Orioles lose Hays and win again in Boston (updated)

Adam Plutko was kidding. He didn't bite when challenged to place a guarantee on it. He did, however, ramp up the humor yesterday by saying the Orioles "obviously" would go 162-0 this season.

The newest Orioles pitcher also offered to hand over his salary if they ran the table.

It's much too soon to hit the ATM, but the Orioles cashed in on an opportunity to sweep the Red Sox.

They haven't hit a home run in three games, but they keep manufacturing runs and wins. They jumped Garrett Richards early and reliever Josh Taylor often, left-hander Bruce Zimmermann was economical over six innings, Cedric Mullins had four hits by the fourth and five for the game, and the Orioles posted an 11-3 victory at Fenway Park for their first sweep of the Red Sox since 2017.

The only sour note was struck in a seven-run third, when the Orioles sent 12 batters to the plate. Austin Hays had a two-run double, dived back into the bag on Mullins' fly ball that Kiké Hernández trapped and limped to the dugout with right hamstring discomfort.

Given Hays' injury history, it was a disturbing site, no matter the score.

"Actually I didn't see it," manager Brandon Hyde said in his Zoom call. "It was such a confusing play that I had the phone ringing behind me twice, and all of a sudden, he's coming off the field even though I saw him, Nic (Lentz) at first base give the sign where it's going to be a base hit and not a catch. Then I see Austin running to the dugout and I was a little bit confused at that point. I think everybody else was.

"He's just got some hamstring discomfort, so come in tomorrow and we'll see how he is."

Zimmermann earned his first major league win and more attention than just being a nice local story. He stayed in the game in the third after Christian Arroyo's comebacker slammed into his leg for an infield hit and allowed three runs and four hits in six innings. The Baltimore native and Loyola Blakefield graduate walked one batter and struck out five.

Hernández's sacrifice fly to Pat Valaika, who replaced Hays in left, reduced the lead to 10-1 in the third. J.D. Martinez led off the fourth with a home run, the long wait in the dugout perhaps disrupting Zimmermann's rhythm.

Not terribly, though. He threw 10 pitches in each of the first four innings and 11 in the fifth. Pound the zone, pummel the opponent.

"My goal today was to go out and give my team a quality start, and I was able to do that and the win was the cherry on top," Zimmermann said. "To watch the offense come alive like that was very encouraging and especially the third game of the series to really put the nail in the coffin and take the sweep is a great confidence booster moving toward a tough opponent with the Yankees coming up next. Getting that win today was a big sigh of relief, and I was just really happy to go out there and get a really good start under my belt off the bat."

Martinez lined a run-scoring double into the left field corner in the sixth to cut the lead to 10-3. Zimmermann struck out Marwin Gonzalez on his 73rd and final pitch. Fifty-four of those pitches were strikes.

"That's not an easy task, what he did, sitting twice for a long time after a long first inning and the third (after) we scored seven," Hyde said. "Sat a long time - it's not warm here - and then to pitch with a substantial lead is a lot easier said than done as well, where you saw him get ambushed a couple times. ... But be able to go out there and continue to pitch and throw strikes when everybody's expecting you to throw strikes and be able to execute that says a lot about his poise and his character, because that's not an easy thing to do. I've seen that a lot from young pitchers where you get a big league and all of a sudden they pitch differently. And Zim pitched the same and pitched like it was a close ballgame and gave us six really good innings."

Said Zimmermann: "It was fantastic. It was kind of nice to have that third start because I was able to take in opening day and then kind of come down from that and watch (Matt) Harvey pitch. That was my first big league opening day I've ever been to, as a fan and as a player, so it was an absolutely awesome experience to take that in and not have to worry about pitching as much."

The staff held the Red Sox to five runs in 27 innings. The Orioles scored 17 in the first 21 innings of the series and 18 overall after Anthony Santander's RBI single in the ninth - his third hit of the day and the team's 17th.

Rule 5 selection Tyler Wells made his major league debut in the ninth and stranded two runners after a walk and single.

"I was so encouraged by our pitching," Hyde said. "I thought we really threw the ball well all series. Obviously the bats woke up in a big way early in the game. We took some great at-bats the first three innings. Cedric Mullins set the table for us all three of these games, making things happen, on base six times today. He played great center field defense. Just doing everything extremely well. And we had a lot of guys contribute offensively. But you've got to pitch in this league and we pitched these three games. We got really good starts from three guys and our bullpen did a nice job coming in and throwing strikes."

The third inning began with a Ryan Mountcastle walk and just kept going like a chocolate Energizer bunny.

Rio Ruiz singled, Maikel Franco walked, Freddy Galvis walked on four pitches from Taylor to force in a run, Hays delivered a two-run double, Mullins reached on his bloop single, Trey Mancini stroked a two-run double, Mullins came home on a wild pitch and Mountcastle had an RBI single.

Ruiz singled again and was stranded, but the beatdown in Beantown had commenced.

The Orioles led after only three batters and kept applying the pressure. They beat the shift. They beat the same drum that they're here to compete and not succumb to the disadvantages of a rebuild.

They also don't care if the Red Sox are down. No one pities them, so why should they tee up excuses for others?

Mullins led off the game with the first of his three doubles, Mancini singled and Santander bounced a run-scoring single through the shortstop hole. Back-to-back strikeouts were followed by Franco's two-run double into the left field corner.

Richards was gone after loading the bases with no outs in the third on walks to Mountcastle and Franco sandwiched around Ruiz's single. The Orioles had seven hits and the sweet sound of opposing fans booing from their pods.

Who needs home runs?

"It was a great feeling," Hyde said. "We had really good at-bats. Richards has got a really good arm. He was erratic today but he's got a really good arm. I've seen him pitch very well in Anaheim. But big hits all around. ... I don't think we hit a home run in the series, which for me, when you're scoring all these runs and you're not hitting a home run, even though we punched out a ton, we got big hits in big spots and took really good at-bats.

"I'd like to see us cut down on the punchouts more, but a lot of really nice two-strike hitting, a lot of good situational hitting. We left some runs out there early, too. It was nice to see guys up and down the order contribute, starting off with the top three guys I think had 10 hits, so you're going to win more games than not when that happens."

Mullins set a career high with five hits and has nine in his first 13 at-bats, drawing a leadoff walk in the seventh. He lost the center field job in 2019 after going 6-for-64 in April.

No one is going to remove him as long as he keeps hitting. And before today, no one in club history had four hits in the first four innings.

The Giants' Buster Posey is the last major league player to do it, on Aug. 10, 2018, according to STATS.

Mullins is just the fourth Orioles leadoff hitter to reach base safely six times in a game, joining Brady Anderson in 1992, Bob Boyd in 1958 and Cal Abrams in 1954. His nine hits are the most by an Oriole through the first three games of a season, the previous best of eight done by Billy Gardner in 1957, Paul Blair in 1975 and Anderson in 1997.

"It's huge," Mullins said. "I'm trying to come off what I consider a successful 2020 and just staying consistent at the plate, just working with all of our hitting guys and giving them an idea of what I've been working on and just continuing to do that."

"It's relaxing. I'm able to go up there and stay locked in on my at-bats, putting good swings on the baseball. That's all that I ever want is hard contact. Spraying the ball really well and then it translates on defense. Staying locked in each pitch. Able to stay with the balls under the sun. It's been a crazy weekend with that."

Hays has been starting in left and the Orioles are hopeful that he can stay in the lineup and on the active roster after missing a month last summer with a fractured rib and sustaining ankle, thumb and hamstring injuries in the recent past. DJ Stewart should come off the injured list later this week during the first homestand.

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, Ryan McKenna is on the taxi squad and 40-man roster if the Orioles need to replace Hays.

Cole Sulser retired six of seven batters and struck out three. As an optionable reliever, his roster spot could be in jeopardy with Shawn Armstrong expected to rejoin the team in New York.

The Orioles will arrive with a 3-0 record. What does it mean to a team?

"It means we got off to a nice start," Hyde said. "Now we've got 159 to go."