BOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox‘ 6-5 walkoff win over the Baltimore Orioles in Game 1 of a doubleheader Saturday at Fenway Park:
1) DH Rafael Devers walked it off. His RBI single up the middle against Orioles lefty Gregory Soto scored the automatic runner (Ceddanne Rafaela) from second base. It was his fifth career walkoff RBI.
2) Righty Greg Weissert stranded the automatic extra-innings runner at second base. He struck out Gunnar Henderson swinging to begin the inning. He got Ramón Urías to line out to right field. After an intentional walk, Weissert struck out Jorge Mateo swinging.
3) A Red Sox starter now has pitched fewer than five innings six times in the past seven games. Manager Alex Cora removed righty Hunter Dobbins at 72 pitches. He tossed 4 innings (plus two batters in the fifth), giving up four runs, five hits and one walk while striking out seven. The Orioles scored twice against him in the first inning as Boston quickly fell behind 2-0.
4) It was pouring rain here when Jarren Duran led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homer. He crushed it 393 feet with a 105.5 mph exit velocity to right field.
5) Boston tied the game in the bottom of the first inning with solo home runs from Duran and Wilyer Abreu. Abreu’s blast also traveled to right field. He hit it 399 feet with a 106.2 mph exit velocity.
6) Baltimore scored three runs in the fifth but Abraham Toro cut the deficit to 5-3 with a 386-foot solo home run to right-center field in the bottom half of the inning.
7) Boston tied it 5-5 in the sixth thanks to some bad Orioles defense after Rafael Devers hit a ground-rule double and Abreu walked to begin the inning. Carlos Narváez hit a ground ball to shortstop and Gunnar Henderson’s throw to second base went into the outfield, scoring Devers. Abreu scored on Nick Sogard’s RBI groundout.
8) Big news broke during Game 1. The Red Sox are calling up Marcelo Mayer — Baseball America’s No. 8 overall prospect — to take injured Alex Bregman’s spot on the roster. Bregman suffered a right quad injury Friday.
9) The Red Sox and Orioles are scheduled to play Game 2 at 6:35 p.m. Lucas Giolito (1-1, 7.08 ERA) is scheduled to start for Boston. The Orioles have not yet announced their Game 2 starter.
