BOSTON _ The stadium scoreboard on the historic left-field wall of Fenway Park told the unusual story of another Orioles loss Sunday afternoon. The Orioles had 13 hits, more than the Boston Red Sox, but failed to score in a 5-0 loss that ended another frustrating road series in exasperating fashion.
An Orioles team that's found unique ways to lose all season discovered a new one Sunday, stranding a season-high 14 base runners.
Each of the Orioles' first 12 hits were singles. Jace Peterson led off the ninth inning with a double for the first extra-base hit but was stranded at third to end the game.
The Orioles' effort to reverse their early-season road woes fell flat. They dropped three of four at Fenway in their first stop on a three-city, 11-game trip that will now take them to Chicago to play the White Sox and then Tampa Bay.
They left Boston realizing the wide gap between them and the front-running Red Sox, not only in the American League East standings _ the Orioles (14-32) are buried 17 { games out of first through 46 games _ but head-to-head as they've lost six of seven to the Red Sox this season, all at Fenway.
The Orioles won't return to Fenway until the final week of the season, and by that time, they might be a much different-looking team.
The road continues to bring out the worst in the Orioles, who are 4-19 away from Camden Yards this season, the worst road record in the majors.
Making his major league debut a week ago, David Hess pitched well enough to earn Sunday's start _ though a roster crunch forced the Orioles to send him back down to Norfolk for a week before he returned to start Sunday's series finale.
In that game, Hess showed impressive composure, overcoming three first-inning runs to record a quality start in his debut. His encore Sunday wasn't as impressive. He kept the American League's best offensive team at bay for the first four innings, but allowed a pair of two-run homers in the fifth as he faced Boston's batting order a third time.
Hess allowed hits to four of six batters he faced in the fifth, including two-run homers to Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez, before he was pulled that inning by manager Buck Showalter.
Hess started off well. His only early mistake was a first-pitch fastball to Martinez to open the second that Martinez sent the other way inside the Pesky Pole over the right-field fence. Otherwise, Hess' fastball played well; he drew seven swinging strikes and seven called strikes on the pitch.
But after No. 9 hitter Jackie Bradley Jr.'s leadoff double in the fifth turned the lineup over, the game got away from Hess. Two batters later, Benintendi took a 2-1 fastball over the Orioles bullpen beyond the right-field fence.
Hess allowed a ground-rule double to right to Mitch Moreland, and then threw a 1-0 four-seamer that Martinez hit into the deepest part of Fenway, over the 420-foot sign in triangle area of center field .
The Orioles put multiple runners on base in three of their first six innings but failed to score a run against Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez.
They put two on with one out in the third, but Manny Machado popped up to third and Jonathan Schoop grounded out to third. They put two on with two outs in the fourth before Craig Gentry flied out to center, and in the sixth they loaded the bases with two outs on singles by bottom-of-the-order bats Danny Valencia, Joey Rickard and Gentry, but Red Sox reliever Heath Hembree entered the game to retire leadoff hitter Trey Mancini on a flyout to right.
Rodriguez, a former Orioles farmhand, allowed nine hits but struck out seven and didn't issue a walk in 5 2/3 innings. Rodriguez hasn't allowed a run against his former team in two starts this season spanning 11 2/3 innings.
