BALTIMORE — If you are the Baltimore Orioles, and your starting pitching has been mostly bad of late, with many of your starters having trouble getting out of even the third inning, you probably look to the one starter who has been consistently reliable to try to turn the tide against the always-tough Boston Red Sox.
That would be Bud Norris, and against the Sox Monday, Norris delivered a gem of a game to the tune of eight shutout innings to help the Orioles to a much-needed 4-0 win.
Norris allowed just three hits striking out six, throwing 98 pitches with 63 of them for strikes in a game that lasted just 2 hours and 21 minutes. It was the type of pitching performance that had been so sorely-missed by an Orioles team that has had to out-slug teams to win many of its games this season or fought to come back from huge early deficits while seeing its bullpen tire in the later innings.
Tommy Hunter, back off the disabled list, came in to finish off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth, something he failed to do when he was O’s closer.
“Bud was really good,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter. “I’d have probably given him the chance to finish that game but he had a blister, pretty good blister underneath his nail. I didn’t like the way it was starting to look.”
But it was Norris, who has been the Orioles’ best pitcher over the season, compiling a 5-5 record with a 4.41 ERA on the season. But Norris has been a model of consistency, throwing at least 5.0 innings in each of his starts.
“He didn’t get into a lot of deep counts. It was fun to watch,” said Showalter, who remarked that Norris’ command of the fastball and use of the change-up worked for him.
With one out in the fifth, Nick Markakis homered, scoring Ryan Flaherty, to the right field flag court to give the Birds a 3-0 lead. Adam Jones, who had three hits, also homered, his 10th, to lead off the scoring for the Orioles in the bottom of the first as he continues to inch closer to starting in the All-Star Game – Jones was up to 4th place in the balloting coming into the game.
Markakis had hit in 13 straight games coming into the game, batting .370 (20-54) during the stretch hitting balls all over the field, and recently finding his power stroke as well.
“Nick’ll take what they give him, but he’s real hard to play,” said Showalter, “In the era of all these shifts, where do you play him?”
It was a great game for Ryan Flaherty as well. Flaherty made a diving stop of David Ortiz in mid-right field in a shift on the Red Sox slugger.
Flaherty also provided some offense with a solo shot in the bottom of the 7th with one out.
“Aw, Ryan he gives himself a chance to have a night like he had tonight because win, lose, or draw he’s ready,” said Showalter. “That’s all we’re asking, we’re looking for 25 guys that we know what we’re going to get from.”
The Red Sox had few threats in the game, but did register one in the top of the 6th putting two on with just one out. Norris, though, got out of the jam, inducing a flyout off Xander Bogaerts’ bat and then a hard liner by Dustin Pedroia to J.J. Hardy which he flipped to second for a force out to end the inning.
It was one of those nights where things just seemed to go Norris’ way. The hardest hit ball of the night for Boston, was a blast which travelled nearly 400 feet to deep center by Mike Napoli. But it was caught at the wall by Adam Jones.
Norris was aggressive all night with the Sox, consistently throwing strikes and, as has become his trademark, throwing inside with purpose with pitches when he needed to, including a change-up near the head of Pedroia to back the Red Sox All-Star 2B off the plate.
Sox starter Jake Peavy was mostly very good himself, going seven innings, allowing four runs on eight hits. But Peavy was hurt by the long ball, with three of those hits being home runs.
The Orioles have played the Red Sox very well since Robert Andino’s Red Sox season-ending base hit on September 20, 2011. The Orioles have gone 28-17 against Boston since that night, despite outscoring the Sox over that period of time by just 17 runs.
The Orioles were even strong last year against the Sox in a year in which they won the World Series, going 11-8 in the season series, to stand as the only AL East team to have posted a winning record against Boston.
With a dazzling performance by Norris, the O’s can only hope that this becomes contagious to their other starters in this critical home stretch in which they play seven straight games against AL East foes. They have two more against the Red Sox and then the division-leading Toronto Blue Jays come in for four, in what could help shape the Division standings as the All-Star break quickly approaches.
NOTES: Chris Davis bunted in the game for a single against the exaggerated Boston shift. After initially being called out at the plate, a Showalter review caused the call to be overturned in just 27 seconds. After the game Showalter commended Davis for his willingness to be a team player. At the time it gave the Orioles two on with no one out though Peavy escaped the jam. Per STATS, it was Davis’ first career bunt base hit, and 600th overall hit of his career.
