Red Sox 6, Orioles 3: I didn’t hear no bell

Every time that I think it’s over, we’ve suddenly never been more back.

The Red Sox are four games out of a playoff spot in early September. The organization has the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball. Dave O’Brien just had one of the best calls of his entire life. And Boston might just win the whole damn thing.

Okay, maybe not — but holy cow this is the best I’ve felt watching a Red Sox baseball game since approximately July 14. I’m not going to say I told you so, but the optimism that I had while writing up today’s lineup release from the KU library on Nick Pivetta Day really had some divination within it.

I have no clue how we ended up here, but the Red Sox and their +1 run differential are four games out of the third Wild Card spot with 16 games left to play. So Nick Pivetta, if you can hear me — now’s the time for you to become this team’s hero and propel them to a 16-game win streak, no pressure! So Nick Pivetta, if you can hear me — now’s the time for you to become this team’s hero and propel them to a 16-game win streak, no pressure!

First things first, I’d like to thank Bryan Joiner for trading me recap days this week and allowing me to cover the game of my dreams — I’ll pay you back someday.

Following a dud of a night on Tuesday with a great start by Kutter Crawford wasted by an offense that yet again fell asleep and then decided to wake up much too late — the Red Sox needed this. For vibes purposes, for standings purposes, for the purpose of my own mental health. And while it may stink that tonight’s fantastic win didn’t gain us any ground in the Wild Card standings, at this point I’m just happy to stay four games back with two weeks left to play some baseball.

After performing my own sacred ritual to channel good energy from 1,500 miles away, Nick Pivetta delivered the start that this team desperately needed. Outside of the one blemish of a solo home run by No. 9 hitter Emmanuel Rivera, Pivetta was pretty much spotless, relying on a solid balance of buried curveballs and fastballs above the zone (with some nice velocity) to rack up nine strikeouts and escape a couple of jams. Six innings of four-hit and one-run ball later, he still found himself the victim of a no-decision as the Sox managed to score only two runs (one earned) off of Dean Kramer as he went seven innings and allowed five hits.

And then when Anthony Santander sent a ball over the right field fence to tie things at 2 with two outs in the top of the eighth, it felt like I’d seen this film PLENTY of times before — and I didn’t like the ending. But then as Justin Slaten and Kenley Jansen locked it down for the final four outs and Boston posed at least *some* sort of threat in the ninth inning, things felt a little different going into extras. There was life. There was a fight that often evaded Boston late in recent games.

Maybe I was just riding the high of the best Nick Pivetta I’ve seen in a good minute, but outside of that moment out of the Santander home run, I actually felt confident in this team late in a game.

After a… less than awe-inspiring top of the tenth where Baltimore’s ghost runner scored after a chopper up the middle snuck right between the second-base gap, the Red Sox were set up pretty well for any sort of extra-inning rally with Jarren Duran as their ghost runner and 2-3-4 in the lineup due up.

Rafael Devers started things out with a strikeout that continued his recent frustration behind the plate, but things swung in Boston’s favor for the first time since the third inning as Romy Gonzalez reached on a groundball to second baseman Jackson Holliday that he just couldn’t get a grip on and Duran moved 90-feet away from tying the game.

And then finally. Our other glorious Canadian king in this life-saving tale came to the plate. Tyler O’Neill was hitless in Wednesday’s game through three at-bats after hitting four home runs in the last four Sox games, and this — of course — just couldn’t last. So he served up a down and in slider on a Brioche bun with a crispy pickle far into the Boston night and right onto Landsdowne Street.

The only thing that might have been more inspiring, more hope-injecting than O’Neill’s 107.5 mph moonshot was the best call that I can remember from Dave O’Brien since probably the 2018 postseason.

Like, this genuinely gave me chills. This was Mookie Betts’s 13-pitch at-bat go-ahead grand slam against Toronto-type stuff (just missing Eck’s delighted ‘yay’ coming from the background). And it just may be what it takes to revive these Red Sox that just won’t say die this year — no matter how badly they may want to.

Three Studs

Nick Pivetta (6.0 IP, 4 H, R, 9 K):

Nothing can come between Nick Pivetta and having the outing of his life on any day of American significance.

Tyler O’Neill (1-4, 3 RBI, HR):

O’Neill now has the fourth most home runs *all-time* in his first 101 games as a Red Sox (30). Enough said.

Masataka Yoshida (2-4, R):

Yoshida’s fingerprints were sneakily all over this game, as he scored Boston’s second run of the game after leading off the fourth inning with a double and getting Boston’s first hit of the game in the bottom of the second.

Three Duds

Trevor Story (0-3, BB):

For that missed pop-up.

Rafael Devers (0-4, BB):

Our frustrated king.

Justin Slaten (1 IP, R):

Not the best, not the worst.

Play of the Game

No one may love this country more than the Canadian players of the Boston Red Sox (James Paxton included for his reaction at home plate).