Orioles at Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox can claim their first series victory of the season when they host the Baltimore Orioles in the finale of a four-game series on Monday morning. The annual Patriots' Day contest will start at 11:05 a.m. as the Boston Marathon winds through the city outside Fenway Park.
The Red Sox sandwiched a pair of strong starting pitching performances around a dud from Rick Porcello in the first three games of the series and earned a 4-0 win on Sunday behind seven dominant innings from David Price. Boston's two wins in the series were sparked by the bat of shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who went 3-for-4 on Friday and drove in all four runs in Sunday's triumph, capped by a three-run homer. The Orioles rode the momentum of Chris Davis snapping an 0-for-54 stretch to a 9-5 victory on Saturday but watched the former American League home run champ slump back to 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in Sunday's setback. Davis will look for more luck against Red Sox right-hander Hector Velazquez on Monday while Baltimore counters with righty Dan Straily.
TV: 11:05 a.m. ET, MLB Network, MASN (Baltimore), NESN (Boston)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Orioles RH Dan Straily (0-1, 19.29 ERA) vs. Red Sox RH Hector Velazquez (0-0, 2.79)
Straily is trying to find his form in his first season with Baltimore and was ripped for five runs in 1 1/3 innings out of the bullpen on April 7 before serving up five more runs over 3 1/3 frames against Oakland in his first start of 2019 on Wednesday. The 30-year-old yielded a total of four home runs among 13 hits in those two outings. Straily is 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA in two career starts against Boston.
Velazquez will come out of the bullpen to make another start as the Red Sox push ace Chris Sale back a day to start at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Velazquez, who tossed a scoreless inning of relief on Saturday, started at Arizona on April 7 and allowed one hit while striking out three in three scoreless frames. The Mexico native pitched five games - two starts - against the Orioles last season and went 1-0 with a 3.09 ERA in 11 2/3 total innings.
WALK-OFFS
1. Red Sox LF Andrew Benintendi left Sunday's game after fouling a ball off the top of his foot, but X-rays came back negative and he is day-to-day.
2. Baltimore RF Dwight Smith Jr. (leg) was limited to pinch hitting on Sunday and is day-to-day.
3. Boston DH J.D. Martinez reached base safely in each of the first 16 games and hit safely in 15 of 16.