O's defense comes up short as Boston rallies for 6-5 win in ninth

No other way to say it, that was one very ugly loss for the Orioles.

They blew a 5-0 lead and lost 6-5 on a throwing error in the last of the ninth. Dustin Pedroia doubled with one out against Brian Matusz and went to third on a wild pitch. After an intentional walk to David Ortiz, Darren O'Day came in and hit Mike Napoli to load the bases.

Pinch-hitter Mike Carp then lined out to left. Pedroia tagged but was headed back to third as left fielder David Lough threw wildly toward home and past Matt Wieters, who was up the third base line. Pedroia then charged home with the winning run and Boston celebrated a 6-5 comeback victory.

After the Orioles had scored three runs in the first and single runs in the fifth and sixth to lead 5-0, Boston came back to tie the game.

A three-run homer by Jonny Gomes off Ubaldo Jimenez in the last of the sixth made it a 5-3 game. Jimenez, who entered with an ERA of 7.31, took a two-hit shutout to the sixth.

Jimenez gave up four hits and three runs over 5 1/3 innings, throwing 107 pitches. He got a no decision and now has an ERA of 6.75 and continues to look for his first win and quality start of 2014.

It really got interesting during Boston's two-run seventh. With a man on first and one out, Grady Sizemore hit a grounder to Zach Britton on the mound. It could have been a 1-6-3 inning-ending double play, but shortstop Ryan Flaherty lost control of the ball after the catch as he was about to throw to first and the runner at second was ruled safe with the interpretation of the transfer rule.

After a David Ortiz single made it 5-4, third baseman Jonathan Schoop made a throwing error on a potential forceout at home with the bases loaded to tie the score at 5-5. Evan Meek would strand the bases loaded to maintain the tie.

Much earlier, Nelson Cruz ended the Orioles' four-game homer drought with a solo shot in the first off Jake Peavy and the O's added two more that inning on a Matt Wieters single and J.J. Hardy sac fly. Cruz has eight RBIs this year against Boston and five in this series.

Steve Lombardozzi pinch-hit for Hardy in the seventh as he left the game with strained right hamstring. He's listed as day-to-day.

Peavy, who came into this game with an ERA of 1.93, gave up 10 hits and five runs over 5 2/3 innings. In his first three starts, opponents went just 1-for-22 (.045) against Peavy with runners in scoring position, but the Orioles went 3-for-7 (.429) against him tonight.