Red Sox rally, but fall in 13 innings to Orioles

BALTIMORE -- Alex Wilson stood at his locker and wore kind of a sad smile after Thursday's game. He'd just experienced what many would call "one of those days."

Wilson's day began with a long wait at the Providence, R.I., airport after the Red Sox called him up. It ended when the right-hander gave up a bloop single to Chris Davis in the bottom of the 13th inning that gave the Orioles a 5-4 victory over Boston at Camden Yards.

Wilson was expecting to board a 7 a.m. ET flight to Baltimore following his recall from Triple-A Pawtucket. But it got delayed because of weather problems, and the team had to help set up possible other ways for him to make it to Baltimore on time. The flight eventually got pushed back four hours, and Wilson made it to Camden Yards in plenty of time. But he didn't enjoy the ending.

"Long day of travel followed by a long game," Wilson said. "It's just one of those things that seems to be happening a lot this year with everybody."

What frustrated Wilson (1-1) a bit was how the Orioles (38-29) manufactured the winning run. Wilson gave Nick Markakis a two-out walk. Adam Jones followed with a single that moved Markakis to second.

But Davis came up and just got enough of the bat on the ball to send a bloop into left that nobody could get. Markakis raced home to give Baltimore the victory. T.J. McFarland (1-0) earned his first Major League win thanks to a scoreless 13th inning.

"My first at-bat against Alex, he was staying away from me predominantly, and that last at-bat, he was coming in," Davis said. "I wasn't trying to do too much. I was just trying to stay through the ball and just put it in play."

Wilson got the loss but gave the Red Sox (41-27) a solid effort. He allowed the one run on three hits in 2 2/3 innings. Manager John Farrell said Wilson would have come back for the 14th if the game continued.

When asked if Wilson earned respect in the clubhouse with this effort on his first day back, Farrell said he certainly did.

"I think he's earned [respect] every time he's walked to the mound for us, particularly tonight," Farrell said. "You do that on the road with your back against the wall, every pitch you're throwing. He did an outstanding job for us tonight. Unfortunately, we're in sudden death, and then that's what happens."

The Red Sox got plenty of strong efforts from their bullpen arms in this game. Franklin Morales, Andrew Miller, Junichi Tazawa and Craig Breslow combined to give Farrell 5 1/3 scoreless innings before Wilson came on. They allowed only two hits, struck out six and walked three against a strong Baltimore offense.

Because of the long game, Farrell said afterwards that the Red Sox probably have to make some kind of move to help the bullpen, bringing in an arm since so many people were used Thursday.

It was just a very long night all the way around.

"You're almost getting two [games worth of] at-bats," said third baseman Will Middlebrooks. "Standing out there on defense for 13-14 innings, that will wear on your body, too. For the most part, the biggest thing is it gets into our bullpen. We want to come back the next day strong, but that's tough when you're throwing everybody."

The Red Sox needed to rally from a few early deficits. Baltimore took a 3-0 lead against starter Felix Doubront in the third. Boston got back-to-back solo homers from David Ortiz and Mike Carp in the fourth, cutting it to 3-2.

Carp came on in the third when Mike Napoli needed to leave with an illness (nausea, dizziness) that's been bothering others on the team. Carp's long ball was just the sixth time this season the Red Sox have gotten back-to-back homers.

The Red Sox then forced extra innings by scoring twice in the seventh. Stephen Drew's sacrifice fly made it 4-3, and Jacoby Ellsbury tied it on a fielder's choice by barely beating out a possible double play.

Boston's problem was that it simply couldn't come up with much offense after that. The Red Sox never got a hit after the two-run seventh. That threw it all to the bullpen and eventually into the hands of Wilson, who tried to keep things positive at the conclusion of his very difficult day.

"Having a good outing is huge," Wilson said. "I feel like I'm a guy that has to earn his spot every single day. Even though we didn't come out on top, I threw the ball well, and I think I gained some trust."