O's Go From So Right To a 4th Straight Loss

Red Sox 5, Orioles 2

BALTIMORE, April 26 -- It can be staggering how quickly things unravel in baseball, day by day, inning by inning, pitch by pitch.

One day, the Baltimore Orioles are the hottest team in the league, their bullpen is a godsend and hip-hop music fills the clubhouse after games. The calendar hardly moves, and they have lost four games in a row after a stunning 5-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night, their bullpen is a train wreck and postgame meals are eaten in sullen silence.

One pitch, the Orioles are preserving Adam Loewen's two-hit start, they are salvaging a homestand and Chris Ray is still bulletproof. The next, a ball is soaring 430 feet into the Boston Red Sox bullpen, Wily Mo Peña has hammered a grand slam and Ray has lost the game.

"You're going to have bumps in the road," Manager Sam Perlozzo said. "Just like we all got excited, you know, the game is humbling. You just keep plugging away. What we need to do now is put a new streak together and forget this."

The Orioles began the seven-game stretch at Oriole Park at Camden Yards by sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays, moving the winning streak to four and eight out of nine. Four games later, all losses, the Orioles finished the homestand 3-4 and leveled out at 11-11 on the season, humbled by the Oakland Athletics and Red Sox.

The last two losses came in large part because of that revamped bullpen. Two consecutive games, it was handed leads in the seventh inning or later, and two consecutive games, the Orioles lost.

Thursday night, the culprit was Ray, usually the surest part of the Orioles' relief equation. He had saved six of seven before Thursday, when Perlozzo called on him to get five outs. Ray had not pitched in four days, and before the game Perlozzo and Ray spoke about the possibility he would come on early if the situation dictated.

"Whenever that phone rings, I'm ready to go," Ray said.

He entered with Manny Ramirez on first and Mike Lowell at the plate. Ray hung a slider, and Lowell crushed a double to left, which, luckily for the Orioles, hopped into the stands for a ground-rule double.

Ray intentionally walked switch hitter Jason Varitek to set up a double play and get to Peña, who carried a .120 batting average into the game. Peña is Hollywood's Pedro Cerrano come to life -- a hulking slugger who treats curveballs like miracles of modern science.

Peña does not possess varied skills as a hitter, but one of them is clobbering fastballs left over the plate. Ray delivered just that with a 2-1 count, and Peña did not miss. He took a vicious cut, and the ball sliced through the fog, still traveling upward as it cleared the fence in the left-center.

"I just tried to go inside," Ray said. "And I didn't go inside far enough."

The ball came down 430 feet from home plate -- with scorch marks on it, presumably -- in the visitors' bullpen, landing at the feet of celebrating relief pitchers. One of them was Jonathan Papelbon, whom Boston Manager Terry Francona unleashed in the ninth inning.

Before Papelbon turned out the lights, Josh Beckett had been the latest starting pitcher to shut down Baltimore. The Orioles have scored five runs in three games, but Thursday they showed life, banging eight hits, including a pair of doubles from Melvin Mora. Beckett threw 100 pitches in eight innings, 73 of them strikes.

Loewen could learn from such numbers. He was magnificent at times, maddening at others. He struck out the side in the first and allowed two hits, both singles. But he also allowed five free passes. He threw 105 pitches, only 57 strikes.

Still, he exited after six innings with a 2-1 lead.

The bullpen may seem vulnerable, but it remained resolute.

"The bullpen is fine," Ray said. "Everybody out there is fine. Everybody believes in their stuff. We're going to get the job done."