BALTIMORE _ Wednesday's stare-down between the Orioles and visiting Boston Red Sox was the kind in which both sides would rather their eyes dry out and turn red from exposure than blink and cede what would be a well-earned victory.
How could the Red Sox let themselves lose after eight masterful innings from their resurgent ace, Chris Sale, which began with five-plus hitless innings and included an immaculate inning in the seventh? And how could the Orioles survive that with the score tied and not reward themselves with a signature win in a season short on them?
For 11 innings, neither team flinched. But an inning after Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. climbed the wall and reached into the Orioles' bullpen to take a walk-off home run away from Trey Mancini. Andrew Benintendi hit a sky-high, go-ahead home run to right field just over Mancini's head to give Boston a 2-1 win Wednesday night before an announced 12,451 at Camden Yards.
When a team isn't expected to win often, as the Orioles aren't, there aren't many chances for memorable wins. They'll feel Wednesday that one passed them by on this cool Baltimore night, dropping the Orioles to 13-24 as the Red Sox (19-19) pulled to .500 for the first time this season.
Andrew Cashner pitched around some traffic on the bases all night to keep the Orioles close against one of the game's best arms. The first batter of the game, Benintendi, reached on a two-base error when left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. tracked a high fly ball to the foul line, then dropped it. But Cashner stranded him there, as he did to one runner in the second, two runners in the fourth, and one more in the fifth.
But by then, the Orioles only had two base runners _ both on hit batters by Sale _ and Cashner had made one mistake _ a third-inning home run by Mookie Betts.
For five innings, it looked like the Orioles wouldn't be able to overcome even that minor stumble. Sale didn't allow a hit during the first two trips through the lineup, but then in a span of four pitches in the sixth inning, the Orioles changed all that. Joey Rickard singled with two outs, and three pitches later, Mancini doubled to the wall in left-center field to score him.
Cashner's day ended therefore on a high note, no longer trailing after throwing six innings of four-hit ball with five strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 4.25. A clean seventh inning from Paul Fry and two scoreless innings from Mychal Givens matched Sale, and Shawn Armstrong added two spotless innings of his own to get it to the 11th for Yefry Ramirez. Ramirez got two outs before allowing Benintendi's home run.
After Sale lost his no-hit bid, he took his aggression out on the Orioles the best way anyone could _ by throwing an immaculate seventh inning.
Sale struck out all three Orioles he faced in the seventh _ Hanser Alberto, Dwight Smith Jr., and Stevie Wilkerson _ on three pitches apiece for the incredibly rare feat for a pitcher. He finished with 14 strikeouts, and the Orioles struck out 22 times without a walk over 12 innings, managing just five hits.
Givens' day might have been a lot less simple were it not for a lucky play at third base to end the eighth inning. With Betts on first base and two outs, Xander Bogaerts chopped a ball sharply to Alberto at third base. He knocked it down, then couldn't pick it up, with the ball trickling toward second base away from him.
Betts made a break for it, but second baseman Jonathan Villar chased the ball down and flipped it to Alberto for the out. An inning later, catcher Pedro Severino made a perfect throw to second base after a swinging strikeout to complete a double play with his seventh caught-stealing in nine tries this season.
