Saturday was a whirlwind day for Marcelo Mayer, who found out he was being called up for his MLB debut just a few hours before the game was scheduled to begin. That made it impossible for his family to make the cross-country flight from southern California, but by Sunday his parents were in the stands and Mayer quickly made their trip a memorable one.
The highly touted Red Sox rookie picked up his first career hit, ripping an opposite field single his first time up in the bottom of the second. Mayer drew a huge ovation from the crowd and was able to get the ball back for posterity, but unfortunately for Boston the hit was one of the only offensive highlights of the day.
Marcelo Mayer gets his first Major League hit in front of his friends and family ♥️ pic.twitter.com/Pnd5045UeU
— NESN (@NESN) May 25, 2025
The Red Sox bats fell quiet again in what wound up being a 5-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in Sunday’s series finale. Jarren Duran went 4 for 5 and Mayer went 2 for 4 with a double, but the club couldn’t sustain any offense until the ninth inning, by which point the Red Sox had too much ground to make up.
The loss drops Boston (27-28) back below .500 on the season and caps off a 5-5 homestand.
“We were inconsistent this homestand,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It seems like when we hit we didn’t pitch, and then when we pitched we didn’t hit, so I think 5-5 is what we deserved.”
The Orioles didn’t muster much in terms of offense early on themselves, but what little they cobbled together would have been more than enough. Baltimore took a 1-0 lead off Red Sox starter Walker Buehler in the top of the fourth on a Ramon Urias sacrifice fly and then tacked on a pair of solo home runs in the ensuing innings.
Dylan Carlson had the first off Buehler to start the fifth, a cheap one that curled around Pesky’s Pole into the right field stands, and Ryan O’Hearn added the second off reliever Greg Weissert in the sixth.
Buehler, making his second start since coming off the injured list and his first full effort after being ejected in the third inning last time out for arguing with the home plate umpire, allowed two runs over five innings on four hits, two walks and three strikeouts. He threw 85 pitches but only generated six whiffs on 41 swings.
Orioles starter Dean Kremer enjoyed one of his best outings of the season, holding the Red Sox scoreless over 5.1 innings while giving up seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts.
“He went to his split a lot and we didn’t make adjustments,” Cora said of Kremer’s performance. “He kept going at it, expanding with it and induced some weak contact and some swing and misses.”
Boston had only two good scoring opportunities in the game and weren’t able to capitalize on either. In the bottom of the first Duran led off with a single and reached second after Carlos Narvaez (2 for 3) walked, but rookie Kristian Campbell grounded out to end the threat.
Things played out similarly in the third as well. Duran led off the inning with another single, and then Narvaez singled and stole second to put men at second and third with two outs. Campbell once again came to the plate but grounded out to shortstop for the third out.
Abraham Toro hit a ground rule double and advanced to third in the fourth, but the Red Sox couldn’t get him home either. Boston didn’t have another runner advance past first base until the bottom of the ninth.
In the meantime, things took an ugly turn in the eighth.
After Gunnar Henderson led off the inning with a walk off freshly called up reliever Zack Kelly, O’Hearn hit a double into the right field gap that should have put two men into scoring position with no outs. But on the throw back to the infield Ceddanne Rafaela’s throw got away and wound up hitting O’Hearn in the leg, bouncing into no man’s land and allowing Henderson to score.
Then, trying to gun down O’Hearn at third base, Mayer made what could be generously described as a rookie mistake and threw the ball away, allowing the Orioles designated hitter to score and completing the Little League home run.
O’Hearn finished 3 for 3 with a home run, double, walk and RBI.
Mayer atoned for the error by hammering a double into the right field gap to lead off the bottom of the ninth, and he came around to score his first career run on Toro’s subsequent RBI single. But that was as close as Boston got, with the Red Sox finishing 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position while stranding nine men on base.
After the game Mayer was subdued at the postgame podium but expressed gratitude for the chance to get his first career hits in front of his friends and family. He said his siblings, some cousins and his agent were all in attendance as well, and that his parents would be flying to Milwaukee for the team’s next series as well.
“It was awesome waking up as a big leaguer,” Mayer said. “The whole day getting prepared for the game with my family in town it was a special day.”
Duran said afterwards that seeing Mayer get his first hits helped brighten up an otherwise disappointing afternoon.
“It was awesome, I was screaming like it was my first hit,” Duran said. “That’s what makes baseball baseball, you can be losing 5-0 but to see a young guy like that get his first hit and then hit a double, it puts the game in perspective and you’ve got to enjoy it sometimes.”
The Red Sox will now open a six-game road trip with a three-game set against the Brewers. Garrett Crochet (4-3, 1.98) is slated to take the mound on Memorial Day Monday against Brewers right-hander Chad Patrick (2-4, 3.23). First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 p.m.
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