Red Sox get early lead and hold on to beat Orioles in home finale

It was not a great ending to the Orioles 2014 regular season home schedule. The Orioles were held to six hits in a 3-2 loss to Boston.

Of course, there will be more baseball here in October.

This was just the fifth series loss in 22 this season by the Orioles to an American League East team. The O's finished 11-8 against Boston and are 44-25 in division games.

The Orioles concluded a 7-3 homestand where they allowed just 21 runs.

The game drew a crowd of 38,329, making the O's season home attendance for 80 dates 2,464,473. That is the O's best attendance since 2005.

Boston scored runs in the first, fifth and sixth to take a 3-0 lead. The Red Sox got solo homers from Mookie Betts (No. 5) and David Ross (No. 7). Betts homered to start the game for his first career leadoff homer.

Down 3-0, the O's got two back in the sixth. Alejandro Da Aza drew a leadoff walk from Joe Kelly and scored on David Lough's double. Lough advanced to third on a fly ball and scored on a Nelson Cruz groundout. That was RBI No. 106 for Cruz.

Miguel Gonzalez's bid for a seventh straight quality start came up short. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and three runs with two walks and seven strikeouts. He allowed two homers for the first time since Aug. 2 against Seattle.

Gonzalez falls to 9-9 and a 3.33 ERA.

In his previous 11 starts, Gonzalez was 5-3 with a 2.03 ERA.

The Orioles' final home record is 50-31 and they went 31-10 in their last 41 games at Camden Yards. They have not lost back-to-back games here since June 28-29.

The Orioles begin a seven-game road trip to New York and Toronto tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium when Wei-Yin Chen (16-4, 3.58 ERA) pitches against Michael Pineda (3-5, 2.15 ERA).