O's offense held in check as Boston wins 4-2 to even series

The Orioles won a replay challenge today and it gained them a run, but they lost the game 4-2 in Boston as the Red Sox evened the four-game series at a win each. The Orioles' three-game winning streak ended as they fall to 8-8 on the season and 2-3 against Boston. Matt Wieters drew a leadoff walk against Koji Uehara in the ninth, but the former Oriole then struck out the next three hitters. He got the save, his fourth in four chances in 2014. The Red Sox scored twice in the last of the seventh to break a 2-2 tie. Brock Holt's RBI triple to center made it 3-2 and he scored on Jonathan Herrera's squeeze bunt for a two-run edge. The dugouts emptied briefly earlier in that inning with Boston catcher David Ross batting. With a man on first, he took a 2-1 pitch up and in and seemed to object to that. It looked like he said "that's weak" to O's pitcher Bud Norris in watching the MASN replay. Then Wieters had a few words for Ross as the dugouts emptied. But order was quickly restored. The runs were charged to Norris, who took the loss. Norris went 6 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs with two walks and seven strikeouts. He is now 0-2 with an ERA of 4.42. The Orioles are now 8-4 in Norris' 12 career Baltimore starts. Boston starter Felix Doubront rebounded from a 29-pitch first inning to pitch 6 2/3 frames, allowing five hits and two runs. Junichi Tazawa got the win in relief. Nelson Cruz knocked in both O's runs with RBI singles in the first and sixth. The second RBI was the 500th of his career and came about after Cruz was called out at first base on a ground ball, but a replay challenge led to a safe call and he had an infield hit to tie the game. It was the O's first challenge of the year. Nick Markakis added two hits, but the Orioles had just five hits for the game after scoring 18 runs with 34 hits the previous three games. The Birds have now gone four games without a homer. The third game of this series is set for 7:05 p.m. on Sunday night when Ubaldo Jimenez (0-3, 7.31 ERA) faces Jake Peavy (0-0, 1.93 ERA).