Blanked again: O's fall flat in Boston, lose 8-0 to Red Sox

In Washington, the Orioles played winning baseball with fire and passion. In Boston, they have lost and looked flat in doing so. For the second straight game, the Orioles were shut out. They lost 8-0 today at Boston in a game where a relief pitcher made his first-ever big league start.

It got so bad for the Orioles this afternoon that Manny Machado made errors in the seventh and eighth innings, allowing four runs to score, and the O's allowed a season-high six unearned runs on the day. The last time they gave up six unearned runs was July 16, 2012.

Craig Breslow gave up just two hits on 55 pitches over the first four innings. Six relievers followed to complete the combined five-hitter. Breslow made 522 relief appearances in his career, but today he was a starter as Boston went with a bullpen game.

The Orioles entered this series with a .500 record and with 11 wins in their last 15 games. But now they are 76-78. They fall 4 1/2 games back of second American League wild card-leading Houston, who won today, with just eight games remaining.

Wei-Yin Chen was sharp early on this afternoon. He fanned five over four scoreless innings before Boston took a 1-0 lead in the fifth. Brock Holt walked with one out and scored on a Josh Rutledge double. Chen would fan Dustin Pedroia with the bases loaded to end that threat. Boston made it 2-0 an inning later when Rusney Castillo doubled with two outs and scored on Holt's single to center.

Chen took the loss, going 5 2/3 innings and giving up five hits and two runs, with two walks and seven strikeouts. He is 10-8 with an ERA of 3.35, and the Orioles are 18-12 in his 30 starts in 2015. Boston added two runs in the seventh against Oliver Drake and four in the eighth off Jorge Rondon, all six of the runs unearned.

O's batters are a combined 7-for-60 (.117) in this series, and the Orioles have scored three runs or less 19 times in the last 35 games. They are 12-57 when scoring three or fewer runs for the season.

The Orioles have lost three straight games to Boston this season by a combined 25-1 score.

In the series and road trip finale on Sunday afternoon, Ubaldo Jimenez (12-9, 4.16 ERA) faces left-hander Henry Owens (3-3, 4.41 ERA).