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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Boston 6, Baltimore 5
When: 12:35 PM ET, Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
Temperature: 75°
Umpires: Home - Brian Gorman, 1B - Todd Tichenor, 2B - Alan Porter, 3B - Larry Vanover
Attendance: 27806

Red Sox 6, Orioles 5:
Daniel Nava broke a 2-2 tie with a solo home run in the sixth inning and Kelly Shoppach followed two batters later with a two-run shot as visiting Boston clubbed three homers to take down first-place Baltimore.

Scott Podsednik went 2-for-3 - including a homer in his first start with the Red Sox - while Kevin Youkilis, Will Middlebrooks, Nava and Shoppach also had two hits. Boston won for the 10th time in 13 games, including two of three from the Orioles.

Nick Johnson homered twice for Baltimore, including a two-run blast in the sixth which brought Baltimore to within 5-4.

Podsednik provided a key insurance run in the eighth with his first homer since Sept. 6, 2010 before the Orioles made noise in the bottom half.

Nick Markakis led off with a walk and Adam Jones extended his career-high hitting streak to 15 games with a double. After Vicente Padilla struck out Chris Davis, right fielder Che-Hsuan Lin, who entered as a defensive replacement for Adrian Gonzalez, robbed Wilson Betemit of a two-run bloop single. The sacrifice fly made it 6-5 before Alfredo Aceves relieved Padilla and struck out Johnson to prevent further damage.

Aceves also pitched a perfect ninth for his 11th save in 13 chances to preserve the victory for Daniel Bard (4-5), who allowed two runs, five hits and walked four in 5 1/3 innings.

Baltimore's Jake Arrieta (2-5) yielded four runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings in losing his third straight decision.

For the second straight outing, Bard faced a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the first inning. This time, though, he allowed only Davis' sacrifice fly after yielding four runs against Philadelphia on Friday.

Boston tied the game in the second when Podsednik's double-play grounder drove in a run. Johnson restored Baltimore's advantage with a leadoff homer in the second before Middlebrooks followed with an RBI double in the third to make it 2-2.

GAME NOTEBOOK:
With Youkilis starting again at first base, Gonzalez played right field for the fourth time in five games and made an excellent catch on Davis' foul ball up against the side wall in the fourth inning. ... The Red Sox have seven outfielders on the disabled list: Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Ryan Kalish, Darnell McDonald, Jason Repko, Cody Ross and Ryan Sweeney. ... Bard has allowed 17 walks in his last 23 1/3 innings. ... Arrieta is 0-3 in four starts against the Red Sox. ... The Orioles fell to 16-4 when hitting two or more homers. They lead the major leagues with 69. ... The bottom four in the Red Sox order went 9-for-13 and had all five RBIs. ... Podsednik was acquired from Philadelphia on May 11.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Boston   Baltimore
Daniel Bard Player Jake Arrieta
Win W/L Loss
5.1 IP 5.2
2 Strikeouts 2
5 Hits 8
3.38 ERA 6.35
Hitting
Boston   Baltimore
Daniel NavaPlayer Nick Johnson
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 3
1 HR 2
5 TB 8
.667 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Boston 13 3 23 .351 15 4 5 3 0 0
Baltimore 7 2 15 .250 16 8 5 6 1 0