BOSTON _ An Orioles offense that broke out a day earlier reverted to its old ways Sunday at Fenway Park, collecting just five hits and getting shut out for the first time this season in a 4-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox and their one-time ace, David Price.
Price, who pitched seven shutout innings, stranded leadoff doubles by Richie Martin and Trey Mancini in the sixth and seventh inning, and had done the same to a leadoff single by Renato Nunez in the second inning.
The Orioles' best chance to erase the one run Boston pushed across against left-hander John Means, on a sacrifice fly by Xander Bogaerts in the fourth inning, came in the eighth against reliever Ryan Brazier.
Brazier walked pinch-hitter Rio Ruiz with one out, and Jonathan Villar singled to send him to third base with two outs, but pinch hitter Dwight Smith Jr. lined out to center field to leave them both stranded.
A walk by Mancini and a single by Hanser Alberto in the ninth inning meant the Orioles left a runner in scoring position for the fourth straight inning when Chris Davis struck out looking to end the game.
Means allowed one run on four hits in five innings to bring his ERA below two at 1.98, and the relief corps of Evan Phillips, Paul Fry and Josh Lucas tried to keep it a one-run game. They did so until Fry allowed a leadoff single in the eighth and Lucas allowed that run and two more to score on a home run by Bogaerts that accounted for the final four-run margin.
The Orioles (6-10), however, showed that Saturday's 13-hit, nine-run outburst was an anomaly of sorts. In the three preceding games, the hit column finished with four for the Orioles each time. Only Alberto's ninth-inning single pushed them past that Sunday, with five hits.
In the sixth inning, with Phillips on the mound and Bogaerts at the plate, Orioles pitching coach Doug Brocail's displeasure with the umpires was such that he was ejected by first base umpire Stu Scheurwater.
It appeared that Brocail and the Orioles dugout were arguing a check-swing call that didn't go their way, though the next pitch was a check-swing that home plate umpire Ben May didn't even appeal to first on before ringing Bogaerts up.
On the first day the Orioles haven't had to live with Davis' ignominious hitless streak, they set another major league record they'd rather have avoided.
Bogaerts' three-run home run off Josh Lucas in the eighth inning meant the Orioles have allowed a home run in the first 16 games of the season, tying a major league record set by the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies.
