BALTIMORE — — Brennan Bernardino got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the sixth inning, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-3 on Tuesday night.
Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsnyder homered and Brayan Bello won for the fifth time in six starts for Boston, who beat the Orioles for the first time in five games this season.
Grayson Rodriguez had a career-high 10 strikeouts for Baltimore, which snapped its season-best five-game winning streak.
Bernardino entered with a 4-3 lead and two in relief of Bello (6-2) and quickly walked pinch hitter Ryan Mountcastle, loading the bases. But the left-hander retired pinch hitter Austin Hayes, brought a weak grounder from Jorge Mateo to the mound for a force out and retired Gunnar Henderson on three pitches to end the threat.
“That’s literally what my job is, I feel like, is to get into situations and help my starter or whatever pitcher is throwing in front of me,” Bernardino said. “It was great to do that.”
Bernardino struck out two more in a 1-2-3 seventh.
“He’s really good against lefties and righties,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “Obviously, there are certain confrontations that we try to avoid. But today he was incredible. We knew they were going to use their righties, but his stuff still plays.
Rafael Devers tripled to start the eighth and scored on Connor Wong’s single to make it 5-3. Boston added three runs in the ninth on pinch hitter Romy Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly and Refsnyder’s two-run homer.
Rodriguez (5-2) allowed four runs in six innings, striking out 13 of the last 14 batters he faced. But he gave up the homer with a groundout by Abreu and Devers’ RBI single in the first to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.
Boston added two more runs in the second when Jarren Duran hit a one-out RBI double and scored on a Devers bloop single three batters later.
“Anytime you give up four points, you’re pretty disappointed,” Rodriguez said. “I was happy I was able to go six innings, but I should have done a better job of keeping my team in the game.”
The Orioles scored their three runs first. Colton Cowser had an RBI single to the infield, and Jordan Westburg delivered a two-run single to the opposite field to straighten out two batters later.
Bello allowed three runs and five hits while striking out seven.
TRAINERS ROOM
Red Sox: OF Tyler O’Neill traveled to Boston to get imaging on his sore right knee. He hasn’t played since Saturday.
Orioles: Manager Brandon Hyde said RHP Dean Kremer (triceps) is experiencing less soreness since going on the injured list Friday and is expected to start playing catch soon.
FOLLOWING
Baltimore RHP Corbin Burnes (4-2, 2.60 ERA) faces Boston RHP Kutter Crawford (2-3, 2.89 ERA) as the three-game series concludes Wednesday.
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