By Chris Greenberg
Boston.com Staff | 04.17.15 | 11:07 PM
There weren't any extra innings this Friday night.
After week after the Red Sox endured a historic extra-inning marathon, Xander Bogaerts made sure everyone got home at a reasonable hour. The Red Sox celebrated a 3-2 walkoff win over the Baltimore Orioles after a bloop hit by Bogaerts scored Mike Napoli in the bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park on Friday. Napoli walked to lead off the final frame and advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Daniel Nava. After an Orioles pitching change, Bogaerts lifted a curveball from Baltimore’s Tommy Hunter into shallow right field and Napoli came around to score.
“Just to contribute to a win is awesome,” Bogaerts told NESN’s Gary Striewski on the field after the win.
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Koji Uehara picked up the win for Boston after pitching a perfect ninth inning. Red Sox starter Joe Kelly allowed two earned runs over 5.2 innings. Relievers Edward Mujica and Junichi Tazawa kept the Orioles off the board until Red Sox manager John Farrell gave the ball to Uehara in the top of the ninth.
A week earlier, the Red Sox played the longest game by time in team history, outlasting the Yankees, 6-5, in a 19-inning marathon in New York. This matchup of American League East teams wasn’t nearly as long as that one but didn’t lack for drama. Before its walkoff conclusion, the game included Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez being ejected for hitting Pablo Sandoval with a pitch in the fourth inning. At the time of his ejection, Jimenez had yet to surrender a hit.
“I was shocked,” Jimenez said after the game, via MLB.com. “You don’t see that happen every day, without any warning without any history with the player. First game of the series against Boston. There’s no history, there’s nothing. [Sandoval is] a good hitter and I am trying to go inside. Especially against a left-handed hitter, you aren’t trying to go down, you are trying to go up. I had three walks. It’s not like I had perfect command of my fastball. I was shocked.”
Umpire Jordan Baker may have felt that some history had developed between Sandoval and the Orioles in the second inning. With the game scoreless, Sandoval slid hard into second base to break up a potential double play.
“I was [surprised],” Sandoval said after the win when asked about Jimenez’s ejection, via The Associated Press. “It’s part of the game. You want to play hard.”
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