The Boston Red Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles in Boston in this matchup between AL East rivals. These teams played a crazy game yesterday that ended with the Red Sox winning 13-9. The Red Sox went up 8-3 early in the game before the Orioles came back and tied it at 8 in the next half inning. In the bottom of that inning, the Red Sox matched the Orioles and put up 5 runs themselves to extend their lead back to 13-8 where it pretty much stayed for the rest of the game. The Red Sox were able to even the series with their win last night which I thought at the time would lead to a rubber match, however these teams are playing a four-game series.
Side note, writing that sentence made me wonder where the term “rubber match” comes from. If you’re as interested as me, it was first used in a 16th century lawn bowling game where if two lawn balls rubbed up against each other, it would serve as a tiebreaker. Therefore, the term “rubber match” was created. So, it has nothing to do with rubber. That’s our history lesson for the day, now back to the game.
Rich Hill is starting for the Red Sox, and he has been much worse at home going 2-4 with a 5.87 ERA. He has really struggled lately against everyone except the Orioles who he actually pitched 5 scoreless innings against three starts ago. The Orioles are actually ranked 2nd worst in the league in wOBA against lefties in the last 30 days, but I think they will figure out their lefty woes today. If they don’t, they still have Dean Kremer starting and he has been great for the Orioles this season. He is 5-2 with a 3.47 ERA on the road this season and he is 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA in his last seven starts. He is coming off a complete game shutout against the Astros.
The Orioles have a massive bullpen advantage too which could prove to be key in this game because I don’t think either of these starters will get too deep. Hill doesn’t go deep in general, and Kremer is coming off a complete game. The Orioles bullpen is ranked 9th in the last 30 days while the Red Sox bullpen is ranked 25th . The Orioles also made multiple errors last night contributing to their loss, I think they figure it out tonight.
