Needing a much-better performance than Monday, the O's got just that at Fenway Park

The Orioles gave up 15 hits, four homers and 12 runs. They went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Their bullpen allowed eight runs. They left eight men on base and that was just in the first four innings.

Monday was a mess.

Tuesday was a step in the right direction.

If ever there was a night the Orioles needed to win, this was it.

Not so much for the pennant-race math with games dwindling and being 1.5 games out of first, but they needed to clean it up. They had lost three in a row and fans were wondering if the AL East was slipping away. They were losing confidence in their team. Some confidence in the clubhouse maybe even was eroding a bit.

After the Orioles 12-3 loss in the series-opener at Boston, Cedric Mullins said clubhouse morale was "doing fair."

He added this: "It’s not at its best, but it's not terrible, either. We got soundly beat (Monday) but the beauty of baseball is we come out tomorrow and set the tone for us to move forward.”

They did just that and it was the exact right tone.

Mullins hit two homers the first three innings. Big Al Suárez took it from there.

Consider this stat: In his last four starts versus AL East teams, Suárez has allowed one run in 23 2/3 innings at Toronto (Aug. 6), against Tampa Bay (Aug. 11), versus Boston (Aug. 18) and at Fenway Park last night.

In seven starts this year against the AL East, Suárez is 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA. In 37 1/3 innings versus division opponents in 2024, he has not allowed a home run.

He delivered a big start and a quality start as well and the Orioles are 48-14 (.774) this season when they get one.

Mullins got the O's started with a solo homer in the first and a two-run shot in the third as the Orioles took a 3-0 lead. By the third inning he had his fifth career multi-homer game.

Over his past eight games, Mullins is 11-for-26, batting .423 with four homers, eight RBIs and with an OPS of 1.454.

Adley Rutschman had a two-run single to provide a 5-1 lead in the seventh inning and that was big. In these two games in Boston, Rutschman is 3-for-10 with a double. 

With this win the Orioles are 30-18 against AL East clubs and now are 8-4 versus Boston. That win last night guarantees Baltimore a winning percentage of at least .600 against the Red Sox for the 15th time in team history and the first since 2012 (.722, 13-5).

This quote is impressive: Before the game reporters in Boston interviewed injured infielder Jordan Westburg who said he is making solid progress and gaining strength in his fractured right hand. He took grounders and made throws before the game.

He also made some comments where, in my opinion, he did a great job and showed some leadership to admit the team is struggling and has been frustrated. Face it head on and admit it before you can change it.

“Losing sucks,” Westburg said. “Morale is down when you lose, and we’ve been doing a lot of it recently. I’m not going to spare words. We haven’t been playing well in all facets of the game. So yeah, it sucks. Morales down a little bit.

"Guys, I think, are searching and putting a lot of pressure on themselves to right the ship, but deep down we all have this confidence that we’re a good ballclub. Like we have the pieces to make a run. We have the pieces to finish strong in the regular season, and so I think it just comes down to trusting ourselves and really going out there and just worrying about putting a good product together on the field, pitch by pitch really.

“If we get down early, like who cares? We’re going to find a way. That needs to be the mentality. And if we’re up, like, let’s step on somebody’s throat. I think right now that’s what needs to happen as a whole is there needs to be a little bit of, ‘OK, we don’t care what the noise is, we don’t care what happens during the game. Just find a way.’ So hopefully we can do that.”

For one night, the Orioles got a much-needed win and began to erase the memory of Monday's nine-run defeat. It was a nice step forward. Now they need to take more of them.