Chris Davis Hits First HR; O’s Spoil Patriots Day For Red Sox
One of the coolest local sports traditions is Patriots Day in Boston. Every year, the Boston Red Sox play an 11:05 AM E.T. home game while the Boston Marathon gets rolling through downtown. Traditionally, after the game, fans from the park go and cheer for the runners.
This year, the Baltimore Orioles got to be a part of Patriots Day and turned in one of their most dominant performances of the season, beating the Red Sox 8-1.
Starting pitcher Dan Straily was impressive in five innings, picking up his first win as an Oriole and allowing only three baserunners. On offense, the O’s jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI single from Renato Nunez and never looked back. Jonathan Villar added an RBI single in the fifth, followed by a two-run homer from Dwight Smith Jr. to go up 4-0.
In the eighth, Chris Davis hit a 3-2 pitch into the right-field stands for his first home run of the season, putting the O’s up 6-1 and increasing his 2019 batting average to .089.
Smith Jr. had another knock in the ninth, doubling home Trey Mancini and Villar to go up 8-1.
Reliever Miguel Castro secured the win for Baltimore with a scoreless ninth inning.
The game turned out to be one of firsts for Baltimore; not only did Davis hit his first jack of the season but manager Brandon Hyde was tossed for the first time after arguing a missed interference call at second base.
Baltimore, who split this series with Boston 2-2, will now head to Tampa Bay for three games before coming home for six games against the Twins and White Sox.
With the win, the O’s are 7-10 and in second place among AL East teams.