IT WAS OVER WHEN …
Catcher Ramon Hernandez flew out to right to end the eighth inning. Right after Aubrey Huff doubled home two runs to get the Orioles within a run, Hernandez stranded the Orioles designated hitter 180 feet from home.
O’S FANS CHEERED …
When Huff hit his 27th home run of the season in the fourth inning. Huff launched a 2-0 pitch 412 feet to center field to put the Orioles on the board against a difficult Jon Lester.
O’S FANS JEERED …
When Kevin Millar bobbled David Ortiz’s grounder leading off the Boston eighth. Ortiz would score on Jason Bay’s second home run of the game, and Boston expanded its lead to 4-1. In front of 30-plus thousand Boston fans, the home contingent’s boos to the former Red Sox first baseman’s blunder was drown-out by the visitors’ elation.
FANTASY STUD …
Bay tripled his home run total with the Red Sox in one productive evening. He hit his second and third Red Sox home runs since coming over in a July 31 trade from Pittsburgh. The two blasts give him 25 for this season.
GOOD CALL …
By Boston manager Terry Francona to go to closer Jonathan Papelbon with two outs in the eighth inning. Manny Delcarmen had walked the two previous hitters, and it seemed as if momentum was shifting in the Orioles’ favor with Aubrey Huff coming to the plate.
BAD CALL …
Pitching to Aubrey Huff. The rest of the Orioles’ offense was awful, but Huff’s solo home run in the fourth, and the two run double he hit off Papelbon in the eighth accounted for all three of the Orioles’ runs.
IF ONLY …
Orioles ace Jeremy Guthrie didn’t have to face the opposition’s ace. Guthrie didn’t have his best stuff, but hung with Lester for seven innings in a pitcher’s duel. Unfortunately, the Orioles’ hot offense still struggles to score when Guthrie is on the hill.
