BOSTON -- This is what passes for bragging rights at Fenway Park these days.
"At 31-40 (.437)," the pregame notes informed the media Tuesday night, "Boston has a better record than MLB's 5 other last-place teams."
Even that quaint distinction may not last for long, as the Boston Red Sox fell, 6-4, to the Baltimore Orioles, dropping 10 games under .500 and well within reach of their last-place brethren in Oakland, Chicago [White Sox] and Colorado.
The Sox, returning home after taking two of three from the first-place Kansas City Royals, began a stretch of 10 straight games against teams in the AL East. They continued the same distressing trend that has made a hash of their season to date, losing their seventh straight game in intramural play. They're 10-22 against the East, 21-19 against everybody else.
The Orioles are now 8-3 against the Sox this season, jumping on Joe Kelly for four runs in the second inning, three coming on a home run by the No. 9 hitter in the Baltimore order, David Lough. Kelly was gone in the fourth, having allowed eight hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly to 11 batters, matching the number of outs he recorded.
Three Sox relievers held the Orioles in check for the balance of the night, but both Robbie Ross Jr. and Alexi Ogando gave up run-scoring hits to the first batters they faced.
The Sox had runners on base in all but one inning and forced Ubaldo Jimenez's departure after he threw 101 pitches in the first five innings (6 hits, 3 runs, 8 K's).But the shutdown Orioles bullpen, which came into the game with a major league leading 2.04 ERA, did its thing again Tuesday night, though a walk and RBI double by Dustin Pedroia in the ninth brought David Ortiz to the plate as the potential tying run.
Ortiz hit a bullet right at third baseman Manny Machado to end it.
Kelly's record dropped to 2-5 with a 5.67 ERA. Manager John Farrell was ejected for the second time in a week, this time by plate umpire Tim Timmons after Farrell barked about some strikes called on Brock Holt that made a wide berth around home plate.
Mike Napoli, dropped to the No. 8 spot in the order for the first time since 2012, struck out in all four plate appearances and heard boos from the crowd of 36,508.
