver another quality start. The 24-year-old left-hander has worked at least six innings in five of his last eight outings.
Sunday’s win saw Boston log 12 hits — including at least one from all nine starting batters — with Masataka Yoshida highlighting the big inning with a go-ahead two-run single.
“You got to tie the game before you can take the lead, so those were really quality at-bats,” interim Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said. “We keep stacking on after that to get into a comfortable lead.”
Tracy’s lineup also has Isiah Kiner-Falefa riding a seven-game hit streak, while Caleb Durbin tripled as part of his second consecutive multi-RBI effort.
While left-hander Garrett Crochet deals with left lat tightness in a setback of his return from shoulder inflammation, the Red Sox hope that Early can continue the team’s recent momentum. He pitched seven scoreless, four-hit innings with seven strikeouts en route to his win over the Atlanta Braves last time out on Wednesday.
“After what he did last year for us in the playoffs, I feel like he had to grow up pretty quick,” outfielder Jarren Duran said of Early. “Some of us forget he’s a rookie and he’s doing the things that he’s doing.”
Early faced the Orioles for the first time in his career on April 26, recording the win and allowing just a pair of solo home runs on four hits through 6 2/3 innings.
The Red Sox are just 9-19 at home. Early’s performance came in the only win of Boston’s last homestand — a 1-5 stretch against the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Though the Orioles sit just ahead of the Red Sox at the bottom of the division standings, they’ve put together one of their most consistent runs of the season.
A 9-5 Sunday win against the Toronto Blue Jays was Baltimore’s seventh on a season-high 10-game homestand it entered having lost five of six. Colton Cowser hit a three-run homer and drove in four to lead the support of Kyle Bradish, who allowed just one unearned run over seven innings.
“I’m not going to say the team needed it, but I think it’s one of those things that is encouraging and keeps morale up, keeps confidence up, and hopefully (we’ll) continue to build momentum,” said Cowser.
Manager Craig Albernaz agrees.
“We were playing the baseball that we’re capable of,” he said. “Just all the work that these guys have been putting in relentlessly every day, we’re starting to see the rewards now, and against some really good teams. It’s been fun to watch.”
Confidence has gone a long way on the mound as well. Shane Baz (2-5, 4.48) has been a part of it, putting together back-to-back solid starts ahead of taking the mound at Fenway Park.
Baz notched a season-high nine strikeouts across seven innings of one-run ball against the Tampa Bay Rays last Tuesday. It was his third straight start working at least six frames and his second straight allowing just one run.
The right-hander, who has spent his entire five-season career in the AL East with the Tampa Bay Rays and Orioles, is 3-1 with a 2.64 ERA in five career starts against the Red Sox.
–Field Level Media
