Pedro Severino hit a walk off single in the bottom of the 10th inning Saturday night, as the Baltimore Orioles broke their six game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards.
Pat Valaika put Baltimore (13-14) up first with a solo homerun in the second. It was the third homer in three days against Boston for Valaika. Jackie Bradley Jr. hit his first homerun of the season, a solo shot to center in the fifth to tie the game. Alex Verdugo gave the Sox the lead in the same inning with an RBI double. Kevin Pillar extended it to 3-1 with an infield RBI single in the sixth. Anthony Santander would hit a game tying two run homer with two outs in the eighth for the Birds off reliever Josh Taylor, after Taylor had walked a batter with two out and noone on base. The game went to extras and the Sox took the lead again in the 10th when Mitch Moreland walked with the bases loaded. Boston brought in Matt Barnes to try to close it out in the bottom half. Baltimore loaded up the bases with no outs, before Barnes struck out Andrew Velazquez for the first out. The Sox would bring Bradley Jr. in from center field to play the infield to try and turn a double play with five infielders. It wasn’t to be however, as Severino hit one deep to the vacated center field spot to give the Orioles the walk off win.
Martin Perez had his best start as a member of the Red Sox in a no-decision going 7.0 innings allowing one run on five hits with only one walk and six strikeouts. Taylor was charged with a blown save, while Barnes (1-2) took the loss. Verdugo and Christian Vazquez both had two hits, as Boston dropped to 9-19 and had their short three game win streak snapped. Miguel Castro (1-0) won in relief for Baltimore. Alex Cobb started and allowed two runs on six hits in 5.0 innings. Renato Nunez, Severino, and Valaika all had two hits a piece. The teams finish the four game series Sunday afternoon at 1:05, with Zack Godley going for the Sox against Wade LeBlanc for the Orioles.
After finishing off the Carolina Hurricanes in round one of the NHL playoffs, the Boston Bruins get set for the semifinal round when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a best of seven series that starts Sunday night at 8 p.m.
Boston, who is playing without goaltender Tuuka Rask who opted out of the bubble after a game two loss to Carolina, stays with Jaroslav Halak who went 3-0 in relief against the ‘Canes in a 4-1 series win. The Bruins did play against Tampa Bay during the seeding round robin tournament and fell 3-2. The Lightning also took three of four regular season meetings. Tampa has an overall record of 49-23-6, and have gone 6-2 since the restart (2-1 in round robin, 4-1 series win over Columbus in first round of playoffs). The Lightning excelled in the first round against the Blue Jackets, who knocked out top seed Tampa Bay in a sweep last season in the playoffs. Boston on the other hand went 0-3 in the round robin, but really dominated Carolina in play after a game two loss to even up their record at 4-4 since they hit the ice on August 1st. The Bruins have an overall season record of 48-18-12. Expect this series to be a great matchup between two division rivals, also expect it to be a long one. The teams face off in the playoffs for the first time since the 2017-18 season when Tampa took four straight games after Boston won game one to take the series. The other Eastern Conference matchup for round two sees the top seeded Philadelphia Flyers facing the upstart and sixth seed New York Islanders. In the West, the Dallas Stars face the Colorado Avalanche, and the Vegas Golden Knights will square off with the Vancouver Canucks.
#2 Tampa Bay vs #3 Boston schedule (all games at Eastern Conference hub, Scotiabank Arena in Toronto):
Game 1- Sun Aug 23 8 p.m. (Tampa home team)
Game 2- Tues Aug 25 7 p.m. (Tampa home team)
Game 3- Wed Aug 26 8 p.m. (Boston home team)
Game 4- Fri Aug 28 7:30 p.m. (Boston home team)
*Game 5- Sun Aug 30 TBD (Tampa home team)
*Game 6- Tues Sept 1 TBD (Boston home team)
*Game 7- Wed Sept 2 TBD (Tampa home team)
*-if necessary
