BOSTON (AP) - Wei-Yin Chen’s start was drastically different from his previous one in Fenway Park.
Chen (0-1) walked five, gave up five unearned runs and even bobbled a grounder for an error in Baltimore’s rain-shortened 7-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in Monday’s annual Patriots’ Day game.
“I didn’t really allow a lot of hard hits balls out there,” Chen said through a translator. “Maybe I was trying to be too fine. I didn’t have a large strike zone which leads to a lot of walks. I feel bad for my teammates.”
The game was called after 6 1/2 innings following a 1-hour, 42-minute delay.
In his prior start in Boston, Chen threw 5 2-3 perfect innings before allowing a hit on Sept. 10 in an Orioles’ victory.
On Monday, he didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, allowing three hits and also hitting a batter.
“The walks usually aren’t a challenge for him unless they’re intentional unintentional,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “I think I’ll chalk that off to the conditions. Everybody that was in had trouble throwing the ball where they wanted to. But, like I said, it’s a convenient excuse. Everybody knew when they came here this morning the conditions they’d be under.”
Justin Masterson (2-0) benefited from five unearned runs, holding Baltimore to one run and three hits in five innings.
“The errors kind of gift-wrapped or built into the four-run inning, along with some bases on balls,” Boston manager John Farrell said.
The first pitch was thrown at 11:04 a.m. under cloudy skies on the Massachusetts holiday after Boston Marathon runners already were on the course that passes close to Fenway Park.
With the score tied at 1, Boston scored four runs in the third when Chen walked four and made an error, and third baseman Manny Machado committed another error.
Chen gave up three hits and five walks after getting the win in Baltimore’s 7-6 victory at Fenway last year on Patriots’ Day, which commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
Boston took a 1-0 lead in the first when Mookie Betts singled, stole second, took third on catcher Ryan Lavarnway’s wild throw and scored on David Ortiz’s sacrifice fly.
Baltimore tied it in the second on Travis Snider’s triple and Ryan Flaherty’s double.
Xander Bogaerts led off the third with a walk, took third on a single by Ryan Hanigan and scored when Chen bobbled Betts’ grounder. Dustin Pedroia sacrificed, and Allen Craig loaded the bases with a walk.
Mike Napoli walked, forcing in a run, and Machado’s error allowed Betts and Craig to score.
The Orioles made three errors, the first game this season in which they committed more than one. They have seven errors this year, three by pitchers.
Boston made it 7-1 in the sixth. Hanigan was hit for the second time and scored on Pedroia’s double off Jason Garcia. After Ortiz was walked intentionally, Craig singled in Pedroia.
Baltimore’s Adam Jones had his nine-game hitting streak snapped after going 7 for 10 in the previous two games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: Showalter thinks INF Jonathan Schoop, who went on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right knee Saturday, could be back sooner than the six to eight weeks originally forecast. Schoop is rehabbing in Sarasota, Florida.
Red Sox: LF Hanley Ramirez left in the top of the third because of illness. He was replaced by Craig. 3B Pablo Sandoval was out of the lineup for a day of rest. Brock Holt (12 for 24 coming into the game) started in his place and went 0 for 2.
JONES UPSET WITH VISITORS
Jones was bothered after the game about the press being in the clubhouse, questioning to a team media representative why they were there and saying “they loiter.”
UP NEXT:
Orioles: RHP Bud Norris (0-1, 12.38 ERA) pitches Tuesday the opener of a three-game series in Toronto against LHP Mark Buehrle (2-0, 3.75). Norris won his last start, allowing three runs in five innings against the New York Yankees. In his other start this year, he gave up eight runs in three innings in a loss to Toronto.
Red Sox: LHP Wade Miley (0-1, 10.57) pitches the opener of a three-game series at Tampa Bay on Tuesday against RHP Chris Archer (2-1, 1.37). It begins a six-game trip. In his last start, Miley allowed seven runs in 2 1-3 innings in his Fenway debut, a 10-5 loss to Washington this season.
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