Zach Wilt: Dominance of Red Sox erases memories of flops in Fenway

I don't have the greatest of memories, but I vividly remember exactly what I did on June 30, 2009. It was another difficult season for my beloved Orioles, who were already seven games under .500 and losing 9-1 to the Boston Red Sox when a rain delay paused the game in the top of the fifth inning. My girlfriend, now wife, convinced me to stop watching and go out to dinner with her as the summer storm rolled through the city. We opted to pick crabs in Towson on that Tuesday evening, and out of the corner of my eye, I continued to glance at a TV in the bar as the tarp was removed and play resumed.

Dustin Pedroia added to the damage in the top of the seventh with an RBI single that gave Boston a nine-run lead. Then the Orioles offense awoke with five runs in the bottom of the seventh and five more in the eighth to dramatically come back and beat Boston 11-10. As the game unfolded, I moved from our table, watching the bar's TV through a restaurant window, to walking over and standing as the O's completed the comeback against an American League East rival, clapping my Old Bay-covered hands as George Sherrill recorded the final out.

In an otherwise disappointing season, this victory stood out. Watching the Orioles beat the Red Sox was thrilling, especially in this fashion, and it proved to be rare that season. The O's finished just 2-16 against Boston in 2009.

It was until over two years later that things really started to change - September 28, 2011 to be exact. Earlier in the month, the Red Sox held a nine-game lead in the American League wild card race, but were struggling down the stretch while Tampa Bay heated up. The Orioles weren't making the postseason and were left only playing spoilers on the final game of the season, but with Boston up 3-2 in Baltimore with three outs remaining and the Rays trailing the Yankees 7-0, there didn't seem to be much of a chance of that.

Suddenly, everything changed. Chris Davis and Nolan Reimold doubled with two outs to tie the game and Robert Andino followed with the walk-off single to left field that a sliding Carl Crawford was unable to catch. I can still hear Gary Thorne calling it in my head. Out in Tampa Bay, the Rays surged back to a walk-off extra-inning victory of their own and the Red Sox were out of the postseason. The O's may have finished 69-93 that season, but it's their 5-2 finish against the Red Sox that I remember and the club carried that momentum over into the next season.

Things have never been the same for these two rival clubs. After bringing out the brooms and sweeping the Red Sox in Fenway Park on Wednesday afternoon, the Orioles guaranteed their third consecutive winning season against Boston. It's the first time since 1965-1967 that the O's have recorded three straight winning seasons over the Red Sox. Baltimore's offense scored 18 runs on 32 hits in the Fenway sweep, while limiting the Red Sox to seven runs on 23 hits.

This is nothing new for Buck Showalter's club. Since 2012, the Orioles have gone 34-19 against their AL East foes. Despite Boston winning the World Series last season, Baltimore still won 11 of the 19 matchups between the clubs. David Ortiz hit just .220 in 59 at-bats against O's pitching last season. These Birds play Boston tough.

Hall of Famer Earl Weaver has a quote about baseball that I think beautifully summarizes the Orioles' transformation from that disappointing club that mounted a thrilling comeback in 2009 to the team that transformed into the winner we watch today: "You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance.

That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all." That quote is painted in the lobby in the club level at Camden Yards and sticks with me whenever the team takes the field. This team is never out of any game they play and it's that mentality that taken them from spoilers in 2011 to the playoffs in 2012 - and has led them to the verge of winning the AL East this season.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zamwi. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.