BOSTON _ Another strong outing from right-hander Dylan Bundy wasn't enough to keep the Boston Red Sox from handing the Orioles a 8-1 loss Tuesday at Fenway Park, thanks to a set of quiet bats and one of the more bizarre defensive innings this team will play all season.
Bundy, the team's former top prospect who is in his first full season in the rotation, threw a career-high 106 pitches and was charged with three runs (two earned) on seven hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks.
He wasn't as dominant as he was April 5 against the Blue Jays, but his two outings are the only two quality starts the Orioles have this year.
Tuesday's loss wasn't on Bundy. The Orioles' position players couldn't muster much on offense and collectively bungled the seventh inning with a pair of errors and two hits off their gloves.
The seventh inning could have been quick. In relief of Bundy, Darren O'Day got a simple double-play ball to shortstop J.J. Hardy, but Hardy fumbled the grounder out of his glove and didn't get an out on the play. On the next batter, second baseman Jonathan Schoop tracked a ball to shallow center field and called off the outfielders while doing it, but the ball glanced off his glove before falling in for a hit.
Second baseman Dustin Pedroia then stung a ball up the middle that Hardy dove for and knocked down, but it skidded away from him and two runs scored. A third run came in that inning on a single by outfielder Mookie Betts, who advanced to second on a throwing error by right fielder Craig Gentry.
Pedroia almost scored from third on the following batter, but Hardy chased him down from shortstop in a one-on-one rundown for the out.
The eighth inning wasn't much better. Two runs scored on a two-out triple by catcher Christian Vazquez after Seth Smith's slide in right field couldn't stop the ball from rolling into the corner. Boston followed that up with three straight infield singles, all either fielded by or knocked down by Orioles gloves, and added an eighth run.
All day long, the Orioles had trouble figuring out Boston left-hander Drew Pomeranz. Three of the first five Orioles batters he faced struck out before the Orioles strung together their only two hits of the early action _ a single by catcher Welington Castillo and a double by right fielder Trey Mancini. Despite Mancini's double hitting the base of the right-center field wall and stopping there, Castillo didn't track it well enough to score.
Schoop and Hardy then failed to plate him, and the Orioles didn't get another man on base until center fielder Adam Jones smoked a double to right-center field with one out in the sixth.
Their only run came in the seventh inning, when first baseman Chris Davis singled, went to third on Castillo's second hit of the night, and scored on a fielder's choice ground ball by Schoop.
