Wrapping up a 6-3 win

BOSTON - Steve Pearce has a 10 a.m. appointment on Wednesday with Dr. David Altchek in New York. He's taking a train early in the morning, hoping to receive good news on his right elbow.

Nolan Reimold was in the lineup tonight while Pearce sat out, and his two-run homer in the second inning contributed to the Orioles' 6-3 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

"I feel really good for Nolan because Nolan has really been frustrated with, he hasn't contributed like he knows he can," said manager Buck Showalter. "You like having good people feel good about themselves, so we'll see. He was big tonight."

J.J. Hardy hit a three-run shot earlier in the inning, the bullpen tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings and the Orioles moved within two games of first place in the American League East. They're tied with the Blue Jays for second place. They're also two games ahead for the second wild card spot.

Not a bad night.

Reimold hadn't hit a home run in Boston since Sept. 19, 2011.

"Definitely feels good," he said. "Glad I was able to do it and do something positive and come away with the win, too.

"I've scuffled a lot. I do that sometimes. I go through stretches where it looks like I've never played before. It just takes longer to break out of it unless you're an everyday guy. But it was good to have a good game and help the team and we look forward to tomorrow."

The Red Sox are starting right-hander Rick Porcello on Wednesday, so Reimold will return to the bench. But a prolonged absence from Pearce could create more chances for Reimold.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. "I'll come in ready to play and see what happens. Hopefully, he's able to bounce back. He's a good player and we need him, but we'll see what happens."

Zach Britton recorded the last four outs for his 42nd save.

"It's very impressive," Reimold said. "Every time he comes in you feel like the game's over. He can come in and get out of tough situations, come in in the eighth and finish up. Watching him has been very impressive and fun to watch."

Britton has converted his first 42 save chances to pass Brad Lidge (2008) for the third-longest streak in a single season in major league history. Tonight marked his fourth multi-inning save and he anticipated that it would happen again.

"I've done it here a couple times now," he said. "I just saw the lineup and figure that they probably weren't going to pinch-hit for (Jackie) Bradley. I got ready probably about the seventh inning, just in case I was needed.

"I think it's almost like an acquired taste. I think the more you come and pitch here, the more comfortable you get. You don't let the big crowd kind of distract you. So as a young guy, we have a lot of young guys in our bullpen, and they've been pitching well in pretty hostile environments, so for me and Brad (Brach), guys like Tommy (Hunter), we've thrown here a lot here now, so you kind of get used to it after a while."

Hunter, Brach, Britton and rookie left-hander Donnie Hart came up big after starter Dylan Bundy worked 5 1/3 innings. Hart faced one batter in the seventh and retired David Ortiz on a fly ball.

"It was huge," Britton said. "It was big for Donnie too, coming in here, into this environment and getting Ortiz out. It was big for him. I think that goes a long way. I think that will help his confidence down the road.

"Obviously, Tommy. Brad, he's been good all year. It looks like he got back into a little bit of a groove today. It was good to see. Hopefully, he can come back into tomorrow and do the same thing."

Bundy threw 95 pitches before exiting.

"You always watch," Showalter said. "We're going to keep him in a certain area and not lose sight of where he is in what we're trying to do with the structure of the season and with him. We're able to kind of pass it around some people and try to put them in a situation where they can do a job for us, and they did."

Britton keeps doing it while strengthening his case for the American League's Cy Young Award.

"You run out of things to describe what he's done for us this year and last," Showalter said. "To go out there in the ninth inning and go three up, three down, the top of their order on the road, that's hard to do.

"I think we're 7-7 with these guys, and we know how good they are, so we get a chance to win another series on the road, which is something we knew we were going to have to do. So, they've got a 20-game winner going tomorrow and we've got Gaus (Kevin Gausman). We'll see what happens."

Britton hadn't been used much lately, an apparent sign that Showalter was keeping him fresh for situations like tonight.

"I'd love to claim that, but the situation has presented itself," Showalter said. "He's pitched in what, three out of four, even though some of them have been real short, one of them.

"It's September. We do all the things we do to make sure we have a chance to put our best foot forward every day, and that's one of the reasons why you do things in April, May, June, July, so that you can have people like Zach available to pitch in these situations."

Bundy is up to 99 2/3 innings this season. He made it through 5 1/3 tonight because he was able to hold the Red Sox to two runs in the second after back-to-back bases-loaded walks with one out.

Bundy came within two pitches tonight of matching his career high. He's on a certain count, but it's not publicized.

"He doesn't really know it," Showalter said. "I haven't told him, but he ain't happy about coming out of that game. But I thought he was ... his tank was on the other side toward the end.

"The second inning was probably one of the keys to the game. Didn't let it get away from him. If you look at the people he was facing, there's nothing fancy about it. They've got Wiffle Ball numbers, most of their guys, it seems like. You try to make quality pitches. He attacked a little more. He got out of sync a couple of times, but he got right back in it."

Bundy wasn't overly enthused by his outing.

"It was all right," he said. "I had four walks and I had a tough inning in that second inning. Kind of lost the zone for a little bit. Normally, you try to get it back quicker than that, but it just didn't happen. Good team win. I'm happy about it.

"It could have been a lot worse. It could have been 6-5 or something like that. It could have been way worse."

It's all uncharted territory for Bundy - starting in the majors, pitching into September, being a key contributor in a pennant race.

"Just take every one in," he said. "It's ll new territory, I haven't pitched this far in September before and I haven't pitched at this level for this long. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can every day and get better, also."

Are the Orioles scoreboard watching at Fenway Park?

"Yeah, just because it's so big here," Britton said.

"We're watching, but at the same time, once you get later in that game, we're just focusing on what we have to do because we know if we do our jobs, we're going to have a chance to win the game. It really doesn't matter what they're doing. We have to win our games and then kind of keep it out of other teams' hands.

"That's the biggest thing right now. We don't want to rely on other teams. We kind of want to create our own destiny."