Bundy unable to maintain roll in 7-2 loss (with quotes)

Dylan Bundy had his share of weird today and the game aged only two innings.

He stumbled while warming up before his first pitch and held onto the ball, whether due to loose footing or the plate umpire moving toward catcher Pedro Severino. He stood helplessly, arms spread out, as outfielders Keon Broxton and Anthony Santander chatted in right-center and Andrew Benintendi tagged up and moved to second base. Jackie Bradley Jr. broke for second and didn't draw a throw or an infielder, an easy stolen base until Bundy released the ball and walked Sandy León.

Mookie Betts stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and struck out on three sliders. Also odd, considering his past abuse of the Orioles.

Whatever was happening around and to Bundy didn't interrupt a terrific duel between the right-hander and Chris Sale that fizzled in the sixth.

The Red Sox strung together four hits to match the total Bundy surrendered heading into the inning. He didn't record an out, the Orioles fell behind by three runs and another series passed without them winning it.

Xander Bogaerts doubled to score Rafael Devers with the game's first run, the Orioles tried to rally against Sale and the result was a 7-2 loss to the Red Sox before an announced crowd of 30,050 at Camden Yards.

The third run in the top of the sixth scored on Hanser Alberto's error on a ground ball induced by Richard Bleier, who then got a double play to complete a fine job of damage control. Bundy was charged with two earned runs in five-plus innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

Bleier served up a solo home run to J.D. Martinez in the seventh after the Orioles scored twice against Sale to suggest a comeback. Renato Núñez had an RBI double after back-to-back singles by Alberto and Trey Mancini, and Jonathan Villar lifted a sacrifice fly to right.

Broxton struck out for the third time, raising his total to 28 in 58 at-bats with the Orioles.

Matt Barnes put two runners on base in the eighth and Chris Davis, pinch-hitting for Broxton, struck out on four pitches without swinging the bat.

The Orioles are 21-49 overall and 9-27 at home. Their last series win came on April 22-24, with 14 losses and a tie.

The Red Sox scored three runs off Miguel Castro in the ninth, the last on a throwing error by Severino, to drain the last ounce of drama from the game.

Sale struck out 10 batters in six innings to give him 24 in two starts against the Orioles this season.

Bundy struck out Devers on a changeup to strand Benintendi at second base in the first inning. Benintendi moved into scoring position after Broxton ran down Martinez's fly ball in right-center as Santander appeared to lose it in the sun. They talked about it as if unaware that Benintendi had tagged.

An 11-pitch first was followed by a 30-pitch second that still didn't yield a run. And Bundy retired the side in order in the third with two more strikeouts on a slider and 92 mph fastball.

Another jam greeted Bundy in the fourth after he walked Bogaerts and Brock Holt reached on an infield hit, with an out call at second base overturned. They moved up on Michael Chavis' fly ball to deep left-center, but Bradley and León swung through changeups for Bundy's sixth and seventh strikeouts.

The Red Sox were retired in order on only seven pitches in the fifth, the last a slider to catch Martinez looking.

The possibility of Sale tossing a no-hitter, and it always hangs in the air, was eliminated right away with Alberto's leadoff single in the bottom of the first. Mancini, the future All-Star, followed with a single, but the Orioles went fly ball, popup and strikeout to kill the rally.

Alberto began the day leading the majors with a .415 average against left-handers and Severino ranked fourth at .367.

Sale retired 11 in a row after Mancini's single, a streak that Santander snapped with his two-out single in the fourth. Santander walked in the sixth to load the bases before Villar's sacrifice fly.

The Orioles will try to avoid the sweep Sunday afternoon with rookie left-hander John Means on the mound.

Update: Manager Brandon Hyde can accept the losses as part of the process, but he won't tolerate the sloppy play that came to define today's loss. Mental and physical mistakes that agitated Hyde.

"The bottom line is we have to play almost perfect to win against good clubs." he said. "Last night was embarrassing and tonight was just really sloppy defensively. Walking the leadoff hitter in the ninth inning in a two-run game, falling asleep on defense in the outfield, not catching the ball in the infield, breaking too early in a stolen base attempt which allows a run, not catching the ball on a stolen base attempt - a lot of things that we can't do because we can't overcome them.

"We're not talented enough offensively and we don't have enough shutdown guys on the mound to be able to win. So we have to play almost perfect and we just didn't play well."

Broxton's failure to get the ball back to the infield before Benintendi tagged was one of the plays that chafed Hyde.

Asked what happened, Hyde said, "I have no idea."

"The bottom line is in the big leagues - I'm going to steal a Joe Maddon term here I heard when he got to Tampa - we're taking inventory of what we have," Hyde said. "That's the way to look at it is we're taking inventory of the players that we have, who's going to be around for us when we're good. Just evaluating our players.

"Our guys are getting an incredible opportunity, and at times, I feel like we take advantage of them for the most part. Days like the last couple days, guys haven't. They need to start appreciating the opportunity that they're getting. We've just got to clean up a lot of things defensively and on the mound."

The message has been delivered.

"We talk a lot to our players. It's a good staff that really communicates and cares. We care about our guys, we pull for our guys, we're honest with the players, so I think they have a good sense of how we feel all the time."

Bundy carried a shutout into the sixth and didn't get an out.

"I thought he was throwing the ball good," Hyde said. "First of all, he battled through five innings and was fantastic. Pitched out of jams and left it out there for us. Sixth inning, still not getting hit real hard. Did allow four consecutive base hits, but then Bleier comes in and gets three ground balls.

"Game should have been 2-0 and we scored two in the bottom half, should have been a 2-2 game going into the seventh."

Bundy on how he threw in sixth: "I made a couple mistakes to a couple of hitters there and they were able to get the ball out in the outfield, but for the most part I was making most of my pitches there, and they were just able to squeeze them through the infield and it didn't go our way."

Bundy on changeup: "This team, you've really got to throw it below the zone and a little bit off the plate or else they can do damage on it. And I think throwing a fastball in made the changeup play better later in the game."

Bundy on having to play perfect game to win: "We've just got to play good baseball to beat any team. It's the big leagues, they're all good. So we've just got to make all the plays and get timely hitting and score more than they do to get wins up here."

Alberto on defense: "Sometimes we don't play defense really good. We're working hard. We're trying to get better and make the life easy for the pitchers as defenders."

Alberto on Hyde's message: "He always talks about playing hard. We play hard, but sometimes we slow down a little bit. Every night it's part of working hard and hopefully it never happens again."

Alberto on whether the team lost focus: "Maybe, maybe we lose a little bit of focus because when we got the game really close and the game started going like, kind of slowed down a little bit. We've got to work on it."