One swing did it Friday night at Camden Yards, and it's worth sitting with how strange that swing actually was.
Mickey Gasper took Zack Baz's first-pitch fastball in the first inning and put it over the out-of-town scoreboard for his eighth homer of the season. Boston never needed another run. Final: Red Sox 1, Orioles 0.
Here's what should stop you: before Boston recalled Gasper from Triple-A Worcester in mid-August, the guy had two home runs in 240 career at-bats. Two. Now he's putting Baltimore starters into an 0-1 hole they can't climb out of. I don't know if this is sustainable. Nobody does. But a bat that cold for that long doesn't just wake up by accident. Something clicked for Gasper, and Boston is cashing the checks.
On the mound, Robert Suarez did exactly what a pitcher needs to do with a one-run lead: kept the ball on the ground and the barrel off it. Seven scoreless innings, three strikeouts, one walk, and every hit he allowed was a single. It's the line of a guy managing outs like he's got somewhere to be, and it worked.
Now, about Baz. Six strikeouts, two walks, six-plus solid innings, and he still takes the loss. That ties him for the most losses in the majors this season, and it's not on him. Baz has gotten the second-worst run support of any starter in baseball this year. If you're sorting who's actually pitched well from who's actually been supported well, Baz doesn't belong near the bottom of either list. The Orioles are wasting a good arm.
That's the bigger problem. Baltimore is now on a four-game losing streak, and they went 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position in a game where one clean at-bat changes everything. As of the most recent standings check that week, Cleveland, Baltimore and Texas were bunched within a game of each other for the last AL wild-card spot, nothing decided. A loss like this, in a winnable, low-scoring game against a team playing meaningful September baseball, is exactly the kind of result that costs you ground in a scrum that tight. It's one thing to lose a slugfest. It's another to lose 1-0 to a solo homer and a shutdown start. Those are the losses that haunt a wild-card chase because you feel like you should have had them.
Aroldis Chapman closed it out in the ninth for his 32nd save of the season, part of a career total closing in on a milestone number, and Boston improved to 2-0 in this series. For a Red Sox team that started the year 10-17 before a managerial change and then ripped off one of the best stretches in franchise history under interim manager Chad Tracy, a quiet 1-0 road win is just business as usual now.
Things got heated in the eighth when benches and bullpens emptied after a slide into second base drew objection from Boston's shortstop, following an inning-ending double play. No word yet on discipline, and I won't guess what, if anything, comes of it. But add it to the pile: these two clubs, whatever their standings, aren't playing a friendly exhibition in early September.
Strip away the standings noise and you're left with one guy who can't stop hitting home runs he has no business hitting, and one team that keeps finding ways to lose the close ones. My money says Gasper keeps swinging a hot bat for now, and Baltimore keeps sweating every wild-card box score the rest of the month.
