BOSTON - With the way the Red Sox bullpen has pitched this season, Saturday had the possibility of being really, really ugly.
Instead, it was anything but.
Going without a traditional starting pitcher, a Boston bullpen combined for a five-hit shutout as the Red Sox beat the Orioles, 8-0, to take the second game of the three-game series.
It was 35-year-old Craig Breslow who got the start for the Sox, his first career start in 523 appearances making him the oldest ever Red Sox pitcher at the time of his first career major league start.
And Breslow played the role of starting pitcher superbly through the four shutout innings he threw, allowing just two hits and two walks on 55 pitches.
Heath Hembree came on to pitch a scoreless fifth inning before the Sox offense put the first run of the game on the board.
After a Brock Holt walk, Josh Rutledge doubled down the left field line to bring Holt all the way around from first base.
An inning later, it was Holt doing the hitting as a single up the middle scored Rusney Castillo, who previously doubled off the wall in left field.
Orioles pitcher Oliver Drake didn't get any help in the 7th inning when he put two men in scoring position with two outs. Xander Bogaerts grounded one to third base, but it went under the glove of Manny Machado and into left field, scoring both runners on the error to give the Sox a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Matt Barnes pitched two scoreless innings and the Sox used three relievers - Alexi Ogando, Tommy Layne, and Noe Ramirez - in the eighth inning to get out of a little jam and preserve the shutout.
The game got a bit out of hand in the eighth inning when the Sox scored four runs - all unearned.
Castillo singled to start the inning, and Holt reached on an error in the next at-bat, getting all the way to second base. Rutledge grounded out to score Castillo from third, and three batters later, Mookie Betts hit a ground rule double to right field that scored Holt and moved Jackie Bradley Jr. to third base.
Then we had a bit of deja vu at Fenway, when once again Bogaerts grounded to Machado, and once again the ball went under his glove, scoring both Bradley and Betts as Machado was charged with his second error of the game.
Jonathan Aro came on to pitch a scoreless ninth inning and complete the bullpen shutout.