Red Sox make Matt Harvey battle for outs as Orioles lose, 6-2
In the Orioles’ first game since John Means crisply mowed down the Seattle Mariners for a no-hitter, Matt Harvey offered a reminder of how difficult of a feat that is.
Harvey pitched a quick first inning, but nothing was prompt for him from that point forward in Friday night’s 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox that followed a 1-hour, 38-minute rain delay at Camden Yards.
His clean first inning gave Orioles pitchers 10 straight hitless innings, but a nine-pitch battle with Rafael Devers with one out in the second ended with a double cued to left. Harvey retired the next two Red Sox but required another 16 pitches to do so. A 24-pitch third followed, yet he took the mound in the fourth in a scoreless tie. It did not remain that.
Harvey seemed poised to get two outs with his first four pitches of the inning, but on Devers’ one-out grounder to first, Harvey couldn’t corral Pat Valaika’s hard throw as he tried to cover the bag. The ball bounced off Harvey’s leg, allowing Devers to take second on an error that was charged to Harvey. Devers scored when Hunter Renfroe followed with a single an out later. After Harvey issued a four-pitch walk to Franchy Cordero — who entered batting .188 — Bobby Dalbec homered on an 0-2 curveball.
Harvey completed the inning, needing 86 pitches to finish four frames for the Orioles (15-17). Because all four runs were unearned, his ERA dropped to 3.60.
———
Entering the season, a productive day from the top of the Orioles lineup and Ryan Mountcastle would not have seemed to be without overlap. But Mountcastle’s early struggles have prompted Orioles manager Brandon Hyde to drop him in the lineup.
Perhaps Friday’s three-hit day, which included his first home run since April 8, will begin to change that. His full-count solo shot to right-center off a 99-mph fastball from Hirokazu Sawamura opened the sixth inning and cut the Orioles’ deficit at the time to two.
An inning earlier, the top third of the Orioles lineup produced a run when Cedric Mullins hit a ground-rule double off left-hander Eduardo Rodríguez, remained at second when Austin Hays walked and scored on a Trey Mancini single. That represented the only time Friday that Hays did not record a hit in his first four trips to the plate.
In the first, he followed a walk to Mullins with a single. But when Mancini hit a sharp liner to right, Mullins was off second trying to reach home when it was caught, erasing an early scoring opportunity.
———
Right-hander Isaac Mattson, one of four pitchers the Orioles acquired from the Los Angeles Angels for starting pitcher Dylan Bundy, made his major league debut Friday. He allowed a run while getting the final two outs of the top of the ninth, with Hays provided some help with a jumping catch at the left-field wall.
There was some confusion with his entry. After Dillon Tate gave up a run in the top of the eighth, he came back out for a second inning while Mattson began to jog in from the bullpen. Mattson headed back only to enter after Tate got the first out of the frame.
Mattson, 25, was added to the roster over the team’s road trip but had yet to appear. Hyde said he delivered the news of his promotion during a treadmill workout.
“He was walking on a steep incline,” Hyde said. “I told him to maybe tone it down a little bit because he might be pitching in a Major League Baseball game here in a couple hours.”
