Hill pitches 2-hit shutout and fans 10, Red Sox beat Orioles

The Red Sox have a 15-66 record when opponents outhit them. Second baseman Logan Forsythe singled, and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera tied the game with a double.

Baltimore Orioles’ Ubaldo Jimenez, left, looks toward the outfield…

Despite being 74-80, the Red Sox are third in the majors in hitting.

What’s most impressive about the Red Sox bullpen on the day is that only Hembree has an ERA (Earned Run Average) under 4.00 on the season. The Red Sox have been out of the race since the All-Star Break; the only reason Sox fans have had to watch the standings is to see if the team can avoid another last-place finish (and maybe to take joy in the Yankees slipping further and further behind the Blue Jays).

Longoria hit a solo homer to spark a three-run sixth inning, and Erasmo Ramirez pitched seven solid frames as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 4-2 on Thursday.

The home run to Navarro was the first Hill had yielded to a major-league hitter since 2013, a span of 37 1/3 innings. He also went 7 2-3 scoreless against Baltimore in Camden Yards on September 16.

“He’s done extremely well, especially since he came off the disabled list”, Boston’s interim manager Torey Lovullo said. “Our pitchers deserve so much credit for that”. He bought Built-A-Bears for player with under a year’s service time to lug the 10-game trip and the three games of this home stand. He cited after the game that he was having trouble commanding his curveball throughout the start. “It fires you up”. He gave up two runs and five hits, struck out eight and walked two while improving to 7-1 in nine starts against Chicago. “It doesn’t really matter to us the way we’re swinging the bats”.

Baltimore mustered just six hits on the afternoon with not a single player accounting for multiple hits.

Baltimore has not been above.500 since heading into play on August. 24 at 62-61, but battled its way out of a funk to pull within 3 1/2 games of the AL’s second wild card. “We’ve been playing to hopefully get a spot in the playoffs”. Their final six games are against Seattle and Arizona – squads that are surely capable of taking down the ‘stros. They have brought up many of their best young prospects this season, including catcher Blake Swihart and pitchers Henry Owens and Eduardo Rodriguez, so things should turnaround.

The Sox scored four unearned runs in the eighth highlighted by an RBI ground-rule double by Betts and Machado’s second error of the game.

Following a walk by Pedroia, Orioles reliever Steve Johnson entered the contest.

CF Adam Jones missed his fourth straight game with back spasms but was close to a return.

Wren, 57, joins the Red Sox with more than 30 years of experience working in the front offices of baseball organizations.

The Orioles were coming off a three-game sweep of the Nationals. His only truly good season was an 11-8 year with the Cubs in 2007 (3.92 ERA in 195 innings).

Owens was rolling early on as he took a flawless game into the fifth inning before allowing a leadoff double, but struggled at times after that.