O's game blog: Orioles and Red Sox play series finale

The Orioles and Red Sox play the finale of their three-game, season opening series tonight at Camden Yards. After the Orioles won the opener 2-1, Boston won last night 6-2. The Orioles are 25-14 against Boston since the start of the 2012 season and are 36-27 against the Red Sox since Buck Showalter took over as manager. The Orioles have won 11 of the last 14 series between these teams since Sept. 9, 2011 and look to add to that if they win tonight. Wei-Yin Chen makes his season debut. The lefty went 7-7 with an ERA of 4.07 last season. He went 0-2 with an ERA of 7.29 in four starts in 2013 against the Sox. He gave up 33 hits in 21 innings, including five homers last season against Boston. Lefty Felix Doubront, who was 11-6 with an ERA of 4.32 in 2013, starts for the Red Sox. In nine career games, five starts, vs. the Orioles, Doubront is 1-2 with a 4.54 ERA. Nelson Cruz is 3-for-6 vs. Doubront, Chris Davis is 6-for-15 with a homer and Ryan Flaherty is 2-for-4. But Adam Jones is 2-for-17 with eight strikeouts and Matt Wieters is 1-for-16 with 10 strikeouts. I'll add some notes and observations in this blog during tonight's game and you feel free to do the same with any questions and/or comments. O's down early: The Orioles fell behind 2-0 after three innings tonight. Boston turned a pair of leadoff singles in the second into a run and scored on a David Ortiz bloop RBI single in the third off Chen, who threw 49 pitches in the first three innings. Left fielder Nelson Cruz dove for Ortiz's bloop and came up short with the ball going behind him as Jackie Bradley Jr., running on the pitch with two outs, scored all the way from first. Through the first three innings tonight the O's still have just two extra-base hits in this series. Both were homers by Cruz. The rest of the team is without an EBH now over 65 at-bats. Chen's final line: He went 5 2/3 IP, 12 hits, 4 R-ER, 0 walks, 5 strikeouts. Chen allowed a career high 12 hits tonight. His previous high was 11, last year on Sept. 18 at Boston. O's starters have pitched to an ERA of 4.86 without a quality start in this series, allowing nine runs and 24 hits over 16 2/3 innings.